Financial Requirement for a UK Dependants Visa: What Nigerian Families Need to Prove
"Do we have enough money?" is one of the first practical questions Nigerian families ask when considering bringing dependants to the UK. The honest answer depends significantly on which visa route applies to you — the requirements for a Skilled Worker's dependants differ meaningfully from the Minimum Income Requirement on the family/partner route. Here's exactly what Nigerian families need to understand.
Two genuinely different systems, easily confused
It's important to understand which system actually applies to your family's situation, since the two are structured quite differently. If you're a Skilled Worker sponsoring dependants, a maintenance funds requirement applies. If you're on the family/partner route (a UK-settled or British citizen sponsor bringing a partner), the Minimum Income Requirement applies instead — a meaningfully different, generally more demanding test.
Maintenance funds for Skilled Worker dependants
If you're a Skilled Worker bringing your spouse and children, the maintenance funds requirement is commonly cited around £285 for your first dependant plus £315 for each additional dependant, held continuously for the required 28-day period before applying — though you should always confirm the current exact figures. This is a considerably lower bar than the family route's Minimum Income Requirement, reflecting that your own sponsored employment already demonstrates a degree of financial stability.
When your employer covers this for you
Some sponsoring employers certify maintenance on behalf of their sponsored worker and dependants, which can remove the need to separately evidence personal savings for this specific requirement. Confirm explicitly with your employer whether they're providing this certification — don't assume either way, since it materially changes what you personally need to prepare and evidence.
The Minimum Income Requirement on the family route
If you're instead on the family/partner route — where a UK-settled sponsor is bringing a partner from Nigeria, separate from any employer sponsorship — the Minimum Income Requirement applies, currently £29,000 gross annual income for the sponsoring partner (raised significantly from £18,600 in April 2024). This is a considerably higher, more demanding bar than the Skilled Worker maintenance funds requirement, and the evidence required to prove it is correspondingly more detailed.
How income can be evidenced
Depending on your specific route, income can typically be evidenced through employment (payslips and an employer letter), self-employment (tax returns, accountant's letters, and business accounts, calculated according to specific Home Office methodology), non-employment income (such as property rental income, subject to its own rules), or in some cases cash savings held above a certain threshold as an alternative or supplement to income.
Combining income sources
Some routes allow combining different income sources — a sponsor's employment income alongside savings, for instance — under specific, defined combination rules. This can be genuinely useful for families whose finances don't fit neatly into a single, simple category, but the specific combination rules need to be followed precisely rather than approximated.
The 28-day rule applies here too
Where savings are being used as evidence (rather than, or alongside, income), the same 28-day continuous holding rule discussed elsewhere on this site generally applies — the required amount needs to sit in the account for 28 consecutive days without dipping below the threshold, with the qualifying period ending no more than 31 days before you apply.
Common mistakes worth avoiding
The most frequent, avoidable errors: applying the wrong financial requirement to your situation (confusing the Skilled Worker maintenance rules with the family route's Minimum Income Requirement, or vice versa), miscalculating self-employment income using an incorrect methodology, and letting evidence go stale by gathering it too far ahead of actually submitting the application.
Check your family's specific position
Use our Dependants Visa Cost & Eligibility Calculator to check which financial requirement actually applies to your family's specific route, and whether your current finances meet it.
Getting your calculation checked before you rely on it
Given how technical and unforgiving these financial calculations can be, particularly for self-employment income, it's genuinely worth having your specific calculation reviewed by someone experienced with the exact requirement before you finalise your application — a regulated adviser, or in some cases a knowledgeable accountant familiar with immigration-specific income calculations. A small investment in getting this checked properly can prevent a much larger cost: a refusal, wasted fees, and months of delay.
Why "we clearly have enough money" isn't the same as meeting the requirement
A genuinely common source of frustration for families is discovering that having sufficient actual wealth or income, by any reasonable everyday measure, doesn't automatically translate into meeting the specific, technical financial requirement — the format, timing, and type of evidence matter just as much as the underlying financial reality. Approaching this requirement as a distinct, technical exercise in evidence-gathering, separate from your family's genuine financial confidence, helps avoid the frustration of assuming eligibility that hasn't actually been properly demonstrated on paper.
Treating this as a solvable administrative task, not a judgement
If your first attempt at gathering financial evidence reveals a gap or a problem, try not to interpret this as a reflection of your family's genuine financial standing — it's simply a mismatch between the evidence you currently have and the specific format required, which is almost always fixable with the right adjustments, additional documentation, or a short period of proper preparation. Very few families are genuinely, permanently unable to meet the requirement at all; most simply need to present their own genuine financial reality in the correct, specific, technical way that's actually required of them.
Starting your financial preparation well before you need it
Because of the 28-day continuous holding requirement and the general complexity involved, start organising your financial evidence well ahead of your planned application date — not scrambling together documents in the final weeks. Giving yourself several months of lead time allows you to spot and fix any gaps or inconsistencies calmly, long before they become a genuine problem under application deadline pressure.
Understanding why the system is structured to be this precise
It can feel frustrating that a family's genuine financial stability isn't simply taken at face value, but instead needs to be demonstrated through such specific, technical evidence. This precision exists because the system needs a consistent, objective, verifiable standard applicable across a huge volume of applications from wildly different financial circumstances — a strict, well-defined evidential standard, however demanding it feels in your own individual case, is what allows the system to be applied fairly and consistently at scale.
Building genuine financial resilience beyond just meeting the minimum
Beyond simply clearing whichever specific threshold applies to your route, it's worth building genuine financial resilience into your family's UK move more broadly — a buffer beyond the bare minimum required, an understanding of the realistic cost of living in your specific UK location, and a honest financial plan for the months immediately after arrival. Meeting the visa requirement is necessary, but it's not the same as being genuinely financially prepared for your family's actual move and new life together.
Frequently asked questions
Which requirement is generally easier to meet, the Skilled Worker maintenance funds or the family route's Minimum Income Requirement?
The Skilled Worker maintenance funds requirement is generally a lower financial bar, though eligibility for that route depends on holding a Skilled Worker visa in the first place.
Can savings held in a Nigerian bank account be used for either requirement?
Generally yes, provided the account and statements meet the required evidential format and standards for your specific route.
Does the Minimum Income Requirement apply per dependant, or as a single household figure?
It's generally a single household threshold for most family sizes under current rules, rather than scaling per additional dependant — check current guidance for your specific family composition.
What happens if our finances fall just short of the required threshold?
This is worth addressing with professional advice before applying — a shortfall, even a modest one, is a significant issue that's better resolved beforehand than discovered through a refusal.