On Friday (July 5), the High Court handed down its judgment in a Judicial Review of the minimum income threshold for spouses/partners and children applying to come to the UK via the ‘family visa’.
Under the new family migration policy only British citizens, or those with refugee status, who earn at least £18,600 a year can sponsor their non-European spouse’s visa. This rises to £22,400 for families with a child, and a further £2,400 for each extra child.
The court concluded that the policy was not unlawful on the basis of discrimination, or due to a conflict with the statutory duty to regard the best interests of children, but that the earnings threshold was disproportionate if combined with one of the four other requirements in the rules – for example, an inability to supplement a shortfall in income with savings, unless the savings were over £16,000.
Mr Justice Blake said that while there may be sound reasons in favour of some of the individual requirements “taken in isolation”, the combination of more than one of the five requirements of the rules was “so onerous in effect as to be an unjustified and disproportionate interference with a genuine spousal relationship”.
Giving the Home Secretary leave to appeal his decision, the judge also suggested that a more “proportionate financial requirement” might be to reduce the minimum income required of the sponsor alone to about £13,000.
The Home Office has temporarily suspended decision-making on some spouse/partner and child settlement visa and leave to remain applications to enable it to consider the implications of the judgment.
A Home Office spokesperson said:
‘Our family changes were brought in to make sure that spouses coming to live in the UK would not become reliant on the taxpayer for financial support and would be able to integrate effectively. We’re pleased that this judgment supports the basis of our approach.
‘We are looking closely at the judgment and its likely impact on the minimum income threshold before we decide how to respond. In the meantime, where an applicant does not meet the minimum income threshold and there is no other reason to refuse it, the application will be put on hold.’
Meanwhile, a group of MPs and Lords known as the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration has called for an independent review of the minimum income requirement.
In a review published last month, it looked at more than 175 cases from families affected by the rules.
Baroness Hamwee, chairwoman of the review and Liberal Democrat home affairs lead in the House of Lords, said the parliamentary group had been “struck by the evidence showing just how many British people have been kept apart from partners, children and elderly relatives”.
“These rules are causing anguish for families and, counter to their original objectives, may actually be costing the public purse,” she said.
The group said thousands of Britons had been unable to bring non-EU spouses to the UK since the minimum earnings requirements were introduced.
