Will You Still Be Able to Marry Foreigners After Brexit?

Posted by Aariya rafi on November 25th, 2017

Brexit has brought a lot of uncertainty in many domains and people living in the UK are not sure how the future will look like. The split from the European Union does not affect only the EU citizens located in the United Kingdom, but also the British in their own countries. Foreign people have built a permanent life there and Brexit seems to be a threat to their years of work.

It is not easy to move to another country and build a new life, new family and start a job. The UE citizens who have already done all this fear of how Brexit might affect their lives.

Brexit will not stop you from marrying foreigners, but the new regulations definitely make it more difficult to bring your loved ones to the United Kingdom, especially because of the high taxes. Also, besides the minimum taxes, there are other strict requirements that your spouse has to meet in order to become a permanent resident in the UK.

Can You Bring Your Spouse To The UK?

The answer is yes, but only if you meet certain requirements that are explained in details by WM Immigration. The main idea is that after you get married, you can bring your wife or husband to the UK through a Spouse Visa, that will be granted for two and a half years, which is considered a probationary period. In order to bring your spouse to the UK, you need to be a British citizen or permanent resident and have an income that is positioned over the average. Any amount over 18,600 pounds will be enough, but if you also have a child, the amount will raise to 2400 pounds.

Moreover, if you wish to increase the chances of getting you visa application approved, it would be a good idea to bring evidence of your earnings. Savings of over 16,000 pounds will prove that you will meet the financial requirements for a spouse visa.

Will Your Spouse Automatically Become A Permanent Resident?

Unfortunately, the answer is: not always. For example, if you are not economically active or are a stay-at-home parent of a househusband or housewife, you will not automatically earn right to residence in the UK, even though you are married to a British citizen. In this situation, you will need to have a Comprehensive Sickness Insurance. If you do not own a CSI, an option would be to buy one, although it is quite expensive. Another solution would be to become a worker or a self-employed person, since none of these two categories require a CSI.

Why Is The New Legislation So Harsh?

Over the last few years, there have been discovered many marriages between UK citizens and foreigners which have the sole purpose of obtaining British citizenship. Thus, through marriages of convenience, people were looking to obtain a visa and had no intention of actually committing to the marriage.

Most of the convenience marriages discovered lately have been with citizens from poorer countries and the Home Office is trying to diminish their number significantly.

Final Thoughts

Overall, there is definitely no restrictions regarding the right of marrying foreigners, as long as the relationship is sincere and without hidden goals. However, it is true that Brexit has brought some harsh requirements when it comes to bringing your loved ones to the United Kingdom. The high taxes are among the most difficult things to comply with since the amounts rise over the average incomes in most of the country.

However, there are possibilities to bring your family to the UK. Immediately after the vote, Theresa May has promised that Brexit will not split any families.