Where you are required to meet the MIR (Minimum Income Requirement) when applying under Appendix FM, you can generally meet the financial requirement in the following 5 ways.

• Your income (if you are already in the UK with permission to work) or your partner’s income from salaried or non-salaried employment – referred to as Category A (if employment is with current employer for at least 6 months) and Category B (if employment is with current employer for less than 6 months or with variable income)

• non-employment income, for example income from property rental, pension, hourly rate income,  dividends from shares, etc – referred to as Category C

• Your or your partner’s cash savings, held by you or your partner for a minimum of 6 months and under your control – referred to as Category D 

• Your or your partner’s state (UK or foreign), occupational or private pension – referred to as Category E 

• Your income (if you are already in the UK with permission to work) or your partner’s income from self-employment, and income as a director or employee of a specified limited company in the UK

In this article, we are discussing how to meet the financial requirement using employment income, Self-employment income, and cash savings.

What is the Minimum Income Requirement?

If you apply as a spouse/partner under Appendix FM in 2026, you and your partner usually need to prove that your combined gross annual income is at least £29,000. This is called a ‘minimum income requirement’. You do not need to show an extra amount for any child within the family.

On the other hand, if you first applied as a spouse/partner under the Appendix FM prior to the 11 April 2024 (including if you first applied as a fiancé (e) or proposed civil partner) and you are now applying to extend that visa to further stay in the UK with the same partner, you and your partner (sponsor) will be required to meet the combined minimum gross annual income of £18,600.

You must prove you have extra money (as mentioned below) for any children you are including in your application as a spouse/partner, who are already in the UK as dependants on your visa, or as dependants of your sponsoring partner. 

An extra £3,800 per year will be required for the first child, and 

£2,400 per year will be required for each additional child you have after the first child.

If the total amount you are required to earn based on the number of children is more than £29,000, you only need to prove you make a gross annual income of £29,000.

If you are applying as a child under Appendix FM and your parent has a UK family visa, their income must meet the financial requirement for their family visa type. For example, if they have a family visa as a spouse/partner, you will be required to include proof they can meet the financial requirements for partners (as mentioned above).

If you are applying as a child under Appendix FM and your parent has permission to stay as a refugee or as someone with humanitarian protection, you will be required to include proof your parent can meet the financial requirement for partners (as mentioned above), whether they have a partner or not.

How to use employment income to meet the financial requirement?

Under Category A, if your partner (or you if you are already in the UK with permission to work) is in salaried employment on the date of your application and has been with the same employer for 6 months or more before the date of your application, you can count the gross annual salary towards the financial requirement.

In doing so, you or your partner must have been paid throughout the period of 6 months before the date of your application at a gross annual salary level which equals or exceeds the level you have relied upon in your Appendix FM application. Therefore, you or your partner can only use the lowest level of annual salary received during the 6-month period towards the financial requirement. 

And

Under Category B, you must meet the financial requirement in 2 parts. 

First, where you (if you are already in the UK with permission to work) or your partner is in salaried employment on the date of your application and have been with the same employer, or earning the amount relied upon, for less than the last 6 months, you can count the gross annual salary on the date of your application towards the financial requirement. There is no required minimum period for this current employment, provided that you or your partner can meet the requirements for specified evidence under Appendix FM-SE in respect of it.

Second, you (if you are already in the UK with permission to work) or your partner must, in addition, have received the income level required to meet the financial requirement in the 12 months before the date of your application 

Non-salaried employment, on the other hand, includes employment that pays at an hourly or other rate (and the pattern and/or number of hours required to be worked may vary) or pays a variable amount according to the work undertaken. 

Example of Category A – Salaried Employment

You apply for entry clearance to the UK under Appendix FM (where you must meet the £29,000 threshold) and your partner is in salaried employment at the date of your application and has been working for the same employer for 7 months before the date of your application. For the first 3 months of the 6 months, his gross annual salary was £30,000. Then his employer promoted him so that for the next 3 months immediately before the date of your application his gross annual salary was £32,700. 

In such a situation, the figure that you can use towards the financial requirement will be the lowest level of annual salary received during this 6-month period before the date of your application, which is £30,000. You and your partner have no other source of income or savings, and so you meet the financial requirement.

Example of Category B – Salaried Employment

You must meet the £29,000 threshold. Your partner (sponsor) works in the UK. He started a new job 4 months before the date of your application, and his gross annual salary is £48,000. He meets part (1) of the calculation for Category B because he is in salaried employment on the date of your application and his gross annual salary on the date of your application meets the financial requirement. 

Additionally, he must have received in the 12 months before the date of your application the level of income required to meet part (2) of the calculation for Category B. Before starting his new job, he worked for another company for 7 months during the last 12 months. He has earned £37,000 in the last 12 months from employment, including his current and previous job.

You meet the financial requirement under Salaried Employment - Category B because your partner is currently in a job paying at least £29,000 a year and has earned more than £29,000 from his employment in the last 12 months.

Gross income received from non-salaried employment will be counted on the same basis as income received from salaried employment where your partner or you (if you are already in the UK with permission to work) have been with the same employer for at least 6 months on the date of your application. 

How to use non - employment income to meet the financial requirement?

