The Ultimate Guide to Applying for a UK Spouse Visa

If you are married to someone who has permission to stay in the UK, then you have the grounds to apply for a UK visa based on your marriage. This is known as the family visa for your spouse. It allows you to bring your spouse to stay with you in the UK. It is necessary if your spouse is going to stay with you for more than 6 months. Here we will explore everything about the spouse visa UK.

The spouse Visa applies not only to married people, but also to civil partners, or proposed civil partners. Your partner, who is in the UK, need not necessarily be a British citizen either. If your partner has indefinite leave to remain, you are eligible to apply for the spouse visa.

Who Can Apply For a Spouse Visa in the UK?

Now that you have a brief overview, let’s find out the minimum eligibility criteria to apply for a spouse visa UK.

To start with, both you and your partner must be at least 18 years of age to be eligible to apply. Besides that, your partner will also have to fulfill one of the following conditions:

-Have British or Irish citizenship
-Have indefinite leave to remain or settled status
-Have a Turkish Worker Visa or a Turkish Businessperson Visa
-Have permission to stay in the UK as a stateless person
-Have protected status in the UK

Is from EU, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, or Liechtenstein, and agave been staying in the UK since before 1st January 2021
Before applying for the spouse visa, remember that both you and your partner need to have plans to settle in the UK permanently.

Also, if you are currently in the UK on a student visa or work visa, you are not eligible to apply for the spouse visa.

How To Prove Your Relationship With Your Partner?

When you are applying for the spouse visa, you will also need to provide proof that you and your partner are indeed married or in a civil partnership. The following are some of the criteria for the proof to be acceptable by the UK home office.

-It must be issued by the government, the bank, a medical practitioner, or landlord, or a quality service provider.

-The evidence will be such that it establishes the relationship, which means, shared living space or shared expenses, and likewise.

-The proof cannot be more than 4 years old.

Keeping these in mind, you can provide one of the following as proof:

-A marriage registration certificate or a certificate proving a civil partnership
-Bank statement of a joint bank account wherein both you and your partner are account holders
-Utility bills or tenancy agreements or council tax papers that can establish that you two stay together or you two share bills and expenses
-A doctor’s or dentist’s letter that proves that you and your partner stay together
-A bill from the vet that proves that you and your partner stay at the same place
-Student finance papers that prove that you and your partner share the same address
-Voter’s card that shows that both you and your partner have the same address mentioned

In case you are unable to stay with your partner for work or study purposes, or because your culture doesn’t allow you two to stay together, you can still prove your civil partnership if you can present one of the following:

-Proof of regular communication between you and your partner
-Have children whom you two take care of together
-Provide financial support to each other
-Spend time together as a couple and have gone on vacations and holidays together where you two spent time together in a resort or hotel.

How Long Are You Allowed To Stay?

Once you have applied for the spouse visa successfully, you will have a limited time to stay in the UK.

In general, as the spouse you will be allowed to stay in the UK for 2 years and 9 months. However, if you are yet to get married to your partner and are applying for the visa as the fiance or fiancee or civil partner, you will get 6 months’ permission to stay. After this, you will need to apply to get the visa extended.

In case you are staying in the UK already on a family visa, you will be able to apply for an extension. In case you wish to stay with the same person, then you will only get an extension of 28 days over the existing duration of the visa.

How Much Does a Spouse Visa Cost?
The spouse visa UK fees are quite high. So, before you apply, make sure that you are ready to afford the visa. You will be able to apply for the spouse visa both from outside the UK and from within the UK.

If you are applying for a spouse visa from outside the UK, you will need to pay £1,846. For those who are already in the UK and applying for the spouse visa, you will need to pay £1,258. In case you are applying to have additional members of the family to be included as well, then the same amount will have to be added for each person.

Since the spouse visa UK fees are quite high, you will have to make sure that your bank knows about the transaction. Because a failed transaction due to the bank’s rejection can result in your application being rejected.

Minimum Income of Partners

Besides all other requirements, there is also a requirement for the partners to have a minimum combined income to be eligible for the visa. You will need to prove that you and your partner have a minimum annual income of £29,000. This minimum requirement is not applicable if your spouse has disability or carer’s benefit. However, the minimum requirement will increase if you have children. For the first child, this requirement will increase by £3,800 per annum, and by £2,400 per annum for every additional child.

Remember, the spouse visa is not a citizenship. To get that, you will need to fulfill the minimum criteria for citizenship and will have to apply separately once you have stayed in the UK for the minimum number of years.