Do bonuses, commission and overtime count for a UK spouse visa?

01 / Fix the legal starting point

Identify the threshold, whose earnings qualify and where that person works.

GOV.UK states that partners applying under the current minimum income requirement will usually need combined qualifying income of at least £29,000 a year. A person who first applied as a partner before 11 April 2024 and is extending with the same partner can remain within transitional arrangements based on the earlier threshold and, where relevant, child additions capped at £29,000. Adequate maintenance, exceptional circumstances and Armed Forces cases require different analysis.

For an entry-clearance application, the British or settled partner's qualifying overseas earnings may be relevant, together with a qualifying return to employment in the UK. The applicant's prospective UK job or current overseas salary does not ordinarily become countable merely because the couple will live together in the UK. An applicant already in the UK, aged at least 18 and working lawfully may be able to rely on their own employment income under the Rules.

Where both partners rely on employment income, the category must work coherently across both earnings. Current Home Office guidance says their employment incomes cannot be split between Category A and Category B. That coordination point can make a seemingly obvious combined-income case fail on its chosen evidence periods.

02 / Classify the remuneration

Basic salary, variable pay, allowances and expenses are not one figure.

Appendix FM-SE paragraph 18 distinguishes the components of employment pay. Contractual basic pay, skills-based allowances and UK location-based allowances can count, although qualifying allowances are capped where they exceed 30% of total salary. Overtime, travel-time payments, commission and bonuses can count when received in the period relied upon. Tips and gratuities paid through an HMRC-registered tronc can fall within the same variable-pay provision.

Reimbursements and support for travel, relocation, subsistence, accommodation or overseas living costs do not become income merely because they appear on a payslip. A car allowance, location allowance and repayment of mileage may therefore require 3 different answers. The employer letter should describe the legal and payroll character of each material item rather than repeat a single total-remuneration figure.

The first practical task is to reconcile the contract, remuneration policy, payslips and bank credits. Record the contractual base, each variable component, the work to which it relates, the gross amount, the payroll date and the net credit. If the records use different labels, explain the mapping instead of asking the decision maker to infer it.

03 / Category A

A salaried employee can add a 6-month annualised average of received variable pay.

Category A is available where the person is employed by the current employer for at least 6 months and has been paid throughout the relevant 6 months at the qualifying level of gross annual salary relied upon. The fixed-salary component is tested under paragraph 13(a). Paragraph 18(bb) then permits qualifying overtime, commission and bonuses received from the current employment in those 6 months to be averaged monthly and annualised.

The arithmetic is straightforward only after the legal inputs are correct. Add the gross qualifying variable payments received in the 6 months, divide by 6 and multiply by 12. Add that annualised figure to the qualifying annual salary. If £4,200 of qualifying commission was received, the annualised commission is £8,400. A qualifying fixed salary of £22,000 would produce a combined Category A figure of £30,400, subject to the evidence and other route requirements.

The example does not mean that £8,400 has already been earned in the year or will recur. It is the calculation prescribed for the application. Conversely, a P60 showing high annual earnings does not replace the specified 6-month exercise. A commission payment outside the 6-month window, or a bonus promised but unpaid at the application date, cannot be moved into the calculation by describing the employee's normal annual package.

A salary increase during the 6 months needs particular care. Paragraph 13(a) requires the person to have been paid throughout the period at the level of gross annual salary relied upon. The caseworker guidance illustrates the fixed-salary calculation by using the lower level where salary rose part way through the period. A couple should model the actual application date rather than assume that the latest salary can be projected backwards.

04 / Non-salaried employment

Hourly, shift and genuinely variable work is calculated as income, not a fixed salary plus extras.

Appendix FM-SE treats employment paid at an hourly or other variable rate, with hours or pay changing according to the work undertaken, as non-salaried employment. Under Category A, the gross employment income received from employment held throughout the 6-month period is averaged monthly and annualised. That figure already captures the variable nature of the work.

The distinction is not determined by whether every payslip has the same total. A salaried employee can receive variable overtime; a non-salaried employee can work stable hours. The contract, minimum fixed rate, required hours and payroll practice should be read together. Misclassifying the employment can produce the right-looking total through the wrong legal method.

