A UK spouse visa, formally a family visa as a partner or spouse, lets you live in the United Kingdom with your partner for more than six months. It is the route used by husbands, wives, civil partners and unmarried partners of people who are British, Irish or settled in the UK. The application is made online, the evidence is detailed, and a mistake on the financial requirement or the relationship evidence is one of the most common reasons applications run into trouble. This guide explains who can apply, what you must prove, what it costs and how long a decision usually takes, using the official GOV.UK guidance. Immigration rules change, so always check the official GOV.UK page before you apply. This is general information, not personal immigration advice.

Who can apply for a UK spouse visa?

To apply as a partner, you and your partner must both be aged 18 or over, and you must intend to live together permanently in the UK after you apply. Your partner, who is called your sponsor in the application, must be a British or Irish citizen, have settled in the UK, for example with indefinite leave to remain, settled status or proof of permanent residence, or fall into one of the smaller qualifying groups. Those groups include people from the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein with pre-settled status who started living in the UK before 1 January 2021, holders of a Turkish Businessperson visa or Turkish Worker visa, people with protection status, and people who were given permission to stay as a stateless person before you became their partner. If your partner has settled or pre-settled status, you may be able to apply to the free EU Settlement Scheme instead, which is worth checking before you pay a family visa fee.

There is one important limit. You cannot apply for a family visa if your partner is in the UK temporarily on a work visa or a student visa. In that situation you would usually apply as their dependant instead, which follows a different set of rules. You also cannot normally switch to a family visa from inside the UK if you are here as a visitor or on a visa of six months or less, although there are exceptions, including for people on a six-month fiance visa and people in the UK for the outcome of a family court case or divorce.

What you must prove about your relationship

You must be able to prove one of four things about your relationship. You are in a civil partnership or marriage that is recognised in the UK, you have been living together in a relationship for at least two years when you apply, you are a fiance, fiancee or proposed civil partner who will marry or enter into a civil partnership in the UK within six months of arriving, or you have been in a relationship for at least two years but cannot live together, for example because you are working or studying in different places, or because living together is not accepted in your culture. Any previous marriage or civil partnership must have ended before a new application can succeed.

The evidence matters as much as the category. GOV.UK asks for evidence that comes from the government, a bank, a landlord, a utility provider or a medical professional, that confirms your relationship, for example by showing that you live together, share expenses or are married or in a civil partnership, and that is less than four years old. Useful documents include a marriage certificate or civil partnership certificate, a tenancy agreement, utility bills or Council Tax bills showing that you live at the same address or pay bills together, a bank statement from a joint bank account or confirming that you live at the same address, and a letter from your doctor or dentist confirming that you live at the same address. If you do not have evidence that meets those criteria, other evidence can be used instead, including a one-off bill such as vet fees or home repair costs, letters confirming that you and your partner are on the voting register at the same address, and student finance paperwork confirming that you live at the same address.

If you do not live together because of work, study or cultural reasons, you will need to prove an ongoing commitment to each other. GOV.UK suggests evidence that you communicate regularly, support each other financially, care for any children you have together, and spend time together as a couple, for example on holiday or at events. Photographs and message histories on their own are weak evidence, so they should support, not replace, official documents.

The financial requirement: the £29,000 rule

For most new applicants, you and your partner usually need to prove a combined income of at least £29,000 a year. This is called the minimum income requirement, and it applies to anyone whose first application on the partner route was made on or after 11 April 2024. There is no extra amount for children on that figure. A lower tier survives for people who first applied before 11 April 2024 and are extending with the same partner: £18,600 a year, plus £3,800 for the first child and £2,400 for each further child, capped at £29,000 however many children there are.

Income can come from employment, self-employment, pensions and certain other specified sources, or from a combination of those within limits. How you prove it depends on how you got it. For example, employment income is usually evidenced by payslips, an employer letter and matching bank statements, with different rules for a job held for six months or more and for a newer job. You may also be able to use cash savings instead of income. Only savings above £16,000 count, and the money must have been held for at least six months. With no income at all, the savings figure needed is £88,500, because the calculation adds £16,000 to two and a half times the £29,000 shortfall.

The income requirement does not apply at all where the sponsoring partner receives one of a listed set of disability or carer benefits, including Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Carer's Allowance, Personal Independence Payment and several armed forces and war pensions. In that case an adequate maintenance test applies instead, in which a caseworker looks at your income and housing costs and decides whether you can house and support yourselves without relying on additional public funds. If you cannot provide the financial or English language proof, you may still be able to apply if you have a child in the UK who is a British or Irish citizen or has lived in the UK for seven years and it would be unreasonable for them to leave, or if refusing the application would breach your human rights. Those are exceptional routes, and they carry different conditions, including a longer route to settlement.

English language and accommodation

You must show a good knowledge of English, normally by passing an approved Secure English Language Test in speaking and listening. The level rises as you move along the route: A1 for the first application, A2 for the extension, and B1 for settlement, rising to B2 for settlement applications made on or after 26 March 2027. There are exemptions, including for nationals of countries the Immigration Rules list as majority English-speaking and for people with a degree taught or researched in English. The test must be taken with an approved provider, and at settlement, applicants aged 18 to 64 must also pass the Life in the UK Test.

