In July 2013, the High Court made a judgement that although the income
requirements set by the Home Office were not illegal, they were unreasonably high and as the court stated, ‘unjustified and
disproportionate’. The Home Office has challenged this verdict.
The appeal is set to be heard between the 3rd and 5th of March 2014.
The current financial requirement in place for UK partner,
spouse and marriage visas under the settlement policy is an income of
£18,600 per year for couples with no children. The main reason for the
disapproval of the High Court was that this figure is approximately
£5000 more than the average income of a UK resident. There
are also additiional income requirements for those wishing to bring children and
other dependents into the UK, which resulted in the UK marriage
visa process being viewed as an impossible barrier to cross to bringing a
foreign family member or partner to the UK.
As this is an ongoing legal issue, UK Border Agency (UK Visas
& Immigration) has decided that those settlement visa applications
which would otherwise be declined on account of the income threshold
alone will be put on hold until the matter has been resolved.
UK fiancee
and marriage visa applications which attract a refusal on other
non-income threshold related grounds will still be refused, while UK
partner visa applications which meet all of the requirements will still
be granted under the current UKBA policy.
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