What the partner route requires

Overview

The UK Spouse Visa is the partner strand of the family visa route, set out in Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules. It lets you live in the UK with your partner. The rules require every requirement below to be met.

This guide lists every requirement. For the detailed financial rules, see our financial requirement guide. For costs, see our cost breakdown.

Requirement 1: Relationship

The relationship must be genuine and subsisting, and you and your partner must intend to live together permanently in the UK. GOV.UK lists four ways to prove the relationship. You need one of them:

• Marriage or civil partnership: one that is recognised in the UK.
• Living together for at least 2 years: in a relationship, counted to the date you apply.
• Fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner: you will marry or enter a civil partnership in the UK within 6 months of arriving. This is a separate 6-month permission on which you cannot work or study; you apply to extend after the marriage.
• Together 2 years but living apart: you have been in the relationship for at least 2 years but cannot live together, for example because you work or study in different places, or it is not accepted in your culture.

GOV.UK is specific about the kind of evidence it wants for the relationship. It should come from the government, a bank, a landlord, a utility provider or a medical professional; it should confirm the relationship (for example that you live together, share expenses, or are married); and it should be less than 4 years old. Examples GOV.UK gives are a marriage or civil partnership certificate, a tenancy agreement, utility or Council Tax bills, a joint bank statement, or a letter from your doctor or dentist.

Where none of your evidence meets those criteria, GOV.UK names alternatives: a one-off bill such as vet's fees or home repairs, letters confirming you are both on the voting register at the same address, or student finance paperwork showing the same address.

If you cannot live together because of work, study or culture, GOV.UK asks for evidence of an ongoing commitment: that you communicate regularly, support each other financially, care for any children you have together, and spend time together as a couple.

Requirement 2: Who Can Sponsor You

Your partner in the UK must be one of the following:

• A British or Irish citizen.
• Settled in the UK — for example indefinite leave to remain, settled status, or proof of permanent residence.
• A citizen of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein with pre-settled status, who started living in the UK before 1 January 2021.
• A holder of a Turkish Businessperson or Turkish Worker visa.
• A person with protection status — permission to stay as a refugee or with humanitarian protection.
• A person who was given permission to stay as a stateless person before you became their partner.

You and your partner must intend to live together permanently in the UK. If your partner is in the UK temporarily on a work visa or a student visa, GOV.UK says the family visa is not the route: you apply to stay with them as a dependant instead.

If your partner has settled or pre-settled status, GOV.UK notes you may instead be able to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme, which is free.

Requirement 3: Financial Requirement

For a first application, you and your partner must show combined income of at least £29,000 a year. This figure has applied since 11 April 2024 and it does not go up because you have children.

Two situations sit outside that figure. If you first applied as a partner (or as a fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner) before 11 April 2024 and you are extending that visa, the threshold is £18,600, plus £3,800 for the first child and £2,400 for each further child, capped at £29,000. And if your partner receives one of the disability or carer's benefits GOV.UK lists — including Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Attendance Allowance, Carer's Allowance and Carer Support Payment — there is no minimum income figure at all. Instead the caseworker looks at whether you can house and support yourselves without extra public funds, weighing your income against your housing costs.

Cash savings can be used instead of income, or alongside it. The formula is £16,000 plus 2.5 times the shortfall, and the money must have been held for the 6 months before you apply. With no income at all, that comes to £88,500. At settlement the "2.5 times" multiplier drops away, so the same shortfall needs £16,000 plus the shortfall itself — £45,000 with no income. Income from self-employment cannot be combined with savings at all (Appendix FM-SE paragraph 13(f)).

For full details, see our financial requirement guide and income threshold guide.

Requirement 4: English Language

For a first application you must pass at least level A1 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. GOV.UK gives three ways to prove your knowledge of English:

• A degree awarded by a UK institution and taught in English. Here the degree certificate alone is enough, even if you studied outside the UK.
• A degree taught in English but awarded outside the UK. For this you need an assessment from Ecctis, which gives you a code confirming the qualification is equivalent to a UK bachelor's degree or higher and was taught in English.
• Passing a Secure English Language Test with an approved provider. You can choose to take a higher level than A1.

