how much savings do I need?
So, there’s a lot of confusion. Do I need £18600 in savings? Or maybe £16000? The correct answer is the whopping amount of £62500
The threshold of £18600 applies to income, not savings.
The amount of savings is calculated using a specific formula. The first £16000 aren’t taken into account at all. This part of the calculation is often taken out of context, so many wrongly think they are OK as long as they have £16000, but it’s only the 1st part.
Then the targets amount £18600 is multiplied by 2.5 to reflect the Spouse visa length of 2.5 years.
We get: £18600 x 2.5 + £16000 = £62500, which is the correct answer.
How to calculate if you have some income and only using savings for the difference? Same formula but a different threshold.
Let’s imagine your income is £15000, so the difference is £18600 – £15000 = £3600.
Then you need savings of £3600 x 2.5 + £16000 = £25000.