ILR - Income threshold

[allovera]

Hi,

I am a British citizen and my husband is here in the UK on a spouse visa, due to expire March 2013.

We are looking to apply for his ILR soon and have just started researching for this. With regards to the new rule for £18,600 earnings is this related to both me and my spouse's earnings combined together or just mine?

I earn only £14,500 per year, and my husband is earning £14,000 per year. Combined we make this, but ofcourse alone I fall way short. We have worked hard to save £12,000 over the last couple of years in order to get the ILR but now it seems that this will not even be counted - is this right?

I have only just found out about the new financial rule as I gave birth to our first daughter in June this year and have only just got back to doing things again (we had a hard time).

I am wondering if the income of £18,600 is for my salary only then we shouldn't even bother applying and save ourselves a lot of money. Then we need to think about where we can live.

Please help. Getting very stressed about it all.

Thanks in advance.

[geriatrix]

The new rules do not apply to your spouse. As long as you two earn enough to maintain yourselves without recourse to public funds, there is nothing to worry about.

[allovera]

Thank you so much for your reply. We've been going out of our minds with worry.