Settlement Visa For Wives Son (Uk)

[owl1971]

Hi ,

Myself and my finacee have recently got wed in the UK (Fiancee Visa), My wifes family and her 8 year old son attended the wedding , and now her son has decided he would like to live with us in the UK which is fantastic.My Wife is currently in the proceess of applying for FLR and has just been called for her biometric assesment.

Just a couple of questions re son's settlement

1) As my wife is in the UK will we have to travel to thailand to sort out the settlement visa .

2)On the UKBA website its states "if the child is already in the UK with temporary permission to stay, they can apply to settle here permanently using the SET(F) application form"-

What does it mean temporary permission to stay ?????

3) With regards to school , will this be free , bit confused as it states no Public Funds

4) As the Boy is 8 years old , he doe'nt speak much english , will this be catered for in the school, has anybody got experience of this situation

Many thanks

[kunash]

hi there.

can i ask does your wife have sole custody of her child? for example, if she was married before, was she given custody at the ampur when she divorced?

who is looking after the child now, when in thailand? how long have mother and child been apart? as well as sole custody your wife will need to show she has sole responsibility for the child. though even if she doesnt have this last bit, it is still possible to get a visa - you need to show contact, financial support, etc.

i think you will have to return to thailand to sort out his settlement visa ( but that depends on your answer to no. 2)

schools are free in the uk, as well as health care and doctors for people on sett. visas

i will be bringing my 2 step children to the uk in about 1 months time, 8 and 10. they speak no / little english, and at school they will soon pick up english. the teachers are very good here. depending on the borough a thai speaking teacher / assistant can help your step son at school for 1-2 hours a week. in my borough, they sadly cannot do this. you will have to ask the school. depends on money i guess. they have assistants who speak polish but dont worry they will soon learn. maybe an idea to find a school where there are 1 or 2 other thai children.

good luck

[owl1971]

Cheers for you reply

My wife has full responsibility /sole custody for her son (never married), and has got many letters/evidence from school, doctors ect and a witnessed and signed letter stating sole custody . my wife and family has brought her son up without help from her sons father as the father did a runner as soon as he was born and has never sent money or asked about his sons welfare ever.

We all ready have this evidence as it was needed for her sons recent visit to the UK..

I thought we may have to apply in Bangkok, but I am still confused about the following "if the child is already in the UK with temporary permission to stay they can apply in the UK.

How can you get temporary pemission to stay in the UK, the UKBA website is a minefield

[bangbuathongben]

Hi Owl,

Where as I am no expert, I have dealt with this before.

You will still get better advice from the guys on here than I could give, but I will say make sure your application is as packed with evidence as possible. We found this really hard, it took us 4 years, 3 applications and 3 appeal hearings to get a result. I don't want to put a negative spin on things but as soon as children are involved it turned into a nightmare, for me at least!

Hope you get the result you need!!

Bangbuathongben......

[ThaiVisaExpress]

The child is on a visitors visa I presume, then the child must return to Bangkok & apply for settlement.

Temporary permission to stay does not apply in the child's current immigration status.

Edited September 30, 2011 by ThaiVisaExpress

[7by7]

As TVE says,'temporary permission to stay' does not mean a visit visa; it means a visa which allows the holder to live in the UK for a set period, such as FLR. The child needs to return to Thailand and apply there.

The UKBA site can be confusing (see my posts in the 'Which Form' topic!). The pages in Settling in the UK are for those living in the UK with a visa or FLR who want to apply for ILR.

Information about the initial visa is in Partners and families.

You may find SET07 - Children useful.

Assuming he is successful, his visa will be timed to expire when his mother's does, so they can apply for ILR together.

He does not need an English test as he is not applying as a spouse partner or fiance, and he does not need a TB test as he is under 10.

Anyone who comes to the UK for a settled purpose is entitled to full NHS treatment.

Also, Local Education Authorities have a legal obligation to provide a free school place to any child under 16 (or is it 17?) living in their area, regardless of that child's immigration status. You should contact your local LEA as soon as possible to start arranging this.

My step-daughter was 9 and had no English when she and her mother moved to the UK with me. The local middle school and our LEA were excellent. She had individual English lessons and lots of help from the other teachers in their classes and her fellow pupils. But this was 11 years ago; money's tighter now! It also depends on where you live; I suspect that a LEA with a high immigrant population will be better able to provide for your son than one with few immigrants in their area.

