You can meet the spouse visa financial requirement with self-employed income, but it is judged very differently from a salary and the evidence rules are strict. For most new partner applications, the threshold is £29,000 gross a year. For a sole trader, partner or franchisee, what counts is your gross taxable profit across a full self-assessment financial year, not your turnover and not the money you drew from the business. You are usually assessed under Category F, your last full financial year, or Category G, the average of your last two. In our experience, most refusals here come down to the wrong figure or a missing document, not a genuine lack of income.
That is the reassuring part and the warning at the same time. If you are self-employed and your partner is British or settled, self-employment is a perfectly valid way to sponsor a UK spouse visa. But the Home Office holds self-employed applicants to a longer and fussier evidence list than salaried ones, and it applies that list mechanically. Get the paperwork exactly right and it is straightforward. Get one part wrong and a strong case can still be refused. This guide walks through the figure that counts, the categories, the documents, and the mistakes we see most often.
Can you use self-employed income for a spouse visa?
Yes. Income from self-employment as a sole trader, partner in a business, franchisee, or income from certain owner-managed limited companies can be used to meet the financial requirement. It falls under Category F or Category G of Appendix FM-SE. The figure assessed is the relevant profit or company income for a completed financial year, not simple revenue, and you must provide the specific documents required by the rules.
The threshold, and where self-employment fits
The minimum income requirement for most new partner or spouse applications is £29,000 gross a year. It has stood at that level since 11 April 2024. Some people already on the family route before that date may benefit from transitional rules, so it is always worth checking which version applies to you before you apply. The Migration Advisory Committee reviewed the family visa financial requirement in 2025 and the government has considered the position since then, but the standard figure for new applications remains £29,000.
Self-employment sits in its own part of the rules because your income is not a fixed monthly salary. Rather than looking at recent payslips, the Home Office looks back at a completed financial year of trading and the tax evidence declared for that year. That single difference drives almost everything that follows.
What actually counts as your income
This is where people trip up before they even start. For a sole trader, partner or franchisee, the figure that counts is your gross taxable profit from your share of the business in the relevant financial year. It is not your turnover. It is not the total that passed through your business account. And it is not the amount you paid yourself in drawings.
We often see a sole trader with, say, £60,000 of turnover assume they are comfortably over the line, when their taxable profit after business expenses is £26,000 and falls short. The Home Office works from the profit figure shown in your tax documents, so that is the number you need to plan around from the start. If you are a director of your own limited company, the position is different again, and usually more demanding, because salary, dividends, company accounts and the company tax return all need to line up.
Category F or Category G, and how to choose
There are two main ways to present self-employed income, and you use the one that gets you over the required figure.
| What it uses | When it helps | |
|---|---|---|
| Category F | Your gross taxable profit for the last full financial year | Your most recent completed year on its own meets or exceeds £29,000 |
| Category G | The average of your gross taxable profit across the last two full financial years | Your latest year alone falls short, or your income swings from year to year and a two-year average is stronger |
Category G is not a fallback for any bad year so much as a smoothing tool. If your profit was £34,000 one year and £26,000 the next, Category F on the latest year fails, but the two-year average of £30,000 succeeds. Work out both before you decide which to rely on.
The financial year trap
For a UK sole trader, partner or franchisee, the financial year that matters is the self-assessment tax year, 6 April to 5 April. It is not your own accounting period if that runs to a different date. This catches out anyone whose accountant prepares accounts to, for example, 31 December.
There are two practical consequences. First, you can only rely on a completed financial year, supported by the right tax documents, so timing your application matters. Second, you must still be self-employed at the date you apply. A recent business bank statement showing ongoing trading is the usual way to show that. If you wound the business down after the tax year you are relying on, you have a problem.
The documents you must provide
For a sole trader, Appendix FM-SE sets out a specific list, and the Home Office expects all of it. Missing one item is one of the most common reasons these applications fail. You will generally need:
- Your self-assessment tax return for the full financial year relied upon, as submitted to HMRC.
- Your SA302 or statement of account and the corresponding HMRC tax year overview, with matching figures.
- Proof of registration with HMRC as self-employed, where available, and your Unique Taxpayer Reference.
- Business bank statements covering the same 12-month period as the tax return, where you hold a separate business account.
- Personal bank statements for the same period showing the self-employment income being paid in.
