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. Is it stable to submit the SET(M)?

Not necessarily. The most common problem along this path is not "whether you are qualified enough," but two separate issues: how to calculate the money, and whether you can use paper materials to fill in the past two and a half years of shared life. The former has an explicit 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 tiers.

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 a family with two children in the transitional group is £24,800, and for a family 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.

第三行是 Appendix FM-SE 里一个容易被跳过的算法差异。首申和续签用存款凑门槛，公式是 £16,000 加上门槛乘以 2.5，£29,000 对应 £88,500；到了 settlement 这一步不再乘 2.5，只需门槛加 £16,000，也就是 £45,000。原因是 ILR 之后不再有新的两年半居留期需要覆盖。存款必须由你、担保人或两人联名持有，且在递交前 6 个月里一直不低于该数额，中间任何一天跌破都不行。

联名账单只有三张，怎么补

SET(M) 表格里对同居证明的要求，也是一个两分结构。

有联名文件的，交 6 份寄给两人共同姓名、同一地址的信函；没有联名文件的，走另一条路——两人各自 6 份、共 12 份，地址必须一致。这两条不是二选一的偏好，是按你手上有什么来定的。

The most widespread version is "only 6 pieces of cohabitation proof are needed." This statement omits two real conditions: 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, by institution type: 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," with the previous one and a half years being blank. At this point, it's impossible to provide paper evidence, so only an explanation letter can be used, which is far less effective than a Council Tax bill sent in 2024.

What to do before ILR

My judgment is that the order of planning should be reversed. Most people first focus on salary and savings, and leave organizing documents for the last three months, which is the wrong order.

The reasoning is straightforward. The financial gap is remediable: 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. 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; check 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 ILR, not A1 upon entry.

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

📌 Final reminder about the timing: MAC suggested in the June 2025 assessment to lower the threshold to the £23,000–£25,000 range, but the government has not adopted it so far, 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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