How much income is required to convert a spouse visa to permanent residency? £29,000 and list of cohabitation proof

After five years of the spouse visa, the most common question heard is: "My salary has not been interrupted for these five years, and I have always lived with my partner. If I apply for SET(M), will it be stable?"

It's not necessarily the case. The most common problems along this path are not "whether you are qualified enough," but two separate issues: how to calculate the money, and whether you can use written materials to fill in the past two and a half years of shared life. The former has a clear formula, while the latter has no formula and can only be achieved by accumulating things regularly.

£29,000 or £18,600, depending on the date of the first submission

April 11, 2024 is the hardest watershed on this path. Those who had already obtained a spouse visa before that day and have been with the same partner ever since are entitled to transitional protection, and renewal and final settlement will still be assessed under the old threshold of £18,600; for those applying for the first time from that day onward, the threshold is £29,000.

Many people only remember these two numbers, missing the structural differences between the two.

The second row in the table shows where the transitional protection is overestimated. The old scheme adds money for each non-UK child, while the new scheme does not. The actual threshold for the transitional group with two children is £24,800, and with four children it reaches the upper limit of £29,000 - exactly the same as the new scheme. Therefore, the statement "I came in before April 2024, the threshold is lower by £10,000" only applies to families without children or with only one child.

The third line is an algorithm difference in Appendix FM-SE that is easy to skip. For the first application and renewal, the deposit is used to meet the threshold, with the formula being £16,000 plus the threshold multiplied by 2.5, where £29,000 corresponds to £88,500; when it comes to settlement, it no longer multiplies by 2.5, but only requires the threshold plus £16,000, which is £45,000. The reason is that after ILR, there is no longer a new two and a half year period to cover. The deposit must be held by you, the sponsor, or jointly by both of you, and must not be less than that amount during the 6 months before the submission, and it cannot drop below that amount on any day in between.

How to make up for the joint account statement only having three?

The requirements for the cohabitation certificate in the SET(M) table also have a two-part structure.

If there is a joint document, submit 6 copies to the letters addressed to both names and the same address; if there is no joint document, take another route — each person submits 6 copies, totaling 12 copies, and the addresses must be consistent. These two options are not preferences, but determined by what you have in hand.

The most widespread version is "only 6 pieces of cohabitation proof are needed." This statement omits two real conditions that can cause problems: these documents must come from at least three different sources, and the dates should be evenly spread over the entire 2.5 years. Six bills from the same water and electricity company prove that you have a shared account, not a common life.

How to calculate sufficient diversification, in practice, look at the type of institution: banks, local councils (Council Tax), water, electricity and gas, GP or NHS, HMRC or DWP, landlords or mortgage providers, insurance companies, TV Licence. These are considered different sources from each other. Two accounts with the same bank do not count as two sources.

分布的问题更隐蔽。搬过家的人、疫情后改成电子账单的人、把所有账都挂在一方名下的人，最后往往能拿出的是"最近八个月的十几份"，前面一年半是空白。这时候补不出纸，只能靠说明信解释，而说明信的效力远低于一张 2024 年寄来的 Council Tax 账单。

递 ILR 之前，先做哪一件

我的判断是：规划顺序应该反过来。大多数人先盯工资和存款，把文件留到最后三个月整理，这个次序错了。

The reason is straightforward. The financial gap is fixable: Category A only looks at pay stubs and corresponding bank statements from the 6 months prior to submission. You can increase the numbers within six months by getting a higher-paying job, including the self-employment income of the sponsor in the calculation, or using eligible cash deposits. However, cohabitation evidence cannot be made up — you can't ask the utility company in 2024 to send you a bill with the previous year's address now. It's a six-month project for money, and a two-and-a-half-year project for documents.

Three things you can do immediately: change at least two of Council Tax, family insurance, and broadband to joint names; each quarter, store a paper or PDF letter from different institutions, and create folders by year; verify that the Life in the UK Test transcript is still available (no expiration date, but the number must be findable) and that English level is B1 or higher — the spouse route requires B1 at this step in ILR, not A1 upon entry.

A complex income structure (self-employed, dividends, rental, combined for two people) is worth having someone check the algorithm before submitting. For £5 on justiscript.com, you can get a written response from a qualified British lawyer within 24 hours for a specific issue, which is more cost-effective than guessing how to fit into Category B yourself.

📌 Final reminder about the timing: In the June 2025 assessment, MAC suggested lowering the threshold to the £23,000–£25,000 range, but the government has not yet adopted it, and £29,000 is still in effect. Don't rely on a reduction that hasn't happened yet; prepare according to the current figures, and make changes when they happen.

This article is for reference only. For specific issues, please consult a licensed attorney.

[Data Source] gov.uk/uk-family-visa/proof-income-partner; Home Office "Appendix FM 1.7 Financial requirement" caseworker guidance; Immigration Rules Appendix FM-SE

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