UK Spouse Visa Financial Categories Explained

Why the Category Matters

When you apply for a UK spouse visa or family visa, you must prove that you meet the minimum income threshold. The Home Office does not simply ask "do you earn enough?" Instead, it requires you to submit evidence that fits into specific categories defined in Appendix FM-SE on GOV.UK and applied through the Home Office's minimum income requirement guidance.

That guidance sorts the evidence into seven lettered categories, A to G. The letter is not a choice about which case looks strongest. It follows from where the money comes from and how long it has been coming in. What the letter then decides is the period the evidence must cover, how the income figure is worked out, and — the part that catches most people — which other categories it may be added to.

Each category has its own specified evidence. See our financial documents guide for what each one asks for.

Category A: With the Current Employer for 6 Months or More

Category A applies where the person whose income is being used:

• is in salaried or non-salaried employment at the date of application; and
• has been with the same employer for at least 6 months before that date; and
• was paid throughout those 6 months at a level of gross annual salary at or above the figure relied on.

The last point matters more than it looks. The figure counted is the lowest level of annual salary received during the 6-month period, not the salary on the day of application. The Home Office's own worked example is of a sponsor promoted mid-way through: on £15,500 for three months and £18,700 for the next three, the figure that counts is £15,500.

Non-salaried employment — hourly, shift or piece-rate work — is treated the same way, except that the figure is the annual equivalent of the average gross monthly income over those 6 months: total gross income over the 6 months, divided by 6, multiplied by 12.

Evidence Required

• Payslips covering the 6 months before the application, issued by the employer and showing the employer's name (or accompanied by a letter on headed paper from a senior official confirming they are genuine).
• A letter from that employer confirming four things: the employment and gross annual salary; the length of employment; the period over which the salary relied on has been paid; and the type of employment (permanent, fixed-term or agency).
• Personal bank statements covering the same period, showing the salary paid into an account in that person's name or a joint account with their partner.

A P60 and a signed employment contract may be added, but Appendix FM-SE paragraph 2A says the application may still be granted without them.

Overtime, Commission and Bonuses Do Count

This is widely got wrong. Appendix FM-SE paragraph 18(b) says overtime, payments covering travel time, commission-based pay and bonuses — including tips through an HMRC-registered tronc scheme — will be counted as income where they were received in the relevant period. There is no requirement that they be contractual or guaranteed.

Paragraph 18(bb) sets the amount: for someone in salaried employment at the date of application, the figure added to their salary is the annual equivalent of their average gross monthly income from those payments over the 6 months before the application.

What must be contractual is something else: paragraph 18(a) covers basic pay, skills-based allowances and UK location-based allowances, which are counted only if contractual, and where such allowances make up more than 30% of the total salary only the amount up to 30% is counted. Payments for travel or relocation costs, subsistence, accommodation allowances and payments towards the cost of living overseas are not counted at all.

What Category A Can Be Combined With

Category C (non-employment income), Category D (cash savings) and Category E (pension).

Category B: Less Than 6 Months With the Current Employer, or Variable Income

Category B applies where the person is in salaried or non-salaried employment at the date of application but has not been with the same employer, or has not been earning the level relied on, for the whole of the previous 6 months. It is also open to someone who has been with the employer 6 months or more but has a variable income and prefers to be assessed this way.

Note what Category B does not require: 12 months of employment. The Home Office guidance says in terms that there is no minimum period for the current employment, provided the specified evidence can be produced for it. The 12 months is a look-back period, not a length of service.

The Two Parts

Category B is met and evidenced in two parts, and both must be satisfied:

1. Part 1 — income at the date of application. The gross annual salary at the date of application, evidenced by the latest payslip or a signed employment contract. For non-salaried work it is the annual equivalent of the average gross monthly income from that employment.
2. Part 2 — income actually received in the previous 12 months. The person must in addition have received, in the 12 months before the application, the level of income the requirement asks for.

The Trap: Savings Cannot Fill Part 2

Part 1 can be combined with Category C non-employment income, Category D cash savings and Category E pension.

Part 2 cannot use cash savings. Appendix FM-SE paragraph 15(b)(iv) says the person cannot combine the 12-month income figure with specified savings, and the Home Office guidance repeats it: "Category D: cash savings cannot be used under (2)." The reasoning given is that current savings are not an accurate indicator of past income, and that the same money could otherwise be counted twice — once as earnings, later as savings. Part 2 can only be topped up with non-employment income and pension income received over the same 12 months.

One more restriction: where the income of both the applicant and the sponsor is used, all of it must be assessed under Category A or all of it under Category B. The guidance says those categories cannot be used in combination.

