My wife is currently in the UK on a visit visa with her twin daughters aged 14,she is returning to Thailand next month and will be applying for a settlement visa to return to the UK.My question is, is there any way she could bring her niece as well,whom she has brought up as her own child and would like to give her the chance of what could be a better life in the UK.Her niece is 11 years old could she come as a student?Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

The child can visit the UK on a family visit visa + various other options.

It is not as simple as a yes or no answer. For your wife to take her niece to the UK to live, there would have to be some very good reasons, including ( assuming that the childs's natural parent(s) are still alive ) showing that there has been a transfer of parental responsibility from the child's natural parent(s) to your wife, and an inability on the part of the natural parent to care for the child . That is not as easy as it sounds, and the immigration rules are designed to stop people taking children of friends or relatives to the UK just because it sems like a nice thing to do, or to give them a better life. If the niece has been adopted, either legally or de facto, then it could be easier. Paragraph 309A of the Immigration Rules, although fairly long, describes the criteria for taking a child who is not your own child to the UK. See here:

http://www.ukba.home...part8/children/

I have rather simplified the criteria, but I have tried to give a flavour of the difficulties involved.

Edited May 12, 201115 yr by VisasPlus