Most partner visa applications are granted. That is worth saying out loud, because the internet is full of horror stories and very short on arithmetic. Roughly nine decisions in ten go the applicant’s way. The trouble is that refusals cluster in a small number of predictable places, and hardly any of them are about whether the couple is real or whether the sponsor earns enough. They are about paperwork that failed to prove something true. So this checklist is built backwards — start from what actually goes wrong, then work out what needs to be in the folder before you pay the fee.
What the refusal figures actually say
Before the checklist, a little perspective. Panic is a poor planning tool and so is false comfort, and both are easy to pick up from forums.
Nine in ten partner applications are granted
In the year ending March 2026 the Home Office resolved 42,401 applications in the Family Partner category. It granted 39,169 and refused 3,232. That is a grant rate a fraction above 92 per cent.
Volume tells a second story. Partner grants fell by roughly 17 per cent year on year, from about 47,000 to just over 39,000, after the income threshold rose. Fewer people are applying rather than more people being turned away — a distinction that matters if you are trying to decide how worried to be.
Why the average tells you very little about your own file
That 92 per cent is an average across every kind of case. Long marriages with a joint mortgage and a salaried sponsor sit at one end. Two-year relationships conducted largely across a time zone, with a self-employed sponsor and a previous refusal in the history, sit at the other.
Your odds are set by your file, not by the national figure. An application with a simple salaried sponsor, a clean immigration record and a joint tenancy behaves nothing like an application built on variable pay and a shared life that has never involved a shared address.
The figure also hides which limb failed. Refusals are not spread evenly across the requirements. They pile up on finances and on relationship evidence, with accommodation, English and suitability making up a smaller but stubborn tail.
What a refusal costs beyond the fee
The application fee is not refunded. Since 8 April the entry clearance fee for a partner has been £2,064 and the in-country extension £1,407, and neither comes back if the answer is no. The health surcharge is refunded, which is the single piece of good news in the letter.
Then there is time. Standard processing runs to around twelve weeks from outside the UK and eight weeks from inside, counted from the biometrics appointment rather than from the day you submit the form. An appeal adds six to twelve months at current tribunal listing rates. A fresh application costs another full cycle and another fee.
And the refusal stays on the record. It must be declared in future applications, here and in most other countries, and a caseworker looking at your second attempt will read the first refusal before anything else in the file.
Where the money goes wrong
Financial evidence is the largest single source of partner visa refusals, and the reason is not the obvious one. Sponsors who earn less than the threshold usually know it and do not apply. The refusals land on sponsors who earn plenty and cannot prove it in the shape Appendix FM-SE demands.
The 28-day expiry that nobody mentions
Financial evidence has a shelf life. The most recently dated part of it must be dated no earlier than 28 days before the date of application. A tidy six-month run of payslips ending in March is worth nothing at all if you submit in May.
This one catches careful people rather than careless ones. They assemble the pack in good order, then wait — for a passport to come back, for a savings account to reach its six-month mark, for a free weekend. By the time they press submit the evidence has aged out of the window.
Work backwards instead. Fix your submission date first, count 28 days back from it, and make sure the newest payslip, the newest bank statement and the employer letter all sit inside that stretch.
Payslips and bank statements that disagree
The caseworker holds the two documents side by side. Every salary payment shown on a payslip should appear on the bank statement, on or about the date given, in the same amount.
Where they diverge, explain it before anyone asks. A bonus paid separately. A month where the employer paid two days early because of a bank holiday. A change of bank account halfway through the period. A season ticket loan coming off the net figure. Each has an innocent explanation and a short note in the covering letter costs you nothing at all.
Gaps are worse than discrepancies. Six statements with month four missing reads as concealment even when it was only a download that failed. Check the run page by page, and check the page numbers printed on the statements themselves rather than the ones you added afterwards.
The employer letter and what it has to contain
The employer letter is where a strong application quietly comes apart, because HR departments are practised at writing references and not at writing immigration evidence.
It has to confirm the employment, the job title, the gross annual salary, how long the person has been employed, how long they have been paid at the level being relied on, that the payslips are authentic, and the employer’s contact details. On headed paper. Signed and dated by somebody senior enough to answer for it.
Ask four weeks out, not four days. A first draft that leaves out the start date is entirely normal. A second draft takes a fortnight when the person who signs is on leave.
Savings and self-employment
Two traps sit here and both are unforgiving.
Savings must have been held for six unbroken months and must never once have dipped below the figure you are relying on. A single day at £87,900 when the application claims £88,500 breaks the calculation for the entire period.
And cash savings cannot be combined with self-employment or company-director income. The categories run on different clocks and the Rules do not allow them to be added together. Self-employed sponsors who fall slightly short and assume savings will bridge the gap tend to find this out from the refusal letter. The Migration Advisory Committee recommended removing the restriction. It has not been removed.