- Evidence that you are still trading, such as a business bank statement dated within the three months before you apply.
- Annual accounts or unaudited accounts with the required accountant’s certificate where applicable, plus any franchise or partnership agreement that applies.
You can request your SA302 and tax year overview from HMRC or your accountant, and it is worth doing this early because the figures on the documents must agree. Company directors face a longer list again, including company accounts, the CT600 corporation tax return, dividend vouchers and confirmation of shareholdings, so treat director cases as a separate exercise.
The mistakes that cause refusals
The pattern is consistent. Strong earners get refused on evidence, not on income. The recurring problems we see are quoting turnover instead of gross taxable profit, using the accounting year rather than the tax year, submitting an SA302 that does not match the tax year overview, forgetting the personal bank statements that show the income landing in an account, and applying before the relevant tax year has actually closed.
A calmer way to think about it is that the Home Office is not trying to understand your business. It is checking whether a fixed set of documents lines up with a fixed set of rules. Your job is to make that check boringly easy. Cross-reference every figure, make sure names and dates agree across documents, and never rely on the caseworker to fill a gap or ask a question. They usually will not.
Combining income, and the savings alternative
You can combine self-employment with some other income to reach £29,000, but the rules are restrictive and this is another area that is easy to get wrong. Broadly, anything you add has to come from the same financial year or years you are relying on for the self-employment. Self-employed income also cannot usually be topped up with cash savings in the same flexible way as some salaried cases, so check the exact combination before building your application around it.
Cash savings are the cleaner alternative if you can meet the requirement entirely that way. To meet the whole £29,000 requirement on savings alone, you need £88,500, generally held for at least six months and under your control. That comes from the formula of £16,000 plus two and a half times the £29,000 shortfall. It is a lot to hold, but for some self-employed couples with a strong balance sheet and a lumpy trading year, it is simpler than relying on profit.
Looking further ahead
The spouse route is usually a five-year path to settlement, so it helps to plan the whole journey rather than just the first application. After five years and continuous qualifying residence, you can usually apply for indefinite leave to remain, and later British citizenship. If your circumstances change, other settlement routes such as the long residence route may become relevant, and it is always worth checking whether you already hold a status such as the right of abode through a UK-born parent, which would make the spouse visa financial requirement irrelevant to you.
If you run a growing business, you may also be weighing up whether to keep sponsoring through the family route or build your immigration position around the company itself. Our guide to the self-sponsorship route explained sets out how that works, and our self-sponsorship service can help you decide whether it fits. These are separate routes with their own rules, so take advice before you switch strategy. You can read the Home Office’s own financial requirement guidance if you want the detail behind the rules described here.
Frequently asked questions
How much do I need to earn if I am self-employed?
You need to show gross taxable profit of at least £29,000 for a full financial year under Category F, or an average of £29,000 across your last two full financial years under Category G. That is profit after allowable business expenses, not turnover and not your drawings.
Can I use my current year’s income if business is going well?
No. The Home Office normally only accepts self-employed income from a completed financial year, evidenced by your filed self-assessment documents. You cannot rely on projected or current-year earnings, so timing your application after the relevant tax year closes is important.
What is the difference between Category F and Category G?
Category F uses your income from the single most recent full financial year. Category G uses the average of your last two full financial years. You choose whichever meets the threshold, which makes Category G useful when your income varies or your latest year alone falls slightly short.
Do I need an accountant to apply?
Not always, but it helps. Where accounts are required, the rules specify who can prepare or certify them. Even where accounts are not strictly required, an accountant can help ensure your SA302, tax year overview, accounts and bank statements all agree, which is where many applications come unstuck.
Can I combine self-employment with my partner’s salary?
Sometimes, but the rules are strict. Any income combined with self-employment generally has to fall within the same financial year you are relying on, which limits how freely you can mix sources. Because this is easy to get wrong, check the exact combination before you build your case around it.
Get your evidence checked before you apply
Self-employed spouse visa applications reward careful preparation and punish small slips, and the fee is not cheap to lose. If you are self-employed and want your figures and documents checked properly before you submit, or you are not sure whether Category F or Category G gives you the stronger case, our team can go through it with you. Talk to us at Hedgley Immigration about your spouse visa application. Call Sean on 07704 909490 or Lydia on 07587 145994, and we will help you get the evidence right the first time.