Immigration Rules and Spouse Visa Applications if Your UK Sponsoring Partner is on State Benefits
In this blog, our Immigration Solicitors focus on how you can meet the Spouse Visa financial requirement if you are applying for a Spouse Visa or Family Visa and your sponsoring husband, wife or unmarried partner is on state benefits.
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For Family Visa immigration law advice call London-based OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.
Our lawyers speak Arabic, Armenian, Farsi, French/Mauritian Creole, Spanish, Tamil Tagalog/Ilonggo, Urdu/Punjabi
The Spouse Visa financial requirement
In a year when a general election will be held in the UK, there has been much focus on net migration figures and the increasing state benefits bill.
To reduce UK net migration, the government has made wide-ranging changes to various visas, including the Skilled Worker Visa and Family Visa. With the Family Visa, the financial requirement has risen from an income of £18,600 gross per year to £29,000, with the financial requirement figure set to rise to £38,700 by early 2025.
What has not changed are the immigration rules and meeting the financial requirement when the UK-based sponsoring partner receives some specified state benefits.
State benefits and the Family Visa financial requirement
Specified state benefits received by the sponsoring partner can help you meet the financial requirement for various Family Visa applications including:
- The Spouse Visa
- The Unmarried Partner Visa
- The Civil Partner Visa
If a sponsoring partner receives one of the benefits set out in Appendix FM the benefit can potentially allow the Family Visa applicant to meet the financial requirement even though their partner earns or receives less than the current financial requirement of £29,000 gross per year.
Qualifying state benefits and Family Visa applications
Qualifying or specified state benefits in Appendix FM applications include:
- Personal Independence Payment
- Attendance Allowance
- Carer’s Allowance
- Disability Living Allowance and Severe Disablement Allowance
- Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
- Armed Forces Independence Payment or Guaranteed Income Payment under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme
- Constant Attendance Allowance, Mobility Supplement or War Disablement Pension under the War Pensions Scheme
- Police Injury Pension
- Child Disability Payment and Adult Disability Payment
Non-qualifying benefits
If a sponsoring partner only receives one of the benefits listed below, they will not meet the financial requirement based on their benefits as the benefits are not ‘’specified’’ ones:
- Universal Credit
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance;
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Pension Credit
- Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit
- Contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Child Benefit
- Working or Child Tax Credit
Proving the financial requirement is met when a sponsoring partner is on a specified state benefit
To qualify for a Family Visa an applicant must evidence that their sponsoring partner can:
- Maintain them
- Accommodate them so the Family Visa accommodation requirement is met
Both requirements must be met ‘’without recourse to public funds’’.
To prove that a sponsoring partner can help a Family Visa applicant meet the financial requirement, the Home Office will expect a visa applicant to do a calculation.
The mathematical calculation does not use the actual costs of financially providing for a husband, wife or unmarried partner to see if the financial requirement is met. Instead, a standard formula must be used:
- Add up the net weekly income of the sponsoring partner on the qualifying benefit
- Minus or deduct the sponsoring partner’s weekly housing costs (rent, mortgage and Council Tax)
- Is the calculated figure the same or more than the total weekly amount the sponsoring partner, the Family Visa applicant and any dependent children would be getting if they were all eligible and qualified for Income Support?
If the answer to question 3 is yes, the Family Visa applicant meets the financial requirement through their sponsoring partner’s qualifying benefit.
The calculations can seem tortuous as of course the Family Visa applicant and any children requiring Dependant Visas would not qualify for Income Support.
The government website has details of the latest Income Support rates for adults and children.
The immigration rules also detail the benefits that cannot be included in the calculations when working out the net weekly income of the sponsoring partner. For example, you cannot include Income Support payments or Housing benefits received by the sponsoring partner as they are classed as public funds and the Family Visa applicant must show that the financial requirement is met without access to public funds.
Proving the accommodation requirement is met when a sponsoring partner is on a specified state benefit
As well as the financial requirement the Family Visa applicant must show that their sponsoring partner can provide them with adequate accommodation to meet the accommodation requirement.
Ownership of property is not a must. Nor must the sponsoring partner be renting a property in their name. In some cases, it can be shown that the accommodation requirement is met by the sponsoring partner and the Family Visa applicant living with extended family in property rented or owned by the family.
In all applications, evidence will be needed to show how the accommodation requirement is met.
The accommodation must be adequate. That means the house must:
- Be fit for human habitation and
- Not breach UK overcrowding regulations if the visa applicant and any children were to move into the property. This also involves a calculation as the law sets out minimum bedroom sizes and the number of people who can lawfully occupy a property depending on the number of bedrooms
Spouse Visa Solicitors
At OTS Solicitors our team of specialist Spouse Visa Lawyers can help you apply for your Spouse Visa or Family Visa and answer all your questions on the application process.
We can also help if you have had a Spouse Visa application refused or if you need to apply to extend your Family Visa or Spouse Visa or want to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain after UK entry on a Family Visa.
Why choose our team as your Spouse Visa Solicitors? We think our clients are the best judge of the sort of service you can expect to receive. Here is one review from many:
‘’I am immensely grateful to Nollienne at OTS Solicitors for her exceptional assistance in obtaining my partner visa for the UK. Nollienne's expertise and dedication were evident throughout the process, and her personalized approach made a significant difference. She navigated the complexities of immigration law with precision, providing clear and timely communication. Thanks to her efforts, I am now happily reunited with my partner in the UK. I highly recommend OTS Solicitors and Nollienne for her outstanding work. Thank you for making this journey smoother and ensuring a positive outcome for my case. A 10/10 from me!’’
UK Online and London-Based Immigration Lawyers and Spouse Visa Solicitors
For Family Visa immigration law advice call London-based OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.
Our lawyers speak Arabic, Armenian, Farsi, French/Mauritian Creole, Spanish, Tamil Tagalog/Ilonggo, Urdu/Punjabi
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