If Your UK Partner Loses Their Job: Spouse Visa Finances

What the requirement is, and when it is checked

The financial requirement is £29,000 a year in gross income. It is set by paragraph E-ECP.3.1 of Appendix FM for an application from outside the UK, and by E-LTRP.3.1 for an application to stay in the UK.

It is checked more than once: at the first application, at the extension after two and a half years, and again at settlement, where paragraph E-ILRP.1.3 requires the same eligibility requirements to be met. A job loss at any of those points therefore matters. Our financial requirement guide covers the rule itself in full.

One lower figure survives. If the first application as a partner, fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner was made before 11 April 2024, and the extension is with the same partner, paragraph E-LTRP.3.7 applies instead: £18,600, plus £3,800 for the first child and £2,400 for each additional child, and capped at £29,000 however many children there are.

First: check whether the requirement applies at all

Paragraph E-LTRP.3.3 removes the income figure entirely where the applicant's partner — the sponsor, not the applicant and not a child — is receiving one of a listed set of benefits. GOV.UK lists them as Disability Living Allowance, Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance, Severe Disablement Allowance, Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, Attendance Allowance, Pension Age Disability Payment, Carer's Allowance, Carer Support Payment, Personal Independence Payment, Armed Forces Independence Payment or Guaranteed Income Payment, Constant Attendance Allowance, Mobility Supplement or War Disablement Pension, Police Injury Pension, Child Disability Payment and Adult Disability Payment.

Where that applies, the test becomes "adequate maintenance" instead: evidence that the family can house and support itself without additional public funds. A caseworker looks at income and housing costs rather than at a single threshold. This matters after a job loss, because the benefit may be one the household already receives.

The savings route, and the figure most pages get wrong

Paragraph E-ECP.3.1(b) sets the savings alternative as two parts added together:

• £16,000; and
• 2.5 times the difference between the gross annual income you can show and the figure you need.

With no income at all, that is £16,000 + (2.5 × £29,000) = £88,500. With £20,000 of income the shortfall is £9,000, so it is £16,000 + £22,500 = £38,500.

At settlement the arithmetic changes. Paragraph E-ILRP.1.3(1A) applies the same financial requirement to a settlement application "disregard[ing] the words ‘2.5 times’". The multiplier drops out and the sum becomes £16,000 plus the shortfall itself — £45,000 where there is no income, not £88,500.

Paragraph 11 of Appendix FM-SE sets the evidence: bank statements showing at least that level held in an account in the name of the person, or of the person and their partner jointly, throughout the 6 months before the date of application, plus a declaration of where the money came from. Money moved in from investments, shares or the sale of a property can count, with the 6-month period reduced accordingly.

Whose income counts depends on where you apply from

This is the difference the two paragraphs draw:

• Applying to stay in the UK (E-LTRP.3.2). The sources include the applicant's own income from employment or self-employment, "unless they are working illegally", alongside the partner's.
• Applying for entry clearance from outside the UK (E-ECP.3.2). The employment income counted is the partner's only. The applicant's pension income, certain other specified income and savings still count, but not their earnings from a job.

So an applicant already in the UK on a spouse visa, which carries no restriction on work, can put their own salary towards the figure at extension and at settlement. Our work rights guide sets out that permission.

There is a route back for a sponsor returning to the UK. Paragraphs 13(c) and 13(d) of Appendix FM-SE let a partner who has been in salaried employment abroad rely on a UK job they are returning to, provided it starts within 3 months of their return.

Category A and Category B: what a new job means

Appendix FM-SE paragraph 13 sets out how salaried employment income is worked out. The two methods are known in Home Office guidance as Category A and Category B.

• Category A, paragraph 13(a). The person is in salaried employment in the UK, has been with the current employer for at least 6 months, and has been paid throughout those 6 months at or above the annual salary being relied on. The figure used is that annual salary.
• Category B, paragraph 13(b) with paragraph 15. The person has been with the current employer for less than 6 months, or has been there longer but is not relying on Category A. It has two limbs, and both must be met:
  • the gross annual salary at the date of application meets the figure; and
  • the income actually received from salaried employment, in the UK or overseas, in the 12 months before the date of application also meets the figure.

The second limb is the one that catches people after a job loss. A new job on £30,000 clears the first limb on the day it starts. The second limb asks what was actually earned across the whole of the previous 12 months, which a gap in employment reduces.

Two further restrictions in the same paragraphs are worth knowing about:

• Paragraph 15(b)(iv): the 12-month limb of Category B cannot be topped up with savings.
• Paragraph 13(f): self-employed income cannot be combined with savings either. Our self-employment guide covers how that income is calculated.
• Paragraph 13(k): where both the applicant's and the sponsor's employment income are relied on, all of it must be calculated under Category A or all of it under Category B, never a mixture.

Our Category A evidence guide sets out what each category has to be documented with.

Combining sources

Paragraph E-ECP.3.1(b) is written as savings "alone or in combination with" income, so the figure does not have to come from one place. Common combinations are the partner's income with the applicant's own UK income, income with savings, or a new job with savings held for the required period.

The limits are the three above: no savings alongside the Category B 12-month limb, no savings alongside self-employed income, and no mixing the two employment methods. Paragraph 14 also says the same money cannot be counted twice. Our income threshold guide works through how the figure is reached.

Timing around an extension

The savings period and the Category A period both run backwards from the date of application, which is what makes timing arithmetic rather than judgement: 6 months of savings held, or 6 months with the same employer, before the date the application is made.

Applying before current permission expires matters separately. Overstaying is a suitability issue in its own right, though Appendix FM points to the exceptions for overstayers in Part Suitability. Our extension guide sets out what has to be shown at that stage.

If the figure cannot be met

GOV.UK sets out two published exceptions. An application may still be possible where there is a child in the UK who is a British or Irish citizen, or who has lived in the UK for 7 years and for whom it would be unreasonable to leave; or where refusing would breach human rights. Inside the Rules these are paragraph EX.1 and the exceptional circumstances test — our guide on exceptional circumstances covers how they are framed.

GOV.UK also states the consequence plainly: "If you do not meet the financial requirements, the earliest you'll be able to apply to settle is after 10 years in the UK." That is the 10-year route rather than the 5-year one, and it is why the financial requirement is worth working out before an application rather than after it.

The published sources are GOV.UK's financial requirements page and Appendix FM and Appendix FM-SE themselves. If a relationship has broken down as well as a job, our guide on divorce and separation explains what that does to permission.

Questions and answers