Meeting the Spouse Visa Financial Requirement if Your Spouse is a Company Director

Posted onMay 19, 2023

Meeting the spouse visa financial requirement is not always straightforward. Even if your partner has the trappings of wealth through running a successful company it can be hard to prove this to the satisfaction of the Home Office when applying for a spouse visa based on your sponsoring partner meeting the financial requirement through their income as a company director.

Our immigration solicitors can help answer all your spouse visa application and financial requirement queries.

UK Online and London-Based Immigration Lawyers and Spouse Visa Solicitors

For spouse visa advice call the immigration lawyers at OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.

The spouse visa financial requirement

The Home Office has set a spouse visa financial requirement that either the visa applicant or their sponsoring husband, wife, civil partner, or unmarried partner must meet. The financial requirement has to be met when you apply for your first spouse visa and again when you apply to extend the spouse visa. A spouse visa extension is required because, under immigration rules, you do not meet the residence requirement to apply for indefinite leave to remain on the expiry of your first spouse visa.

Meeting the spouse visa financial requirement

The spouse visa financial requirement can be met in 1 of 3 ways:

Meeting the income requirement
Cash savings – or in some cases a combination of evidence of cash savings and income
Benefits – if the sponsor receives a UK state benefit on a Home Office list of benefits accepted as meeting the financial requirement

How much is the spouse visa financial requirement

Unless the sponsor is on state benefits, the spouse visa financial requirement is the same; whether or not the sponsor is employed or self-employed, a high earner or low earner, or a company director. The only variable to the spouse visa financial requirement is whether the sponsor is sponsoring their partner alone or their partner and their dependent non-British children.

For partners, the spouse visa financial requirement is an income of £18,600 per year. If there are dependent children the figure rises by £3,800 for the first child and by £2,400 for each additional child.

If you want to meet the spouse visa financial requirement by providing evidence of cash savings you need at least £65,000 if you want to rely solely on savings. You cannot rely on a mix of savings and income unless the savings of your sponsor and/or yourself amount to over £16,000.

Spouse Visa Solicitors say the rules on the financial requirement are complicated and are contained in the immigration rules Appendix FM.

Meeting the spouse visa financial requirement through the company director’s income

A sponsor or the spouse visa applicant can meet the financial requirement through their income as a company director. For example, the spouse visa applicant may be switching to a spouse visa and already be in the UK with an established company. Alternatively, the applicant could be applying to extend an existing spouse visa.

The immigration rules detail how Home Office officials should assess the income of a company director when determining if the spouse visa financial requirement has been met. That is why it is best that you take advice from Spouse Visa Solicitors on the information and paperwork that you will need to support a spouse visa application to avoid delays or your application being refused.

Company accounts

When relying on income as a company director to evidence that you meet the spouse visa financial requirement you can rely on either category F or G income.

Category F means that you rely on the financial information by using the last financial year’s accounting method. This category can be used if the sponsor or the visa applicant has the right to work in the UK and they are either self-employed or the director of a specified limited company
Category G involves using the last 2 financial account years by calculating the average income received by the company director during the previous two full financial years. This can be beneficial when company profits and director’s income varies wildly from year to year. Evidence is needed to back up the figures using the company tax return form submitted to HMRC

The company director rules and how to meet the spouse visa financial requirement

Whether you are using category F or G income figures you need to provide specific evidence if the company is classed as a specified limited company. If you do not provide the correct evidence your application will be refused.

Spouse Visa Solicitors say that under the current rules you need to provide:

The company tax return for the last full financial year together with evidence that the tax return was filed at HMRC
Company registration - evidence that the company is registered with Companies House and the current appointment report
Company accounts - if the company has to produce audited accounts on an annual basis the last accounts for the full financial year. If the company does not have to file yearly audited accounts, then you need to provide unaudited accounts for the last full financial year and a certificate of confirmation from an accountant (they need to be a member of a UK-recognised supervisory organisation or a member of the Institute of Financial Accountants)
Company bank statements – the statements need to cover the 12 months of the company tax return
Supporting evidence – you need to provide supporting evidence but you only need to provide one document out of several options such as evidence of ownership or lease of business premises or original proof of registration with HMRC as an employer for National Insurance and PAYE purposes, or VAT registration certificate and the VAT return for the last full financial year with the VAT registration number

Director’s income and dividend payments

If you or your sponsor is a company director your income may be derived from salary and share dividend payments. The Home Office will want evidence of both types of income. Spouse Visa Solicitors say the rules require:

Wage slips and P60 – these need to be for the same period as the company tax return
Bank statements covering the 12 months of the company tax return. The statements need to be for the account into which the salary and any dividend payments are paid so an applicant may need to produce 2 lots of statements if the wages and dividends are paid into separate bank accounts
Evidence of dividend payments in the form of dividend vouchers

Evidence of employment as a director of the company

Other sources of income can be used if the income from categories F and G does not meet the spouse visa financial requirement. For example, pension income. However, evidence of the supplemental income must cover the same period as the company tax return and evidence of the company director’s salary and dividends. A company director of a new start-up business cannot rely on projected company turnover and profits or their historical salary before they became an entrepreneur and set up their own business.

When it comes to cash savings, a company director cannot rely on a combination of category F and G income and dividends as a company director and cash. They can rely on cash savings only but then they will need at least £65,000 of cash and the money must be readily available. It cannot be tied up in the company finances.

The cash savings rules are detailed so if you are interested in relying on savings to meet the spouse visa financial requirement it is best to get specialist immigration legal advice on what evidence you will need to produce to support the spouse visa application.

UK Online and London-Based Immigration Lawyers and Spouse Visa Solicitors

For spouse visa advice call the immigration lawyers at OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.

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