Settlement on the spouse visa route

The 5-Year Journey

The route runs in three stages:

1. First visa: 33 months if you applied from outside the UK — 30 months, plus 3 months to travel — or 30 months if you applied from inside it.
2. Extension: a further 30 months, applied for before the first permission expires. English rises from A1 to A2 at this stage.
3. Settlement: once the 5 years is complete.

For information on when your qualifying period starts, see our qualifying period guide.

Financial Requirement

GOV.UK sets the figure at a combined income of at least £29,000 a year for anyone who first applied on or after 11 April 2024. Someone who first applied before that date stays on £18,600, plus £3,800 for a first child and £2,400 for each further child, capped at £29,000. A sponsor receiving certain benefits — Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment and Carer's Allowance among them — is not held to an income figure and meets an adequate maintenance test instead. A figure of £38,700 was announced in 2023 and never made law.

The income can come from:

• Employment income: Salary from your or your partner's employment. See our Category A and Category B guides.
• Self-employment: Income from self-employment, properly documented with HMRC records. See our self-employment evidence guide.
• Cash savings: Savings above a certain threshold can be used. See cash savings guide.
• Combined sources: You can combine different income sources. See joint financial evidence.

For how the figure has moved, see our income threshold timeline guide. GOV.UK publishes the current rules on proving your income as a partner.

Relationship Evidence

At the settlement stage you have to show the relationship is still genuine and subsisting. Evidence includes:

• Proof of living together at the same address (council tax bills, tenancy agreements, utility bills in joint names)
• Joint financial commitments (joint bank account, mortgage, insurance)
• Communication evidence (if applicable)
• Photographs together from the qualifying period
• Evidence of shared life (holidays, social events, family occasions)

For more on relationship evidence, see our relationship evidence guide.

English Language and Life in the UK

To settle on this route you need:

• English at CEFR level B1 in speaking and listening, up from A1 at the first visa and A2 at the extension. Paragraph SETF 5.1 of Appendix Settlement Family Life raises it to B2 for applications made on or after 26 March 2027, a change laid in HC 1691 on 5 March 2026. See our guide to English for settlement.
• The knowledge of life in the UK requirement in Appendix KoL UK — the Life in the UK test — if you are 18 to 64.

Absence Rules

This is where the partner route differs from the work routes, and where a lot of writing about it borrows the wrong figure. GOV.UK publishes a 180-day limit on the settlement pages for Skilled Worker, Scale-up Worker, Innovator Founder and long residence. Its page on settling as a partner on a family visa publishes no day limit at all.

The Immigration Rules are not silent, though. Paragraph SETF 4.1 of Appendix Settlement Family Life applies Appendix Continuous Residence to the qualifying period, and that appendix sets 180 days in any 12 months — while also carrying an exception for time spent outside the UK by an applicant on this route maintaining family life here. Rowan reports both, because they are what the two sources say. See our travel and absence rules guide.

Separation and Domestic Violence

If your relationship breaks down before you complete the qualifying period:

• Domestic abuse: Appendix Victim of Domestic Abuse gives settlement with no qualifying period to a partner whose relationship broke down because of domestic abuse from their partner or their partner's family. GOV.UK says supporting evidence helps but is not needed to apply, and that the £3,226 fee can be waived if you cannot afford it. See our guide to the domestic abuse provisions.
• Bereavement: If your partner dies during the qualifying period, special provisions apply. See our bereavement guide.
• Separation: settlement on this route rests on the relationship continuing, so a separation ends the basis for it. Other permissions exist, including the parent route and the private life route. Which of them, if any, fits a particular set of facts is a question for a regulated adviser, not for Rowan.

Costs and Processing

Settlement costs £3,226 for each person applying, and there is no fee for giving your fingerprints and photo. The healthcare surcharge is not charged on a settlement application, and there is no refund of surcharge already paid. A decision usually arrives within 6 months of your biometrics, and you must not travel outside the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man until you get it. See our cost breakdown and processing times guide.

After settlement, see our guide to the rights settlement brings and our guide to the route from settlement to citizenship.

Questions and answers