Financial requirements on family visas – their impact and the need for reform: Written by Saqib
The UK’s family migration policies are currently under scrutiny as the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) begins a review of the financial requirements for family visas, commissioned by the Home Secretary. MPs are set to debate the topic in parliament on the 20th January 2025, following a petition not to raise the Minimum Income Requirement any further gained over 100,000 signatures. We now feel that this provides a timely moment to examine the requirements to make an application under the current family and private life routes and highlight the barriers people face when trying to reunite with family members.
Background
For many of our clients, family visas are a cornerstone for reuniting loved ones, enabling spouses, civil partners, fiancé(e)s, unmarried partners, children, and elderly dependent relatives to live together.
According to 2022 data, 84% of family reunification visa holders were partners of sponsors, while 15% were children (Migration Observatory, 2024) However, financial requirements called the Minimum Income requirement (MIR) and Adequate Maintenance (AM) embedded in these policies make family reunification unattainable for many, particularly those from low-income households.
Minimum Income Requirement (MIR)
The Minimum Income Requirement (MIR) has become one of the most restrictive elements of family migration policies. Until recently, those wishing to bring a partner to the UK must have earned a minimum of £18,600 annually, with higher thresholds for additional dependent children. In 2024, this figure rose to £29,000 and it was at the time announced that it would further increase to £34,500 and further to £38,700 by 2025.
On 10th of September the new government commissioned the MAC to ‘review the financial requirements, and in particular, regarding the level of the Minimum Income Requirement, the previous Government’s proposals to increase it and any other related considerations that you believe are relevant’ and stated that ‘there will be no changes to the current threshold of £29,000, or the ways in which the MIR can be met, until the MAC review is complete’.
MAC has put out a call for evidence seeking to understand more about this requirements and their impact.
The impact on family life
RMC is one of the largest providers of free immigration advice in the UK, filling the critical gap left by the absence of legal aid for family visa applications. Through our casework, we daily see the impact that these policies have on our clients and the emotional toll separation causes.
One of the people impacted by the rise on the Minimum Income Requirement was David. David is an EU national earning just over £24k annually, working full-time for the past 6 years and living in the UK with his son. David had attempted to apply himself to bring his wife to the UK under part of the immigration rules reserved for EU nationals but because he had married his wife after the UK had left the EU, this had been unsuccessful.
David was informed that he would need to sponsor his partner through a family visa. Despite his stable income and consistent employment, he was not initially able to meet the MIR of £29,000 and sponsor his wife. While he was in receipt of benefits essential to the family’s financial stability, he was not able to rely on them to meet the MIR.
After several months of visiting our office to get guidance and support on how to meet the requirements to sponsor his wife, RMC represented him in an application in July 2024 which was successful. His wife, Beth, arrived in the UK in September, 9 months since David first enquired about the process of reuniting with her.
Adequate Maintenance Requirement
Some applicants are not required to meet the MIR but instead have to show that they would be adequately maintained and accommodated in the UK by their sponsors.
The AM test takes into consideration the sponsor’s income and housing costs against the benefit levels an equivalent UK family of that size can receive, so it is a test that takes into account individual circumstances. The type of benefit referenced is Income Support, a benefit that is largely no longer in use in the UK. It requires a formula calculation and it is often not clear what evidence is needed.
The test can prove complicated, families on low income and those relying on benefits often struggle to meet it.
Applicants that have to meet this requirement, include minor children that want to join their British or settled parents in the UK, like our client Sefa.
Sefa is a 16 year old child currently living in Gambia with extended family members. His father, a British Citizen and his mother, a settled person, approached RMC to request assistance to bring him in the UK. Failing to meet the financial requirement for several years, the family had ended up separated for 14 years. In January 2024, we submitted an application for Sefa to join his parents in the UK which was refused some months later as the requirement was not met and no consideration was given to any exceptional circumstances given that both biological parents are in the UK and the child is alone abroad. RMC has represented the family in an appeal which is currently pending.
Conclusion
The MAC review is an opportunity to take stock on the impact that the financial income requirement has had since its introduction in 2012 as well as the ramifications that further increases may have on families.
Through our 25 years of providing free regulated immigration advice, we have come across thousands of individuals and families impacted by the family migration rules. The case studies above are only examples of hurdles people face when trying to join family members in the UK. Through our work we will continue advocating for our clients in an effort to influence change and build a fair immigration system where families are not separated because of their low income.
See more about how RMC is supporting new arrivals already.