You must also show that there is adequate accommodation for the family without recourse to public funds, which you own or occupy exclusively. Accommodation is not adequate if it is or will be overcrowded, or if it contravenes public health regulations. Nothing in the rule requires you to own a home. Renting, or living with family, can satisfy it, provided the home is not overcrowded.

How much does a UK spouse visa cost?

The application fee is £2,064 if you apply from outside the UK and £1,407 if you apply from inside the UK, per person. Each dependant added to the application pays the same relevant fee. On top of the fee, most applicants must pay the Immigration Health Surcharge, which covers access to the National Health Service. For each adult it is £1,035 a year, which GOV.UK publishes as £3,105 for a two year and nine month grant, £2,587.50 for a two year and six month grant, and £5,175 for a five year grant. For each child under 18 it is £776 a year, or £2,328 for two years and nine months and £1,940 for two years and six months. That means a first application from outside the UK for one adult costs £2,064 plus £3,105, a total of £5,169, before any English test fee, which is set by the test provider and is not published by GOV.UK.

If you cannot pay the fee, you can apply for a fee waiver. GOV.UK says you can apply if you do not have a place to live and cannot afford one, if you have a place to live but cannot afford essential living costs such as food or heating, or if you have a very low income and paying the fee would harm your child's wellbeing. There are separate waiver applications for people applying from outside the UK and from inside it.

How to apply, and how long it takes

The application is made online, from outside the UK or from inside it depending on where you are. You will need to prepare your information and evidence first, then complete the online form, pay the fee and the health surcharge, upload your documents, and give your fingerprints and photograph, either at an appointment or, where you are eligible, through the UK Immigration: ID Check app. If you do not feel confident using a computer or mobile device, or you do not have internet access, GOV.UK offers help with completing the online form, but only if you are applying in the UK, and the service cannot give immigration advice.

If you apply from outside the UK, you will usually get a decision within 12 weeks. If you apply inside the UK and you meet the financial and English language requirements, you will usually get a decision within eight weeks. If you apply inside the UK and you do not meet those requirements, it currently takes about 12 months to get a decision. You may be able to pay for a faster decision: GOV.UK says that if you are applying from the UK, you may be able to pay an extra £1,000 for the super priority service, while a priority service from outside the UK is published as usually up to 30 working days for family applications. The family visa is not eligible for the five working day service inside the UK.

What you receive at the end is now digital. Successful applicants get an eVisa, a digital record of identity and immigration status held in a UKVI account. Biometric residence permits stopped being issued at the end of 2024, and UKVI stopped issuing visa vignettes, the sticker in the passport, to successful new applicants on 1 July 2026. Your decision email or letter will tell you how to access your eVisa, and you will need to create a UKVI account if you do not already have one.

How long you can stay, and the route to settlement

A first grant as a partner lasts for up to two years and nine months. After that you will need to apply to extend your stay, and an extension or a switch to this visa gives you up to a further two years and six months. You can extend more than once. The earliest you can apply to settle in the UK, called indefinite leave to remain, is after you have lived in the UK for five years continuously on a family visa as a partner. You cannot include time spent in the UK on any other visa, or as a fiance, fiancee or proposed civil partner. The settlement application fee is £3,226 for each person applying.

If you are applying as a fiance, fiancee or proposed civil partner, the position is different. You can stay for six months, you must prove that you plan to marry or enter into a civil partnership within six months of arriving and that any previous marriages or civil partnerships have ended, and you cannot work or study in the UK during your engagement. After you marry or become civil partners, you will need to apply to extend your stay, and if that application is approved you will have the right to work or study. If you are in the UK as an unmarried partner and you become engaged, do not apply to extend as a fiance; apply to extend with the same visa status you have now.

You can add children to your application as dependants if they are under 18 when you apply, or were under 18 when they were first granted leave, and they do not live an independent life. A child is living an independent life if, for example, they have left home, got married and had children. One recent change is worth noting: where a partner with protection status claimed asylum after 2 March 2026 and their own permission ends in less than the period you would otherwise be granted, your permission will end at the same time as theirs.

Common mistakes to avoid

The most common problems are avoidable. Do not use the old £18,600 figure for a new application made on or after 11 April 2024. Do not assume savings count in full: only the amount above £16,000 counts, and the money must have been held for six months. Do not rely on photographs and chat histories as your main relationship evidence; build the application around official documents less than four years old. Do not book an English test with a provider that is not approved, and do not apply for settlement early: GOV.UK says an application made more than 28 days before you meet the residence requirement may be refused. Finally, do not treat the figures in this guide as a substitute for the official pages. Fees, the income threshold and the English language levels are set by the Home Office and can change, so check the GOV.UK family visa pages and the financial requirements guidance on the day you apply, and consider regulated immigration advice if your circumstances are complicated, for example if you have a previous refusal, a criminal record, or a child whose status is in question.