Uk Settlement Visa For Wifes Children

[lonnie41]

My daughter in law has I.L.R in uk,and she now wants to bring her children to join her.The childrens father has given consent and says he has not supported children etc.

I think the application has to be done on line,which can be done from uk,What I am unsure of is the sponsorship ,obviously my son is the main earner ,owning the house they live in ,but his wife has not really got any savings as such.They have lots of evidence of money transfers to support the children.

Does she make the application and state what money she has ,and also provide her husbands income and savings.

Hope this makes sense!,and someone can help

[7by7]

The initial application can be made online, but the children will need to attend the UK visa application centre in Bangkok to hand in their supporting evidence and have their biometrics taken.

How old are they? Obviously if they are too young to go alone then who ever is currently caring for them can go with them.

See UK Visa Application Centre for all the details.

Your daughter in law and son will need to be joint sponsors of the applications, and show that they have sufficient funds to support them and adequate accommodation for them.

See Maintenance and accommodation.

Does she have sole custody? It's not essential, but helps.

What is essential is that she shows that she has been exercising sole responsibility for the children, not will be in the future but is now and has been for some time.

SET7.8 What is sole responsibility?

A sponsoring parent (see SET7.2) must be able to show that he/she has been solely responsible for exercising parental care over the child for a substantial period.

If the sponsoring parent and child are separated, the child will normally be

expected to have been in the care of the sponsoring parent's relatives rather than the relatives of the other parent. An application should normally be refused if the child has been in the care of the other parent's relatives and the other parent lives nearby and takes an active interest in the child's welfare.

The following factors should be considered in assessing sole responsibility:

Are the parents married / in a civil partnership?

If the parents' marriage / civil partnership is dissolved, which parent was awarded legal custody, which includes assumption of responsibility for the child?

Where there is a custody order the ECO should take care to ensure that the issue of a settlement entry clearance to the child will not contravene the terms of the custody order. Annex 1 contains a list of those countries whose custody orders can be recognised as valid in UK.

Does the marriage / civil partnership subsist, but the parents do not live together?

If the sponsoring parent migrated to the UK, how long has the sponsoring parent been separated from the child?

If the sponsoring parent migrated to the UK, what were the arrangements for the care of the child before and after the sponsoring parent migrated?

If the sponsoring parent migrated to the UK, what has been/what is the sponsoring parent's relationship with the child?

Has the sponsoring parent consistently supported the child, either by:

direct personal care ; or by regular and substantial financial remittances?

By whom, and in what proportions, is the cost of the child's maintenance borne?

Who takes the important decisions about the child's upbringing, for example where the child lives, the choice of school, religious practice etc?

See SET07 - Children

[ThaiVisaExpress]

They must apply at UK/VAC in Bangkok see link :

UK/VAC

If you require professional help our office can deal with this application.

[chewy22]

They must apply at UK/VAC in Bangkok see link :

UK/VAC

If you require professional help our office can deal with this application.

My wife does not yet have ILR but will take the life in the UK test sometime soon. If I understand correct she can apply for ILR on or about the 2^nd anniversary of her settlement visa about August 2011. We would like to know if it a sensible option to apply for visas for her two children to join us permanently before she has indefinite leave to remain.

Is this option available to us?

We are at the moment looking for a bigger house to buy to accommodate everybody. I will put my house on the market next week.

[7by7]

To meet the residential qualification for ILR as a spouse the applicant must have been resident in the UK for a minimum of 24 months. So the date your wife can apply is not the second anniversary of the visa being issued, but the second anniversary of her arrival in the UK. (That's if she came as a spouse; if she came as a fiance then it is the second anniversary of her FLR after your marriage.)

She can apply up to 28 days before this date and any time after it, provided her current leave to remain (visa) is still valid.

You can apply for her children to join you at any time. If successful their LTR will be the same as their mothers.

If she does not have ILR they will be given visas which expire when hers does. They then apply for ILR at the same time and on the same form, paying an additional fee (currently £129) per child.

If you apply once your wife has ILR then they will be given Indefinite Leave to Enter; which is the same as ILR except it is granted to qualifying persons outside the UK, whereas ILR is granted inside the UK. Of course, to do this you would need to wait until your wife has ILR. She cannot apply until August 2011 and ILR applications can take up to 6 months to process; so doing this means it could be February 2012 before you could apply for them!

Better, I think, to apply as soon as you have the acommodation sorted and then when the time comes add them to their mother's ILR application; but the decision is for you and your wife to make.

[chewy22]

Thank you very much 7by7 that puts my mind at rest. My first option is to have the new house ready then apply for the children's visas.

I know this is slightly off topic but just need to be clear how many days during my wife’s settlement visa two yeas is she allowed to holiday outside the UK. We were to understand it is 90 days a year. We just need to use some of the time in Thailand to get things ready and don’t wish to use to many of the allowance.

Edited May 11, 2010 by chewy22

[7by7]

There is no limit on the amount of time allowed out of the UK whilst qualifying for ILR. However, when she applies she will need to show that the UK is her main residence; difficult to do if she's spent more time in Thailand than the UK !

Seriously, reasonable trips out the UK are perfectly ok. If, for some reason, she does need to spend a long time away, then an explanation of why included with the application should cover it.

The 90 days a year comes from the residential requirements for naturalisation. As the spouse of a British citizen she can apply for naturalisation as British once she has ILR and has lived in the UK for at least three years. (Three years from first arriving; not three years from receiving ILR.) However, she must have been physically present in the UK on the exact date three years prior to applying and during the three years she must have spent no more than 270 days out of the UK with no more than 90 days in the final year.