Spouse visa requirements: relationship, money, English and accommodation

In brief

A spouse or partner application succeeds when four things are true at the same time: the relationship is eligible and genuine, the sponsor meets the £29,000 minimum income requirement (or an equivalent combination of income and savings), the applicant meets the English language requirement at the level for their stage, and adequate accommodation is available without recourse to public funds. Each is evidenced separately, in a specified format, and any one of them failing can cause a refusal regardless of the strength of the others.

The four requirements

All four have to be met at the date of application, and each is evidenced separately.

Meeting the money, source by source

The rules prescribe not just the amount but the documents for each source.

Salaried employment

6 months of payslips and matching bank statements

Non-salaried work

Income averaged over the relevant period

Self-employment

Full financial year, tax return and company evidence

Cash savings

Held 6 months, under your control, documented source

Pension

Annual amount, with the provider’s evidence

Combinations

Permitted between some sources, not all

Building the relationship evidence

A chronology first, then documents that support it.

• A short written chronology of the relationship, dated throughout
• The marriage or civil partnership certificate, with a certified translation if needed
• Evidence of cohabitation, or of visits and contact if you live apart
• Communication records spread across the relationship, not just recent weeks
• Photographs with dates and context, and evidence of shared commitments
• Plans for life in the UK: accommodation, work, family arrangements

Where there are features a caseworker will notice, a large age gap, a short courtship, a previous refusal or a prior visa breach, address them in the covering letter with evidence. Silence on an obvious point reads worse than an explanation.

How an application is actually assessed

Eligibility, then finance, then evidence quality, roughly in that order.

A caseworker first checks the relationship is eligible in law: a valid marriage or civil partnership, or, on the unmarried partner route, two years of cohabitation as if married. They then check it is genuine and subsisting rather than simply eligible on paper, using the chronology and supporting documents you provide. Only once the relationship is accepted does the case move to the financial requirement, because there is little point assessing income for a relationship that does not meet the basic test.

The financial assessment is largely arithmetical but strict on format: the specified evidence for the source relied on has to be present in full, covering the exact periods required, or the requirement is treated as not met even if the underlying income clearly clears the threshold. English language and accommodation are checked last, and are usually the most straightforward to satisfy provided the right level of test has been taken and a landlord or family member has confirmed the accommodation in writing.

Common mistakes and refusal triggers

Most spouse visa refusals are evidential rather than about the underlying facts.

• Payslips or bank statements that do not cover the full six-month period, or that come from different accounts
• Relying on gross rather than net or contractual salary figures where the rules specify otherwise
• Cash savings that have been held for less than six months, or that mix funds from an undocumented source
• An English test taken with a provider not on the approved list, or at the wrong level for the stage applied for
• Relationship evidence concentrated in the weeks before the application rather than spread across the relationship
• No written consent from a family member whose property is used as the accommodation
• Applying with a fiancé(e) visa’s evidence pack when the marriage has already taken place, or vice versa

Dependants, transitional cases and other edge cases

Children, previous refusals and third-country marriages all need particular care.

Children applying as dependants of the sponsored partner need their own eligibility evidence, usually a birth certificate showing the relationship to the applicant or sponsor, and where only one parent is applying, evidence of sole responsibility or the other parent's consent. A step-child or a child from a previous relationship can qualify but the family relationship needs clearer documentary support than a birth child of the couple.

A previous visa refusal, for either partner, does not automatically bar a new application but it does need to be addressed directly in the covering letter, particularly where the refusal concerned deception, a sham marriage finding or an immigration breach. Marriages conducted overseas, especially in jurisdictions where the marriage certificate format differs from the UK, may need additional evidence of validity, such as confirmation the marriage is recognised under local law and, where required, a certified translation.

Applicants who were previously refused entry clearance on relationship grounds, or who have a large age gap, a short relationship history or a language barrier between partners, should expect closer scrutiny of the genuine and subsisting element and should build the evidence accordingly rather than assuming the marriage certificate alone will suffice.

Timing the application around your evidence

Assemble the evidence to the six-month rule before you choose a submission date.

Because most financial evidence has to cover a defined period, such as six months of payslips or six months of savings, the practical planning question is often when to apply rather than whether the underlying facts qualify. Applying a few weeks early, before a document run is complete, is one of the most avoidable reasons a strong case is refused.

Who to contact next

Confirm the money and the level of English before you gather everything else.

Use the Financial Requirement Calculator to check which combination of income and savings clears the £29,000 threshold on your actual figures, and the English Requirement Checker to confirm which level and which route to evidence it applies to your stage. Where the relationship history includes a previous refusal, a sham marriage allegation or an unusual family structure, a review of the evidence plan before you apply is worth the time, because the application fee is not refunded on refusal.