Evidence Required

• Payslips covering any period of salaried employment in the 12 months before the application, from every employer relied on.
• A letter from each of those employers, with the same four contents as under Category A.
• Personal bank statements covering the same periods as the payslips.

Category C: Non-Employment Income

Category C covers income that is neither employment nor self-employment nor a pension. The Home Office guidance gives a closed list:

• property rental;
• dividends or other income from investments, stocks and shares, bonds or trust funds;
• interest from savings;
• maintenance payments from a former partner — for the applicant, or for children of the applicant and that former partner, or for the sponsor from their own former partner;
• UK Maternity Allowance, Bereavement Allowance, Bereavement Payment and Widowed Parent's Allowance;
• payments under the War Pensions Scheme, the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and the Armed Forces Attributable Benefits Scheme;
• a maintenance grant or stipend — not a loan — for undergraduate or postgraduate study or research;
• ongoing insurance payments;
• ongoing payments from a structured legal settlement;
• ongoing royalty payments.

Pensions are not Category C. They have their own category, E, with a different rule about timing. And anything not on the list above is not a permitted source: Appendix FM-SE paragraph 21 rules out loans and credit facilities, income-related benefits, Child Benefit, tax credits, Universal Credit, and any other source not specified in the appendix.

The figure counted is the gross amount received in the 12 months before the application. The asset the income comes from must be owned at the date of application and in the name of the applicant, their partner, or both jointly — but it does not have to have been owned for the whole 12 months. The guidance gives the example of a property owned for three months: three months of rent from it can be counted. Equity in a property cannot be used; the profit from selling an asset counts as savings rather than income.

Evidence Required

• Evidence of the source itself — for rental, the title deeds or land registry document, a mortgage statement and the rental agreement; for dividends, the dividend vouchers.
• Personal bank statements for the 12-month period showing the income being paid in.

What Category C Can Be Combined With

Categories A and B (both parts), Category D cash savings and Category E pension.

Category D: Cash Savings

Cash savings above £16,000, held by the applicant, their partner or both jointly for at least the 6 months before the application and under their control, can count towards the requirement. The £16,000 floor is the level at which a person generally stops being eligible for income-related benefits.

The calculation runs the other way round from a total:

(savings − £16,000) ÷ 2.5 = the amount usable as income

The division by 2.5 reflects the 2.5 years of permission before the next application. Turned around, the savings needed are £16,000 plus 2.5 times the shortfall. With no other income at all and a £29,000 requirement, that is £16,000 + (2.5 × £29,000) = £88,500. With income of £26,000 the shortfall is £3,000, so the savings needed are £16,000 + £7,500 = £23,500.

At the settlement stage the multiplier drops away. The whole of the amount above £16,000 can be used, so the calculation is £16,000 plus the shortfall — £45,000 where there is no other income. See our combining income and savings guide.

Evidence Required

• Personal bank statements showing that at least the level of savings relied on has been held throughout the 6 months before the application, in the name of the applicant, the partner, or both jointly.
• A declaration by the account holder of the source of the savings. This is required by Appendix FM-SE paragraph 11(b), not optional.

The money must be held in cash and in an account that allows it to be withdrawn immediately, even if there is a penalty for withdrawing without notice. Funds moved from investments, stocks, shares, bonds or trust funds within the 6 months can count, as can the net proceeds of selling a property, with the 6-month clock adjusted to allow for the time the money was in the other form. Property equity itself cannot be used.

What Category D Can Be Combined With

Category A, part 1 only of Category B, Category C and Category E. It cannot be combined with part 2 of Category B, and it cannot be combined with Category F or G at all.

Category E: Pension

Pension income has its own category. It covers any state pension — the UK Basic State Pension and the Additional or Second State Pension, an HM Forces pension, or a foreign state pension — and any occupational or private pension received by the applicant or their partner.

The rule on timing is short and generous: the annual pension income may be counted where the pension has become a source of income at least 28 days before the application (Appendix FM-SE paragraph 20A). There is no 12-month history requirement, which is what separates Category E from Category C.

Evidence Required

• Official documentation from the Department for Work and Pensions, another government department or agency including the Veterans Agency, an overseas pension authority, or a pension company, confirming the entitlement and the amount.
• At least one personal bank statement from the 12 months before the application showing the pension being paid into the person's account.

Where savings taken out of the pension pot are also relied on, the evidence from the provider has to reflect that withdrawal. See our guide to pension income.

What Category E Can Be Combined With

Category A, part 1 of Category B, Category C and Category D. The gross pension received over the previous 12 months can also be used with part 2 of Category B.