GOV.UK says you do not have to prove your knowledge of English at all if you are applying as a child, are applying as an adult coming to be cared for by a relative, have been in the UK on a family visa for 5 years and are extending as a partner or parent, are over 65, or have a physical or mental condition that prevents you from meeting the requirement. Nationals of a fixed list of countries are also exempt: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the British overseas territories, Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Malta, New Zealand, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the USA. English being an official language of a country does not put it on this list.

To stay beyond 2 years and 6 months, GOV.UK says that if you passed A1 first time you need at least A2 in speaking and listening; if you passed A2 or higher you can reuse that certificate. If you were exempt first time, you need to pass a test at A1. At settlement the level is B1, and it rises to B2 from 26 March 2027. A B1 or higher pass used for your first visa can be reused at settlement, so long as it is still on the approved list and has not been withdrawn. See our English language tests guide for approved tests.

Requirement 5: Accommodation

Paragraph E-ECP.3.4 of Appendix FM requires evidence of adequate accommodation, without recourse to public funds, for the family — including household members who are not part of the application — which the family own or occupy exclusively. The rule then says accommodation is not adequate if it is, or will be, overcrowded, or if it contravenes public health regulations.

You do not need to own your home; renting is fine, and so is staying in accommodation owned by a relative with their permission. Appendix FM-SE also asks caseworkers to look at the monthly housing and Council Tax costs of the place you live in or will live in.

Requirement 6: Age and Other Relationship Conditions

Appendix FM adds several conditions that are easy to miss because GOV.UK does not spell them all out:

• Both the applicant and the partner must be aged 18 or over at the date of application (E-ECP.2.2 and E-ECP.2.3). There is no upper age limit.
• You must not be within the prohibited degree of relationship — that is, too closely related to marry (E-ECP.2.4).
• You and your partner must have met in person (E-ECP.2.5).
• Any previous relationship of either of you must have broken down permanently (E-ECP.2.9). A fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner must not be married to or in a civil partnership with anyone else at the date of application.

Requirement 7: Suitability

Alongside the eligibility requirements, Appendix FM has a suitability part covering criminal convictions, deception in applications, previous breaches of immigration law, and unpaid NHS or litigation debts. Some grounds mean an application must be refused; others give the caseworker a discretion. The Home Office's general grounds for refusal guidance sets out how each is applied.

GOV.UK also asks every applicant to declare any criminal convictions as part of the application. If your history is complicated, a regulated adviser can advise on it — see our note on what immigration advice costs.

Requirement 8: TB Test (Some Countries)

If you are applying from a country on the Home Office's list of countries requiring TB screening, you must get a TB test from an approved clinic before applying. Check GOV.UK for the list of countries.

Documents You Will Need

For a complete list of documents, see our Spouse Visa documents checklist. GOV.UK lists these as the information and evidence to have ready:

• All your names and your date of birth.
• Your current passport or other valid travel identification.
• Copies of the photo page and any visa or entry stamps in your previous passports.
• Details of any previous immigration applications.
• Details of any criminal convictions.
• Your National Insurance number, if you have one.
• Your parents' dates of birth and nationality, if you are applying from outside the UK.
• Your tuberculosis test results, if you are from a country where the test is required.
• A certified translation of any document that is not in English or Welsh.
• Proof of your immigration status if you already have permission: a share code from your eVisa. Biometric residence permits are no longer issued, and GOV.UK says an existing card can be used for 24 months past its printed expiry date or until 31 December 2026, whichever comes first.
• Proof of your knowledge of English, and proof of your finances.

What Happens Next

After you apply you attend an appointment to give your fingerprints and a photo. GOV.UK's published waiting times are 12 weeks for an application from outside the UK; 8 weeks inside the UK where you meet the financial and English requirements; and about 12 months inside the UK where you do not. See our guides on processing times and what happens after you apply.

A grant on this route runs for up to 2 years and 9 months from outside the UK, and up to 2 years and 6 months on an extension or a switch inside it. A fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner gets 6 months, cannot work or study, and applies to extend after the marriage.

GOV.UK says the earliest you can apply to settle in the UK is after 5 years continuously on a family visa as a partner. Time as a fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner, and time on any other visa, does not count. Where the financial requirement is not met and permission is granted on another basis, GOV.UK says the earliest is after 10 years. Settlement is a step before British citizenship.

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