Where the relationship evidence goes wrong
The second cluster, and a different kind of problem. Here it is rarely that the caseworker thinks you are lying. It is that the file gives them nothing they can write down as a reason for saying yes.
What genuine and subsisting means in practice
Two words doing separate jobs. Genuine means the relationship was not formed mainly to obtain immigration permission. Subsisting means it is still running and that the two of you intend to live together permanently in the UK.
It is decided on the balance of probabilities by somebody who will never meet you, working entirely from documents. What they weigh is the shape of a shared life — money moving between you, an address history that makes sense, communication covering the stretches you spent apart, plans that exist on paper, and each partner’s knowledge of the other’s circumstances.
Volume is not the answer. Two hundred photographs from one holiday prove one holiday. A dozen spread across four years, with family, in different places, prove a relationship. The same logic governs messages. Nobody reads eight thousand pages of chat export. A representative sample across the whole span, dates visible, does the work and respects the reader.
The cohabitation rule that changed and the myth that outlived it
This one costs couples years of their lives, so it is worth being precise about.
Until 31 January 2024 an unmarried partner had to show the couple had been living together in a marriage-like relationship for two years. A statement of changes removed the words living together. Since then the definition asks whether the couple have been in a relationship similar to marriage or civil partnership for at least two years, and the Home Office updated its caseworker guidance a fortnight later to match.
Cohabitation remains the easiest way to prove such a relationship. It is no longer the only way. Couples kept apart by study, by a work posting, by tenancies that could not be broken, or by immigration status itself can now qualify on other evidence of a durable relationship.
A great many checklists still tell readers they need two years under one roof, and some of them were published this year. If that sentence has been the reason you have not applied, it is worth a second look with somebody who works from the current wording, and unmarried partner visa support is a sensible starting point where the history is untidy.
Previous marriages that were never properly closed
A surprising share of refusals turn on a divorce that was never finalised, a decree recognised in one country and not in another, or a religious dissolution with no civil counterpart behind it.
Both partners are in scope, not only the applicant. Where the sponsor’s earlier marriage ended abroad, the Home Office will want the document itself and, where the language is not English or Welsh, a certified translation of it.
Where an earlier relationship has broken down without being formally dissolved, the unmarried partner route may still be available. That turns on the facts and it needs careful handling rather than optimism.
Contradicting your own earlier applications
The Home Office keeps everything. A relationship start date given on a student dependant application four years ago that does not match the date on this form is precisely the sort of thing that converts a routine grant into a credibility question.
Before you fill in the form, go back through every UK application either of you has ever made and check the dates, the addresses and the account of how you met. Where an earlier answer was wrong, correct it openly now and say why. A candid correction is survivable. A discrepancy the caseworker finds first is a great deal harder to repair.
Accommodation, English and the documents people forget
This is the tail of the distribution. Smaller in number, entirely avoidable, and more frustrating than the rest, because none of it is expensive to get right and all of it is easy to get wrong in a hurry.
Adequate accommodation and the overcrowding test
The property has to be available now rather than prospectively. A tenancy you intend to sign once the visa is granted does not satisfy the requirement.
It must be occupied exclusively by you and your family, must not breach public health regulations, and must not be overcrowded under the Housing Act 1985. The counting is not intuitive. Every room usable for sleeping counts, which brings in living rooms and leaves out kitchens and bathrooms. A child under one is not counted at all. A child between one and ten counts as half a person.
If you will be living with relatives, you need a letter from the owner or tenant giving permission, proof that they hold the property, and something showing its size and layout. Landlords and family members both take longer than anyone expects. A property inspection report is money well spent where the house is already full.
English at the right level from the right provider
A1 in speaking and listening for a first partner application, A2 at the extension, B1 at settlement. From 26 March 2027 the settlement level rises to B2, which is worth knowing now if you are starting a five-year route.
The test must be a Secure English Language Test from an approved provider, taken at an approved centre. A certificate from a language school, an online test, or a provider since removed from the list will not be accepted, and the fee is gone with it.
Exemptions exist. Nationals of the listed majority English-speaking countries. Applicants with a degree taught in English. Applicants aged 65 or over, and applicants with a qualifying physical or mental condition. Where you are relying on a degree you will usually need confirmation from Ecctis that it matches a UK qualification and was taught in English.
Translations, TB certificates and the rest of the small print
Any document not in English or Welsh needs a certified translation. Certified means it carries the translator’s confirmation that the translation is accurate, their name, signature, credentials and contact details, and the date. An uncertified translation is treated as though the document had never been submitted at all.
