Do dependants need their own bank account for the maintenance funds?

No, the funds can be held in the main applicant's account, a joint account, or the dependant's own account. What matters is that everyone applying is named on the account, or that the account holder is applying alongside the funds and consents in writing, and that the balance sits above the threshold for the full holding period before submission.

How much money do I need to bring a partner and two children to the UK on an Innovator Founder visa?

The exact figures change periodically, so verify the current amount on GOV.UK before you rely on any number in this article. As a structural rule, expect a base amount for the first dependant plus an additional fixed amount per further dependant, all held for a minimum continuous period immediately before you apply.

Does my Innovator Founder business funding count toward the dependant financial requirement?

No. The capital you have committed to the business, and any funds an endorsing body has assessed as adequate for your business plan, are a separate pool from the maintenance funds for dependants. Mixing the two, or assuming your business account satisfies both tests, is one of the most common refusal triggers.

What happens if my maintenance funds dip below the threshold for even one day during the holding period?

A dip below the required threshold on any day within the specified holding period breaks the continuity of the evidence, even if the balance recovers before you apply. Caseworkers check the lowest balance shown on the statements across the whole period, not the balance on the day you submit.

Can dependants apply after the main Innovator Founder Visa applicant has already moved to the UK?

Yes, dependants can apply to join later rather than at the same time. The financial requirement still applies at the point of their application, using bank statements dated immediately before that later application, not the original one.

The financial requirement for dependants on the Innovator Founder visa

Most founders preparing an Innovator Founder Visa application spend weeks getting the business case right — the innovation narrative, the viability numbers, the endorsing body's specific rubric. Then they add a partner and two children to the application as an afterthought, assuming the same financial story covers everyone. It does not.

The dependant financial requirement is a distinct test, run against a distinct pool of money, held for a distinct period, and it fails a meaningful share of otherwise-strong applications. This article sets out how the requirement is structured, what evidence caseworkers actually check, and the specific mistakes that trip founders up.

Key rules

Partners and children applying alongside or after an Innovator Founder Visa main applicant must independently satisfy a maintenance funds requirement, calculated as a base amount for the first dependant plus an additional amount per further dependant, held continuously for a minimum period immediately before application. This money is separate from the business capital assessed by your endorsing body and cannot be commingled with it in the caseworker's eyes. Funds must be held in an accessible account, in an accepted currency, and shown across the full holding period without dropping below the threshold on any single day. The current exact thresholds change periodically, so confirm the live figures on GOV.UK before submitting. Founders who treat this as a checkbox rather than a distinct compliance exercise are the ones who see refusals on financial grounds despite a strong business case.

Why this is a separate test from your business financial requirement

The Innovator Founder Visa's core financial assessment is about your business: whether your endorsing body considers your funding realistic against your plan, whether you can evidence the capital you say you are committing, and whether your model survives the 24-month runway scrutiny endorsers apply. None of that touches the dependant requirement.

The dependant financial requirement exists under the general Immigration Rules for family members of points-based system migrants, applied to Innovator Founder dependants specifically. It asks a simpler question: can this family support itself in the UK without recourse to public funds for a defined initial period, independent of how the business performs. Caseworkers assess it against a separate document set, and a business account statement is not accepted as evidence for it unless it also independently meets the dependant test's own conditions.

Founders who assume "we have plenty of money in the business" satisfies this requirement are conflating two different assessments that the Home Office deliberately keeps apart.

How the thresholds are structured

The dependant financial requirement is built as a base figure that covers the main applicant's partner, with a further fixed increment added for each additional dependent child. The exact pound figures are subject to periodic revision, and past increases have arrived with limited notice, so treat any specific number you see in older blog posts, including on this site's earlier articles, as potentially stale. Always confirm the live figures on GOV.UK's Appendix Innovator Founder guidance or the main Innovator Founder Visa page before you calculate what you need.

What does not change as often is the structural logic: the requirement scales with family size, it is calculated per dependant rather than as a flat household figure, and it is separate from (and additional to) any personal savings requirement that might apply to the main applicant, if one applies under your specific route.

