Family visas: apply, extend or switch
Financial requirements if you’re applying as a partner or spouse
If you apply for a family visa as a partner, you and your partner usually need to prove that your combined income is at least £29,000 a year.
This is called a ‘minimum income requirement’.
The financial requirements are different if either:
- your partner is getting certain disability or carer’s benefits
- you first applied as a partner before 11 April 2024 and you’re extending that visa - this includes if you first applied as a fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner
How you prove your income depends on how you got it. You may be able to use your savings instead of income to show you meet the requirement.
Check the information and evidence you’ll need to prove your income.
If your partner is getting disability or carer’s benefits
You do not need to meet a minimum income requirement if your partner gets one of the following benefits:
- Disability Living Allowance
- Severe Disablement Allowance
- Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
- Attendance Allowance
- Carer’s Allowance
- Personal Independence Payment
- 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
- Adult Disability Payment
You need to show you and your family have enough money to house and support yourselves without relying on additional public funds. The caseworker considers your income and housing costs.
Check the guidance in Appendix FM and Appendix HM armed forces: minimum income requirement for more information.
If you first applied as a partner before 11 April 2024 and you’re extending that visa
If you’re extending your stay with the same partner, you and your partner will need to prove that your combined income is at least £18,600 a year.
You must prove you have extra money for any children who:
- you’re applying for a family visa with
- are already in the UK as dependants on your family visa
- are already in the UK as your partner’s dependants
You do not need to prove you have extra money for any children who:
- are British or Irish citizens
- have pre-settled status
- are permanently settled in the UK
You might not need to prove you have extra money if your children are citizens of the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland and they do not have pre-settled status or are not permanently settled in the UK. Check the guidance in Appendix FM and Appendix HM armed forces: minimum income requirement for more information.
If you need to prove extra money for children, you’ll need to prove an extra:
- £3,800 a year for the first child
- £2,400 a year for each additional child you have after the first child
If the total amount you’d need to earn based on your children would be more than £29,000, you only need to prove you make £29,000 a year.
If you cannot meet the financial requirements
If you cannot meet these financial requirements you may still be able to apply for a visa or extend your stay if:
- you have a child in the UK who is a British or Irish citizen or has lived in the UK for 7 years and it would be unreasonable for them to leave the UK
- it would breach your human rights to stop you coming to the UK or make you leave
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.