Hi, my wife will be able to apply for her ILR next year, but I'm self employed and not sure if I'll be able to cover the financial requirement as I can't work due to the coronavirus situation. My wife works and is continuing to work through the current situation, so my question is can we combine our 2 incomes to cover the £18'600 requirement ?  

Yes for ILR, the financial requirement can be met through either earnings from the applicant and/or their spouse.

Far be it for me to contradict OG but I thought that self-employed income could not be combined with any other income. That certainly used to be the case for the initial settlement visa and further leave to remain. Maybe things have changed.

 

If this covid-19 lockdown continues for a longer period there must be a lot of people who might be struggling to fulfil the financial requirements for spouse/partner uk visa and extensions etc.

 

15 hours ago, durhamboy said:

Far be it for me to contradict OG but I thought that self-employed income could not be combined with any other income. That certainly used to be the case for the initial settlement visa and further leave to remain. Maybe things have changed.

 

If this covid-19 lockdown continues for a longer period there must be a lot of people who might be struggling to fulfil the financial requirements for spouse/partner uk visa and extensions etc.

 

 

You could right, I'll double check and revert.

9 hours ago, durhamboy said:

If this covid-19 lockdown continues for a longer period there must be a lot of people who might be struggling to fulfil the financial requirements for spouse/partner uk visa and extensions etc.

If the government are paying 80% of wages, then they should drop the 18,600 threshold by 20% for those who are affected.

I've checked with a more knowledgeable friend and yes, you can use both incomes but your wifes documents MUST be for the same period as your income from self employment. 

So, if you are doing your income based on tax year ending March 2019 (the last full tax year at the moment, until next week), then all your wifes evidence relating to income must be from the same 12 month period. 

If you are a company director, then your tax year will not necessarily be April to March, but whatever it is, your wifes must be the same for evidence.

23 hours ago, durhamboy said:

Far be it for me to contradict OG but I thought that self-employed income could not be combined with any other income. That certainly used to be the case for the initial settlement visa and further leave to remain. Maybe things have changed.

 

If this covid-19 lockdown continues for a longer period there must be a lot of people who might be struggling to fulfil the financial requirements for spouse/partner uk visa and extensions etc.

 

That has never been the case.  It has always been possible to combine two incomes. It is self-employment and cash savings that cannot be combined. The guidance has always been:

Where a couple are using their joint income to meet the financial requirement, all of this income must fall within the financial year(s) being relied on and must still be a source of income at the time of application. For example, if the applicant is in the UK with permission to work, to combine their salaried employment income with their partner’s self-employment income, they must provide evidence of the income received from this salaried employment during their self-employed partner’s relevant financial year(s) and evidence of ongoing employment at the date of application.

14 hours ago, Elad said:

If the government are paying 80% of wages, then they should drop the 18,600 threshold by 20% for those who are affected.

Yes that would be a logical move. However, it seems that the 80% will take a few months to be paid and Universal Credit may have to be applied for in the meantime. I suppose that would technically mean that people are "living off benefits" which may not be allowed for visa purposes. Also if it is the Thai spouse/partner who is otherwise earning are they allowed to claim Universal Credit?

 

As this thing progresses then more logistical problems may arise e.g. attending English tests, LITUK tests, submitting documents for leave to remain etc. Hopefully HMG will grant automatic extensions for the duration.

13 minutes ago, durhamboy said:

Hopefully HMG will grant automatic extensions for the duration.

They’ve done some tinkering on visas, but not on leaves to remain yet.

One would hope they address the issue, if only because as well as those who are affected will have their earnings affected, the staff that process these applications may not be regarded as key workers and thus not able to process claims and applications, but I assume some may well be effectived by the bug.

Thank you for the replies.