This visa provides an opportunity for non-British partners to live and work in the UK. You can apply for this family visa if you are the husband, wife, civil partner, unmarried partner (living together in a relationship for at least 2 years) , fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner (will marry or enter into a civil partnership in the UK within 6 months of arriving)of a specified partner.
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To successfully obtain a family visa as a partner or spouse, you must meet the following requirements:
It is important to note that the visas issued in this category are nonimmigrant visas. This means that you can’t use them for residency, permanent settlement, or similar purposes.
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You can apply online. You would also need to attend an appointment at a visa application centre to enrol biometric data (photograph and fingerprints) as part of the process.
Not only will you need to fill in the application form correctly, you will also need to upload copies of the required supporting documents, which can be extensive.
If the caseworker examining your application has doubts about the genuineness of your relationship, you may be asked to attend a Spouse Visa Interview. You will be asked questions about your relationship and each other to see if your marriage is authentic, and not a sham.
You need to complete an online application to attend a physical (biometric) appointment whether applying from inside or outside the UK.
An application made from outside the UK could take around 3 months to be processed. Priority services are available in some countries, for expedited processing. On approval, your passport would be endorsed with a “vignette” to allow you to travel to the UK. You would need to collect your biometric residence permit on arrival to the UK from a pre-selected Post Office.
Although the decision would normally be issued within 12 weeks of your biometric appointment your biometric residence permit will usually take a further 10 working days to be issued from the date of the decision.
The current spouse visa application fee can be seen here. The settlement priority service, if available in the country of application would be an additional £1000.
The applicant must also pay the Immigration Health Surcharge, which is £2587 per year. The spouse visa is granted for a 30 months (2.5 years) inside the UK.
Applicants need to show they meet the English language requirements, in Speaking and Listening. For your initial application you will need to pass an approved English language test at least a CEFR level A1 in speaking and listening, which is beginner’s level. For your extension after 2.5 years, you must prove that you pass an approved English language test at least a CEFR level A2.
Those who hold a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree or a PhD, awarded by an educational establishment in the UK can rely on this to meet the English language requirement.
Individuals who hold a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree or PhD that was awarded by an educational institute outside of the UK, will be required to obtain confirmation from UK NARIC that the award is at an equivalent level to a UK degree. This is still the case even if the award was issued in a majority English speaking country.
In addition, certain applicants will be required to obtain UK NARIC confirmation that the award was taught or researched in English to a suitable level of the CEFR.
In order to make a successful application as a partner or spouse, the couple must provide specified evidence to show that they have sufficient income or means to support themselves in the UK.
This requirement applies if the partner is joining the UK sponsor from overseas, if the couple are already living together in the UK or if the couple are returning to the UK, from overseas.
Evidence required depends on the couple’s individual circumstances, but generally speaking the financial requirement for a partner visa is £18,600 and this will increase to £29,000 from the 11th of April 2024.
So, for example, if the sponsor has been in permanent paid employment for more than 6 months, earning a fixed salary of over £29,000 from the 11th of April 2024 per annum, the couple could use evidence of the sponsor’s income to meet the financial requirement.
Evidence of savings can also be used or combined with employment income evidence to meet the financial requirement. Extensive additional evidence would be required for self-employed individuals who are relying on their self-employed income to meet the financial requirement.
If the couple have children who would be sponsored as dependents of the main applicant partner, the financial threshold is increased for each child included in the application.
Where your partner is in receipt of certain benefits or allowances in the UK, you will be exempt from meeting the financial requirement for the spouse visas by providing evidence of ‘adequate maintenance’. This include :
– Carer’s Allowance
– Disability Living Allowance
– Severe Disablement Allowance
– Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
– Attendance 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
– You must however, also provide evidence that you and your partner are able to maintain and accommodate yourselves and any dependents
adequately in the UK, without recourse to public funds.
Demonstrating that a relationship is genuine and subsisting in a UK spouse visa application often requires innovative thinking. This is especially so in situations where, for cultural or religious reasons for example, a couple have not previously lived together or spent a significant amount of time together prior to the marriage. The rules on the evidence that is needed are far less prescriptive than those regarding the financial requirement.
If the couple has been living apart for a lengthy period of time, or have never lived together, prior to submitting a spouse visa application, suitable evidence of a genuine and subsisting relationship could include, for example:
Yes, provided you meet the requirements you should be able to extend your visa for 30 months (2.5 years) at a time. You will need to extend your visa at least once to complete your 60 month (5 year) qualifying period for settlement as a partner or spouse. You might also need to extend if you don’t fully meet the requirements for settlement after 5 years, for example, if you cannot yet speak English to the required level for settlement or if you fail the Life in the UK test.
To renew your visa, you will need to submit an online form (also known as an FLR(M) form). Having paid the relevant application fees you would need to upload scanned copies of your supporting documents to an online portal managed by the Home Office’s commercial partner, Sopra Steria.
An application under this category can be refused if not prepared carefully. Therefore, your other options when faced with a refusal may be to submit a new application entirely, to apply for a judicial review or to go on appeal.
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