Minimum £18,600 income for foreign spouses lawful "in principle", Supreme Court rules

The Supreme Court has ruled that controversial minimum income rules for non-EEA spouses set by the Home Office, which campaigners say have split thousands of families apart preventing British citizens bringing their foreign spouse to the UK, are lawful "in principle".

Children's welfare, Judges said, must be protected in immigration decisions. In their judgement, the Judges conceded that the UK government's rules had the "legitimate" aim of ensuring "that the couple do not have recourse to benefits and have sufficient resources to play a full part in British life".

However, tossing a legal ‘spanner in the works’, they added the rules fail because they do not treat "the best interests of children as a primary consideration".

Prime Minister Mrs Theresa May

Since 2012, when Theresa May was Home Secretary, British citizens have been required to earn over £18,600 ($23,140) before a husband or wife from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) could be allowed to settle in the UK.

Seven Judges sitting at the highest court in the land rejected an appeal by families who argued that the rules breached their human right to a family life, stating that the minimum income requirement was "acceptable in principle". But said that the rules failed to take "proper account" of the duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children when making decisions which affect them.

Judges want an amendment to the law, introduced to prevent foreign souses becoming dependent on taxpayer benefits, allowing alternative sources of funding, other than a salary or benefits, to be considered in a claim.

The minimum income rises to £22,400 ($27,870) where couples have a child who does not have British citizenship - and then by an additional £2,400 ($2,986) for each subsequent child.

Previously, applicants had to demonstrate to the Home Office that the incoming partner would not be a drain on public resources and that the couple or family could adequately support themselves.

The Immigration Rule on income, as well as English tests, has proved controversial throwing up many anomalies, such as a British citizen who marries a non-EEA person while working abroad for a period of time who then cannot take their spouse back to the UK because their work contract has ended and they have no job in Britain, let alone six month pay slips.

The threshold does not apply to spouses from within the EEA and some British citizens have taken advantage of earlier judgements, such as Surinder Singh to bring in souses via the EEA without the need to show the minimum income.

The UK is an attractive place to work, start a business or buy property – no restrictions on foreign buyers - a vibrant mortgage market with record low interest rates.

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Immigration Act 2016 - main highlights in a nutshell

After writing about some of the effects of the far reaching 2016 Immigration Act (or Law) on migrants wishing to work in the UK on a working visa, I received many questions about other issues.

You can read the whole Act here at the legislation.gov website (you would be surprised at how many lawyer don’t even read the entire Act), but if the you prefer a brief summary, see below.

What are the main points of the Immigration Act 2016?

Companies or employers who employ illegal migrants face criminal charges and this could also apply to the worker.

Visa overstayers and migrants who do not have permission to be in the UK could have their bank accounts can be frozen and their driver’s license confiscated.

For the first time a landlord to knowingly renting a property to an illegal migrant will be committing a criminal offence and could go to jail for up to five years.

The Home Office ‘deport first, appeal later’ scheme will apply to all migrants, not just convicted criminals with no residency rights or to people the Secretary of State considered in the ‘public good’ to remove.

Even migrants lodging a human rights or asylum claim will soon be removed to their home country pending the outcome of their appeal against the decision to remove them, except where removal would cause them ‘serious, irreversible harm’.

The new Immigration Act will have serious consequences for visa overstayers, illegal immigrants and human right claimants. If in doubt, seek legal advice.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s (pictured above) temporary ban on migrants entering the U.S. from a number of Muslim countries and been overruled by a Judge. Trump said he will press ahead and press ahead with the executive order, which does not need approval by Congress.

The digital revolution is also having far reaching effects on work in the UK and America. Millions lack the right skills, but I am convinced that you can work from home and make money online provided you have the right internet training and support and real products of value to market.

See also:

Minimum Salary for Tier 2 Work Permits to Rise to £30,000 as UK Immigration gets Tougher for Non-EU Migrants

1.5 million work in UK digital economy, but are you ready for the next economic revolution?

7 Steps to Making Money Online with Amazon