The holding period is where most applications fail

The pound amount is not actually the hardest part of this requirement. The harder part is continuity: the funds have to sit above the required threshold for an unbroken period immediately before the application date, and caseworkers look at the lowest balance shown across every statement in that window, not the closing balance.

This catches out founders in a few predictable ways:

Moving money in just before applying. A large deposit that lands two weeks before the application, when the required holding period is longer, resets the clock and the funds are treated as not having been held for long enough.
A temporary dip from a large planned purchase. Paying a deposit on a UK rental, a school fee, or even business expenses from a personal account that also holds the dependant funds can drop the balance below the threshold for a single day, which is enough to break the evidence.
Currency conversion timing. If the funds are held in a currency other than pounds sterling, the conversion rate used matters, and a rate fluctuation near the threshold can turn a comfortable margin into a fail. Build in a buffer well above the minimum rather than calculating to the exact number.

Whose account the money needs to be in

The funds do not have to sit in the main applicant's sole account. They can be held in a joint account with the partner, in the dependant's own account, or in an account the main applicant and dependant both have access to, provided the account holder's relationship to the applicants is clear and, where the account is not in either applicant's name, there is a signed declaration from the account holder confirming the funds are available to the family.

What caseworkers will not accept is money that is only accessible on paper — funds held by a relative who has not signed a formal declaration, or funds tied up in an investment vehicle that cannot be liquidated within the specified notice period the rules require for the account type in question.

The funds shown do not appear to have been held for the specified period, as the balance fell below the required threshold on [date].

— Common caseworker note on refused dependant applications

This is close to a verbatim pattern seen in real refusal notices — the wording caseworkers use when the continuity test, not the pound amount, is what actually failed.

Evidencing the requirement correctly

Bank statements need to show the account holder's name, the account number, the date, and a running balance for every day of the required period — not just monthly snapshots that skip the days in between. Online-only statements are generally accepted if they carry the bank's official formatting and can be verified, but a screenshot of an app balance on a single day is not sufficient evidence of a sustained balance.

If the funds are being provided by a third party, such as a parent supporting an adult child's family, the third party needs to provide a letter confirming the gift or loan, their relationship to the applicant, and (where relevant) evidence of their own ability to provide those funds. Third-party support introduces an extra evidential layer that many founders underestimate when they plan their documents checklist.

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Applying for dependants at a different time than the main applicant

Dependants do not have to apply at the same time as the main Innovator Founder Visa applicant. A partner and children can join later, once the founder is established in the UK. When they do, the financial requirement is assessed against bank statements dated immediately before that later application — not the statements used for the original visa grant.

This matters for founders whose early-stage business cash position was tight at the point of their own application but has since stabilised: dependants applying later may find it easier to evidence the requirement than if everyone had applied together on day one. Conversely, if the business has drawn down the founder's personal savings in the interim, a delayed dependant application could be harder to fund than an earlier one would have been. Model both scenarios before deciding on timing, in the same way you would model different scale-up paths when comparing visa routes.

Interaction with English language and other dependant-specific rules

The financial requirement sits alongside, not instead of, other dependant conditions — a partner typically needs to meet a baseline English language requirement, and each dependant needs their own valid passport, a completed application form, and biometric enrolment, increasingly handled through the eVisa system rather than a physical Biometric Residence Permit. Treat the financial requirement as one line item on a longer dependant checklist, not the whole task.

Sources and further reading

Key takeaways

The dependant financial requirement is a separate test from your business funding assessment and cannot be satisfied with the same evidence.
Thresholds scale by family size: a base amount for a partner, plus a fixed increment per dependent child, subject to periodic change — verify current figures on GOV.UK.
Continuity matters more than the headline figure: funds must sit above the threshold for the entire holding period, checked at the lowest daily balance, not the closing balance.
Hold a 15 to 20 percent buffer above the calculated minimum to absorb currency movement and unexpected withdrawals.
Third-party funding requires a signed declaration and evidence of the third party's own ability to provide the money.
Dependants can apply later than the main applicant; the financial requirement is reassessed against statements current at the time of their own application.