Applicants resident in a listed country need a tuberculosis certificate from a Home Office approved clinic, valid on the date of submission. The list sits on gov.uk and it does change.
The rest is unglamorous and still decisive. A passport with a blank page. Biometrics attended. Every question on the form answered rather than left on a default. An application without biometrics is treated as invalid, and an invalid application is not technically a refusal but it costs you the same weeks and often the same fee.
Suitability, the ground that was rebuilt most recently
This section has moved more than any other in the past year, and it is where older guides do the most damage. If you read an article written before late 2025 it will point you at Part 9 of the Immigration Rules. Part 9 no longer exists.
What replaced the general grounds for refusal
On 14 October 2025 the Home Office laid a statement of changes deleting Part 9 and inserting a new section called Part Suitability. It took effect on 11 November 2025 and now acts as the single reference point for every suitability-based refusal and cancellation across almost all routes, numbered from SUI 1.1 onwards.
For family applications this was not a relabelling exercise. Appendix FM used to carry its own, gentler suitability provisions. From 11 November 2025 partner, parent, child and private life applicants are measured against the same framework as everybody else.
There were no transitional arrangements. Applications submitted before that date but decided after it fall under the new rules.
Convictions, and why old ones now weigh more
The sharpest change concerns criminal history. A custodial sentence of twelve months or more is now a mandatory refusal however long ago it was imposed. The flexibility Appendix FM used to allow around historic convictions has gone.
Any other conviction or out-of-court disposal, at any point in the past, can support a discretionary refusal. That reaches matters people simply forget — a caution, a fixed penalty that hardened into a conviction, an offence dealt with abroad decades ago.
Declare all of it, on both sides where the question asks about the sponsor as well. Where a conviction exists, the argument to be made is one of proportionality and Article 8, and it belongs in the application rather than in a response to the refusal.
Overstays, NHS debt and refusals you did not think counted
Three items recur often enough to be worth naming.
An overstay, even a short one, engages the previous-breach provisions and can trigger a re-entry ban running from twelve months to ten years depending on how the person left the country. The exceptions that used to sit at paragraph 39E now live inside Part Suitability. Calculate any overstay from the actual dates rather than from memory.
Unpaid NHS charges of £500 or more, once reported to the Home Office, support refusal. People who had treatment while visiting years ago are frequently unaware that a debt exists at all. It can be traced and settled in advance, and settling it before a caseworker opens the file is far better than explaining it afterwards.
And every previous visa refusal has to be declared, including refusals by other countries and including the ones that feel irrelevant. Failure to disclose is treated as deception rather than forgetfulness, and a deception finding brings a ten-year ban that reaches across every route.
Expert note from the LawSentis immigration team
When a couple brings us a refusal, the first thing we do is read the letter against the file rather than against their account of the relationship. Nine times out of ten the reason is already visible on the page. An employer letter that gave a salary the payslips could not support. A savings balance that dipped for three days in the middle of the six months. A relationship start date on this form that contradicts a form filled in five years ago. None of those couples were doing anything wrong, and every one of those refusals was findable in an hour before submission. The habit worth building is simple — assume the caseworker is looking for a reason to say no, and remove each one before they get the chance.
The pre-submission audit
If you take one thing from this checklist, take this. The decision is made from the file. Nobody is going to telephone you. There is an evidential flexibility provision at paragraph D of Appendix FM-SE, and it does allow a caseworker to ask for a document that is missing or supplied in the wrong format, but it is a discretion rather than a duty and it will not rescue a pack with a hole in the middle.
Four weeks out
Confirm which financial category you fall into and which threshold applies to you. Request the employer letter. Order any certified translations. Book the tuberculosis test if one is required. Check that the English certificate came from a provider still on the approved list.
Pull out every previous UK application either of you has made and read your own answers with fresh eyes.
Then decide your submission date and count 28 days back from it.
The week before you pay
Export the whole pack and lay it out in the order the Rules ask for it. Identity. Relationship. Finances. Accommodation. English. Suitability.
Number the pages. Write a one-page index. Write a short covering letter setting out which income category you are relying on, what the arithmetic comes to, and what each unusual document is there to prove. Caseworkers work under real time pressure, and a file that explains itself gets read properly.
Then check the four things that go wrong most often. Newest financial document inside the 28 days. Bank statements complete and in sequence. Employer letter agreeing with the payslips. Savings balance never once below the figure claimed.
Reading your own file the way a caseworker will
Hand the pack to somebody who does not know you and ask them what they cannot work out from it. Where did this couple live in the second half of last year. What does the sponsor earn. Who paid the rent. When did they last see each other in person.
If a stranger cannot answer those questions from the documents in front of them, neither can the caseworker, and the file needs a different document rather than another photograph.