Categories F and G: Self-Employment and Family Companies

Self-employment as a sole trader, partner or franchisee, and being a director or employee of a limited company in sole or limited family ownership, are dealt with together under two categories:

• Category F uses the income of the last full financial year.
• Category G uses the mean average of the last two full financial years. It is a choice, not a fallback.

For self-employment the financial year is the one covered by the self-assessment tax return, running 6 April to 5 April in the UK. For a specified limited company it is the accounting year covered by the Company Tax Return CT600. If someone has both, the two financial years cannot be combined — and where both partners have income, it must all fall in the same financial year or years.

The guidance notes a practical consequence: a sponsor relying on self-employment will need to file their tax return on a timetable geared to the immigration rules rather than to the HMRC deadline.

What Income Figure Counts

For a sole trader, partner or franchisee, the income is the gross taxable profits from that person's share of the business in the relevant financial year, before any deductible allowances, expenses or liabilities that reduce the final tax bill. It is not the net profit figure.

For a director or employee of a family-owned limited company, both the salary from that employment and the dividends from that company are counted here, under F or G, rather than as employment income or as Category C dividends. Dividends from a company that is not of that type are Category C.

Evidence Required (Sole Trader, Partner or Franchise)

• Evidence of tax payable, paid and unpaid for the last full financial year.
• The self-assessment tax return and the Statement of Account (SA300 or SA302).
• Proof of registration with HMRC as self-employed, if available.
• The Unique Taxpayer Reference of the person, partnership or business.
• Business bank statements for the same 12-month period as the tax return, where a separate business account is held, and personal bank statements for the same period showing the income paid in.
• Evidence of ongoing self-employment dated no more than 3 months before the application — trading transactions on a bank statement, a licence renewal, business rates, business insurance, employer National Insurance contributions or franchise payments.
• One of: audited accounts for the last full financial year where the business must produce them; unaudited accounts plus an accountant's certificate from a member of one of the professional bodies the rule names; a VAT registration certificate and return; planning permission for the trading address; or a signed franchise agreement. A franchise must supply the agreement.

The Restriction That Catches People

Cash savings cannot be combined with Category F or Category G at all (Appendix FM-SE paragraph 13(f)). The guidance explains why: the income being evidenced is drawn from a past financial year, and adding savings held today would neither reflect the real resources available nor stop the same money being counted twice. Employment, non-employment and pension income can be added, but only where it falls inside the same financial year or years and is still a source of income at the date of application.

Which Category a Source Falls Into

The category is decided by the source, not chosen. In summary:

• Employment with the same employer for 6 months or more, paid throughout at the level relied on — Category A.
• Employment for less than 6 months with the current employer, or at a level that has varied — Category B, in two parts.
• Rental, dividends from a non-family company, savings interest, maintenance payments, certain allowances, grants, royalties, insurance or settlement payments — Category C.
• Cash savings above £16,000 held 6 months — Category D.
• Any state, occupational or private pension — Category E.
• Self-employment, or a family-owned limited company — Category F for the last financial year, Category G for the average of the last two.

Most applications use more than one. Our spouse visa income tool sets the figures out side by side. For advice on an individual set of circumstances, only a regulated adviser can give it — see what that costs.

Common Mistakes

• Using Category A when Category B applies: Where the person has been with the employer for less than 6 months, or was not paid at the level relied on throughout those 6 months, Category A is not available however high the current salary is.
• Treating overtime and bonuses as excluded: they are counted, where received in the relevant period, annualised as a 6-month average. It is contractual allowances that carry a condition, and a 30% cap.
• Using savings to fill part 2 of Category B: the rules do not allow it. Part 2 is about income actually received over 12 months, and only non-employment and pension income from the same period can be added.
• Combining savings with self-employment: also not allowed, under either Category F or Category G.
• Counting non-cash assets as savings: savings must be held in cash. Property equity cannot be used. Investments, shares, bonds and trust funds count only once converted to cash, and the 6-month clock is adjusted rather than restarted.
• Submitting incomplete bank statements: the statements must cover the specified period. Where one from a run is missing, Appendix FM-SE paragraph D lets the caseworker ask for it rather than refuse outright.
• Using the wrong income threshold: Check which threshold applies to your specific application. The transitional arrangements mean different thresholds apply depending on your circumstances.

Everything Is Measured at the Date of Application

The rules fix the assessment to the date of application. The 6-month and 12-month periods count back from it, the asset behind non-employment income must be owned on it, and evidence covering a period that ends with it must be dated no earlier than 28 days before it. Changing employer or losing a job before that date can move which category applies; a change after the application is made is not part of the assessment.

The fee is not refunded if an application is refused. See our guide to the fees and, on whether to use a regulated adviser, what a solicitor does that you cannot.

Questions and answers