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 stopped for these five years, and I have always lived with my partner. If I apply for SET(M), will it definitely be approved?"

It's not necessarily the case. The most common problems along this path are not about "whether you're 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 gears.

The second row in the table shows where the transitional protection is overestimated. The old scheme adds money for each child who is not a British citizen, while the new scheme does not. The actual threshold for a 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, and the threshold was £10,000 lower" 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 threshold is met with savings, the formula is £16,000 plus the threshold multiplied by 2.5, £29,000 corresponds to £88,500; when it comes to settlement, it no longer multiplies by 2.5, only the threshold plus £16,000 is required, which is £45,000. The reason is that after ILR there is no longer a new 2.5-year residency period to cover. The savings 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 application, it cannot fall 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 form 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 the same. These two options are not preferences to choose from, but determined by what you have in your hands.

The most widespread version is "you just need to collect 6 pieces of proof of cohabitation." This statement omits two real conditions that are critical: these documents must come from at least three different sources, and the dates should be evenly spread throughout the 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, by institution category: 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 at the same bank do not count as two sources.

The issue of distribution is more hidden. People who have moved house, those who switched to electronic bills after the pandemic, and those who have all bills under one name often end up with "a dozen or so bills from the past eight months," leaving the previous one and a half years blank. At this point, it's impossible to make up the paper, so they can only rely on a letter of explanation, which is far less effective than an Council Tax bill sent in 2024.

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 reasoning is straightforward. The financial gap is fixable: Category A only looks at pay stubs and corresponding bank statements from the six months prior to submission. You can get a higher-paying job, include the self-employment income of the sponsor in the calculation, or use eligible cash deposits, all of which can boost the numbers within six months. Co-habitation 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. Money is a six-month project, documents are a two-and-a-half-year project.

Three things you can do immediately: change at least two of Council Tax, family insurance, and broadband to joint names; deposit a paper or PDF letter from different institutions each quarter, and create folders by year; verify that the transcript of Life in the UK Test 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 of ILR, not A1 upon entry.

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

📌 Final reminder about the timing: MAC recommended in the June 2025 assessment to lower 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 with the current figures and make changes when they occur.

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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