This is also the point at which an outside review earns its cost, particularly where the sponsor is self-employed, where either of you has a refusal in the history, or where you are applying as unmarried partners without a shared address. Our spouse visa application support is built around this stage — the audit before submission rather than the rescue afterwards.
If the answer comes back no
Refusal letters are badly written and easy to misread. Read yours slowly, twice, and work out exactly which requirement failed before you do anything else at all. The remedy depends entirely on which one it was, and the wrong remedy wastes the only window you have.
Appeal, administrative review or a fresh application
A partner application under Appendix FM is treated as a human rights claim, so a refusal usually carries a statutory right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal rather than an internal administrative review. Administrative review belongs to the sponsored work and study routes. Your refusal letter will state which one applies to you.
An appeal goes before an independent judge and you may put in evidence that was never part of the original application. That is a considerable advantage where the refusal was about the strength of the relationship evidence. The fee is £80 for a decision on the papers and £140 for a hearing.
Reapplying is often quicker where the failure was mechanical — a document out of date, a statement missing, an employer letter that omitted the start date. A fresh application with the gap closed can be decided in weeks, where an appeal takes the better part of a year.
The deadlines that end the conversation
Fourteen calendar days if you were in the UK when the decision was made. Twenty-eight calendar days if you applied from outside it. Weekends and bank holidays count. The clock runs from the date on the decision notice and not from the day you opened the email.
Late appeals are possible and mostly unsuccessful. Tribunal figures suggest something in the region of one in seven is admitted.
If the deadline is close, lodge first and refine afterwards. An appeal can be developed once it is filed. It cannot be filed once the window has shut.
When a second attempt is the better move
Where the refusal alleges deception, treat it as urgent and take advice the same week. That finding carries consequences well beyond this one application.
Where the refusal turns on the relationship, a second application usually needs to look different rather than simply thicker. More of the same evidence produces the same answer. What changes outcomes is evidence of another kind — financial entanglement where there was only communication, an address history where there was only travel, statements from people outside the couple where there was only the couple’s own account. Our case study on a spouse visa granted after two refusals follows that pattern from the second refusal through to the grant.
FAQ:
- Question — Do we have to declare this refusal on visa applications to other countries, and will they see it anyway?
Answer — Yes, and assume they will find out regardless. Most application forms worldwide ask whether you have ever been refused a visa by any country, and the UK, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand share immigration data with one another under long-standing arrangements. A declared refusal with a one-line explanation is ordinary and rarely fatal. An undeclared one that surfaces later is treated as dishonesty, which is a far bigger problem than the original refusal ever was. Keep the refusal notice, note the exact date and reference, and answer the question the same way every time.
- Question — Can we submit a new application while an appeal against the refusal is still running?
Answer — You can, but think carefully first, because the two can interfere with each other. Where the applicant is outside the UK, a fresh application is generally the cleaner route and many people withdraw the appeal once a new decision is granted. Where the applicant is inside the UK, the position is more delicate — an in-country appeal may be preserving their permission to stay, and lodging a new application or leaving the country can be treated as abandoning it. Take advice before doing either, because this is one of the few places where an ordinary administrative step can quietly end your case.
- Question — Will the Home Office interview us, and can we ask for an interview if we think it would help?
Answer — Interviews are not routine on the partner route, and most couples are decided on the papers alone. They tend to appear where a caseworker has a specific doubt about the relationship, where a marriage was reported to the register office under the sham marriage referral scheme, or where the accounts given by the two partners appear to conflict. You cannot demand one. If you are invited, treat it seriously and prepare by reviewing the timeline in your own application rather than by rehearsing answers, because the questions are usually about everyday detail rather than dates and figures.
- Question — Do we get any money back if the application is refused?
Answer — Partly. The Immigration Health Surcharge is refunded automatically, normally within a few weeks, and on a partner application that is the larger of the two payments at around £3,105 for a first grant from overseas. The application fee itself is not refundable, nor is the biometric enrolment charge, nor any priority service you paid for. Budget on that basis. A refusal on a technical point that could have been caught by a pre-submission review costs more than the review would have done, which is the arithmetic most couples only run afterwards.
- Question — Our children were included in the application. What happens to them if the adult applicant is refused?
Answer — A child applying as a dependant of a partner applicant normally falls with the main application, because their eligibility rests on the parent being granted permission. Their position is not identical, though. Children have their own suitability and eligibility assessment, and since the start of August the child route under Appendix FM also carries a care requirement, meaning the application must evidence that the living and care arrangements in the UK are suitable and comply with UK law. Age matters too. A child approaching eighteen can lose access to the route entirely while an appeal is pending, so where a birthday is close the timing of any challenge needs deliberate thought rather than a default.