You can use the following as sources of non-employment income towards the financial requirement under Category C: 

• property rental  

• dividends or other income from investments, shares and stocks, bonds or trust funds 

• interest from savings 

• maintenance payments from your former partner for your maintenance

• maintenance payments from your former partner for the maintenance of any of your children and that former partner 

• maintenance payments from a former partner of your partner (sponsor) for the maintenance of your partner (sponsor) 

• UK Maternity Allowance, Bereavement Allowance, Bereavement Payment and Widowed Parent’s Allowance 

• payments received under the War Pensions Scheme, the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and the Armed Forces Attributable Benefits Scheme 

• a maintenance grant or stipend (not a loan) associated with undergraduate study or postgraduate study or research 

• ongoing insurance payments 

• ongoing payments from a structured legal settlement 

• ongoing royalty payments 

Unless otherwise specified, you can count the specified non-employment income which you or your partner have received in the 12 months before the date of your application towards the financial requirement.

The relevant asset (property, investment, savings account, fund, etc.) on which any income is based must be in your name, your partner’s name, or both jointly and held or owned on the date of your application.

You may count the gross amount of any cash income towards the financial requirement, where the correct tax (the tax that was legally due on that particular income) has been paid on that cash income to the relevant tax authority and where you have met all the relevant evidential requirements in Appendix FM-SE.

You can combine income from Category C with income from salaried and non-salaried employment - Category A and Category B, cash savings - Category D, and pension - Category E in order to meet the financial requirement.

How to use cash savings to meet the financial requirement?

You can count cash savings held by you or your partner. The account can be anywhere in the world and the money can also be obtained by sale of assets such as property, bonds or shares. If you do not wish to combined the savings with any other income then you need savings of £88,500. However if you have other income which Is allowed to be combined with savings that the shortfall amount needs to be calculated. 

Let’s say you earn £28,000 that means you are £1000 short. Therefore you would need £16000 + £2500 (£1000 x 2.5) therefore you need savings of £18,500 with an income of £28,000 in order to meet the minimum income requirement. The savings can be in the applicant’s account or even the sponsor’s account even if the applicant is applying from outside the UK.

There are many ways that the cash savings can be used in order to meet the financial requirement, however, this depends on circumstances of the applicant.

This money must be held in accessible accounts, such as savings accounts, personal bank accounts, or fixed deposits (if withdrawable). The money must usually be held for 6 months or more and must be under your control (or your partner’s). 

There must be real, liquid money (not property, assets, or shares unless converted to cash).

You can combine Cash savings - Category D with income from salaried and non-salaried employment - Category A, salaried and non-salaried employment - part (1) of Category B, non-employment income - Category C, and pension - Category E in order to meet the financial requirement. 

You cannot combine cash savings with self-employment income, or with income from salaried and non-salaried employment - part (2) of Category B, employment as an employee or a director of a specified limited company in the UK, under either Category F or G. But not self-employment. 

If your partner or you (if you are already in the UK with permission to work) are in paid employment on the date of your application, you may use current cash savings to make up any deficit in the current gross annual income of that employment towards the financial requirement.

How to calculate cash savings under Appendix FM?

The following formula is used to calculate cash savings required at the entry clearance or initial permission to stay stage and the further permission to stay stage, 

The amount of savings above £16,000 is divided by 2.5 (to reflect the 2.5-year period before you will have to make a further permission to stay application) to give the amount which you can use towards the financial requirement. 

The following equation is to be used: 

(X - 16,000) divided by 2.5 = Y 

Where X is the total amount of cash savings held by you, your partner, or both jointly for 6 months or more before the date of your application and under your control (or your partner’s). 

And Y is the amount which you can use towards the financial requirement.

Based on this formula, if you or your partner has held £88,500 as total savings, you do not need income from other sources to meet the financial threshold of £29,000 required for an entry clearance application or a permission to stay application (where the initial entry clearance application was made on or after 11 April 2024).

Similarly, if you or your partner has held £62,500 as total savings, you do not need income from other sources to meet the financial threshold of £18,600 required for a permission to stay application without any child (where the initial entry clearance application was made before 11 April 2024).

for Similarly, if you or your partner has held £62,500 as total savings, you do not need income from other sources to meet the financial threshold of £18,600 required for a permission to stay application

How to use Self- Employment

Income from self-employment has more flexibility that any other way of meeting the minimum income requirement. Self-employment is considered for all the income declared by an applicant in their self-assessment, which can include income from interest, income from any work, income from a company or even income from employment provided it has all been declared in your self-assessment (SA100) and you have filed taxes (SA 302) on all the incomes you have received throughout the last financial year or average of last two financial years. 

So if in the last financial year you have earned £40,000 and in the current financial year you earned an income of £20,000, on average of two years you have an income of £30,000 therefore you would be able to meet the minimum income requirement. 

The gross income under self-employment is the income before tax and not your total turnover, which means if your total income is £35,000 and your expenses are £5,000, then your income before tax would be £30,000 which would counted towards the minimum income requirement.

How can Visa and Migration Ltd. Help?

Using employment, self-employment, cash, or other permitted source of income towards the financial requirement under Appendix FM is quite complex. We are experts in partner visa applications under the immigration rules and Home Office guidance on all the technical aspects involved and the documentary evidence required for entry clearance and permission to stay applications.

We can help you ensure you meet the financial threshold depending on your source of income and permitted combinations of income and savings.

For expert advice and queries on how to meet the financial requirement for applications under Appendix FM, you can call us at +44 (0)20 3411 1261 or write to info@visaandmigration.com