Seasonality and unpaid leave also require attention. A quiet month, unpaid holiday or shift reduction inside the 6-month period will affect the mean average. Statutory or contractual maternity, paternity, adoption and sick pay, and specified unpaid leave, have their own provisions which may permit a different reference date or period. They should not be forced into an ordinary variable-pay calculation.

05 / Category B

A recent job or variable history produces 2 tests, not a relaxed evidence period.

Category B can be used where the person has been with the current employer for less than 6 months, or has been there longer but does not rely on Category A. The current position at the date of application must first meet the financial requirement through the permitted calculation and combinations. The person must then have actually received enough qualifying income in the 12 months before application to meet the separate second limb.

The 12-month limb is a backward-looking receipts test. It can capture earnings from earlier employment, but a contract stating that a large bonus will be paid later does not increase what was actually received during those 12 months. Equally, cash savings may be capable of assisting the current-income limb in an appropriate case, but paragraph 15 prevents savings from repairing the required 12-month historical income total.

Category B can be valuable after a change of employer, return from a career interval or material increase in pay. It can also be worse than waiting. Before choosing it, prepare a month-by-month gross schedule for the full 12 months, a separate current-employment calculation and an evidence list for every employment relied upon. The application should not use Category B merely because the recent payslips look stronger.

06 / Returning to the UK

A UK job offer cannot ordinarily turn future commission into present qualifying income.

A partner returning to the UK with the applicant may rely on qualifying overseas employment and a confirmed UK job starting within 3 months of return. The applicable Category A or Category B route depends on the overseas employment history and requires the relevant historical and prospective limbs to be met.

The general rule remains that future overtime, commission and bonuses do not count. Appendix FM-SE makes a narrow distinction for gross on-target earnings expected from satisfactory performance in the standard or core hours of a qualifying UK job offer. Those earnings may be included where the employer's letter or signed contract properly evidences them. A discretionary annual bonus, uncapped sales opportunity or hoped-for overtime is not converted into on-target earnings by optimistic drafting.

Returning sponsors should therefore test both sides of the case before relying on variable remuneration: what the overseas payroll record proves, and what the UK offer guarantees or defines within ordinary performance. Currency conversion, the start date, employer evidence and the couple's intended return should all be fixed before the application is submitted.

07 / Prove the receipt

Payslips, bank statements and the employer letter must tell the same story.

For UK employment outside the specified company-director regime, Appendix FM-SE ordinarily requires the relevant payslips, an employer letter and personal bank statements covering the corresponding period. The statements must show the salary paid into the person's own account or a joint account held with their partner. The most recent item in a period ending on the application date must satisfy the 28-day rule.

The employer letter must confirm the employment, gross annual salary, length of employment, period over which the relied-on salary has been paid and type of employment. Where variable pay is decisive, a careful letter should also identify the bonus, commission or overtime payments on the relied-on payslips and explain any different labels, pay periods or combined bank credits. A P60 and signed contract can support the account, but they do not replace the mandatory core evidence merely because they show a higher annual figure.

Reconciliation is essential where payroll and bank dates differ, a bonus is paid separately, commission is corrected later or net pay is split between accounts. The application should explain the difference with contemporaneous records. It should not silently substitute a spreadsheet for the specified documents or assume that the Home Office must request a missing item.

08 / Choose the date deliberately

The filing date can change the 6-month window, the category and the result.

Variable-pay cases should be calculated against the intended application date, not a vague future month. Moving the date can bring a bonus into the 6-month window, move an older commission payment out, complete 6 months with the current employer or change which 12 months apply under Category B. It also changes the document cut-off and 28-day freshness assessment.

That does not justify manufacturing timing or misdescribing pay. It means the couple should know which lawful facts the chosen date will place before the decision maker. If a decisive bonus will be received next week, filing before payment may be materially different from filing afterwards with a corresponding payslip and bank credit. If waiting creates a status, travel or family risk, the financial advantage must be considered against those consequences.

The final advice should produce one defensible route through the evidence: the applicable threshold, qualifying person or people, employment classification, category, received income, permitted combinations and complete specified documents. A total that clears £29,000 only after mixing incompatible methods is not a safe application strategy.

Practical questions.