Coronavirus and the UK immigration system (as of 16 October 2020)

Spouses and minimum income

Another group of people under particular pressure during the crisis is families where one partner is on, or about to apply for, a spouse visa. Loss of earnings as a result of the coronavirus-induced economic crash may mean that the family fall foul of the financial requirements.

Until 8 June there was no published concession for people in this situation. There is now a section of the guidance on Changes to the minimum income and adequate maintenance requirement. It says:

If you’ve experienced a loss of income due to coronavirus up to 1 January 2021, we will consider employment income for the period immediately before the loss of income, provided the minimum income requirement was met for at least 6 months immediately before the date the income was lost.

If your salary has reduced because you’re furloughed, we will take account of your income as though you’re earning 100% of your salary.

If you’re self-employed, a loss of annual income due to coronavirus between 1 March 2020 and 1 January 2021 will usually be disregarded, along with the impact on employment income from the same period for future applications.

This concession initially applied only for loss of income up to 31 August, but was extended to 1 January 2021 on 16 October.

Students

The Home Office released a separate guidance document about coronavirus and student visas on 20 April. It covers a number of temporary immigration concessions for those on student and short-term student visas which “will be withdrawn once the situation returns to normal”.

The section of the document aimed at individual students covers:

• Distance learning: now permitted. This is both for existing students and, since a 16 June update, for new students “provided they intend to transition to face-to-face learning as soon as circumstances allow”. Students who do not intend to travel to the UK and will do the course entirely from abroad “do not require sponsorship”.
• Extending an existing visa: students who need to complete a course delayed by coronavirus can apply in-country for an extension to complete the course. If looking to extend to start a new course, officials will exercise discretion to overlook the normal requirement that the new course should begin no more than 28 days after the student’s permission expires, so long as the new course starts before 31 December 2020.
• Police registration: students normally required to do this need to check if their particular police force is facilitating it. If not, they can register “once social distancing measures are lifted”.
• Working hours: students working for the NHS in various listed professions are exempt from the normal 20 hour a week cap.
• Time limits: “discretion may be applied” if someone applies for an extension that would take them over the normal maximum period allowed for undergraduate or below degree-level study.
• Graduate route: still “scheduled to be launched in summer 2021″. Students who begin their course through distance learning can still switch into it so long as they ” enter the UK before 6 April 2021 and complete the final semester of their studies in the UK”.

For short-term students, in-country switching onto a full student visa was “allowed on an exceptional basis” until 1 October, provided the person arrived in the UK before 31 July. That has now been dropped from the latest version of the guidance, published on 5 October.