Dependants: Sole Responsibility? Or Sole Custody?

[gimdog]

Hi,

Up until August of last year I had been living and working in the land of smiles but unfortunately due to the company I was working for going into liquidation I found myself out of work. At this point my wife (thai) and I (UK) decided to move to the UK with the children (of a previous relationship).

As we set about getting everything sorted for the visas and in realising as per the ukvisas website we had to prove 'sole responsibility' of the children,

(they had been my wifes sole responsibility since birth when the father walked out on them and mine since I met my wife)

we thought what better way of proving our case than getting the birth father to also give a wittnessed statement, To say that he was happy for the children to travel and settle in the UK and that they were my wifes and my own responsibility. The childrens birth father did this (about the first benificial thing he'd ever done for the children) and it was wittnessed by a Thai government worker from the district office

When in Bangkok we thought we would just check in at the British embassy to check to see if there was anything we had missed. When shown the statement from the father and given a list of other evidencce regarding the childrens visa applications(photos, admission tickets etc.) we were told that it wouldn't be sufficient and that we would need to obtain 'SOLE CUSTODY' of the children.

In our position at the time we could sadly not afford to stay in Thailand for what was likely to be a lengthy process in obtaining sole custody. My wife (settlement visa granted) and me returned to the UK after making provisions for the children.

The stress of being apart from the children is too much and we are now returning to thailand to apply for sole custody in order to obtain settlement visas for the children.

Anyone had any similar demands for dependants from the British Embassy?

Or did the embassy feed us a load of B.S?

IDEAS PLEASE

[the scouser]

The concept of sole responsibility contains a lot more than the simple notion of sole custody, although the latter does help to demonstrate the former. Sole responsibility constitutes providing the direction in a child's life; e.g. the parent provides for the child, maintains regular contact, and if cared for by a third party, provides that person with instructions on how the child should be raised.

To be honest, it probably would have been easier to meet the sole responsibility criterion when you were all living together in Thailand. As it now stands, you will have to show that your wife is providing the direction in her children's lives from afar, although this, in itself, is not insurmountable. However, the concept is very complicated and attaining it will largely depend upon the individual circumstances.

If you wish to see how the courts interpret sole responsibility, the following link might be of use:-

http://www.ait.gov.uk/Public/Upload/j1907/...06_td_yemen.doc

Scouse.