[owl1971]

Thanks for your reply 7v7, My wives son is back in thailand now he only came for the wedding and a holiday (7 Weeks), I think we will be travelling back to bangkok in January to sort the visa stuff out, In the mean time I'll start putting the wheels in motion , by contacting the LEA and citzens Advice.

Cheers for your advice much appreciated.

[tigerjohn]

Thanks for your reply 7v7, My wives son is back in thailand now he only came for the wedding and a holiday (7 Weeks), I think we will be travelling back to bangkok in January to sort the visa stuff out, In the mean time I'll start putting the wheels in motion , by contacting the LEA and citzens Advice.

Cheers for your advice much appreciated.

i brought my 2 stepsons over in june owl, they spoke no english apart the odd word they had picked up from me in thailand, i am lucky where i live in catterick because the schools here have many ghurka children so there are special teachers for non english speaking children, my kids are 11 and 6 and like i said they came in june and had a few weeks in school before the summer hols and now they are back at school (1 primary 1 high) we cannot believe the difference in their english, i can have full conversations with them in english, and they have their own little english friends which is helping them enormously, so go for it mate bring him over he will love it, mine do, and contacting theLEA is a good idea although they will only tell you to ge back in touch when your son is definatly coming over i got a letter from them with both their names on just to say i had got the ball rolling really, but i put this letter in the visa apps, weather it helped or not who knows? but i did it anyway but our LEA gladly gave me one, good luck

[bobrussell]

I didn't find the visa situation for my (step) daughter anything other than straight forward. The key thing to show is sole responsibility. If the father (or mother if appropriate) has not played an active part in the child's upbringing then it is not going to be a problem. You would be expected to apply in Thailand except in exceptional circumstances.

It sounds as if you have plenty of evidence of this custody and responsibility. Some have had problems when the parent has lived in the UK, leaving the child with family. The longer the period of separation the more they will question this sole responsibility.

We made it clear that the father was not involved in upbringing (actually he died in a motorbike accident), the school confirmed that decisions were made by the mother and there really were no questions asked or difficulties put in the way. In our case the grandmother was in failing health so it would have been quite unreasonable for her to continue to look after a young child with the mother living abroad.

The Embassy were very fair in the way the visas were sorted (apart from the crazy time it took before they looked at the applications!). Give them the right information and there should be no problems!

The local school here in the UK were brilliant and did a massive amount of research when they knew our daughter was coming. There were signs in Thai all over the classroom! They even asked me which Thai dialect she spoke so they had obviously done their homework!

Don't panic, they pick up English very fast and our daughter actually won the schools personal achievement cup! Education is free and compulsory for all those aged between 5 and 16 years old. It does not count as 'Public Funds'.

Edited September 30, 2011 by bobrussell

[bobrussell]

I should have added, speak to the school directly and you will often get more sense out of them than the LEA. My sister in law now lives with us (with two children) and the LEA was useless whereas the local schools offices had it sorted out in minutes!

[7by7]

The key thing to show is sole custody.

Sole custody is important, but sole responsibility is more so. As you go on to describe.

Typo?

SET7.8 What is sole responsibility?

[bobrussell]

The key thing to show is sole custody.

Sole custody is important, but sole responsibility is more so. As you go on to describe.

Typo?

SET7.8 What is sole responsibility?

Typo sorry - quite right it is sole responsibility that counts. Typo caused by man-flu! Corrected!

Edited September 30, 2011 by bobrussell

[ThaiVisaExpress]

I didn't find the visa situation for my (step) daughter anything other than straight forward. The key thing to show is sole responsibility. If the father (or mother if appropriate) has not played an active part in the child's upbringing then it is not going to be a problem. You would be expected to apply in Thailand except in exceptional circumstances.

It sounds as if you have plenty of evidence of this custody and responsibility. Some have had problems when the parent has lived in the UK, leaving the child with family. The longer the period of separation the more they will question this sole responsibility.

We made it clear that the father was not involved in upbringing (actually he died in a motorbike accident), the school confirmed that decisions were made by the mother and there really were no questions asked or difficulties put in the way. In our case the grandmother was in failing health so it would have been quite unreasonable for her to continue to look after a young child with the mother living abroad.

The Embassy were very fair in the way the visas were sorted (apart from the crazy time it took before they looked at the applications!). Give them the right information and there should be no problems!

The local school here in the UK were brilliant and did a massive amount of research when they knew our daughter was coming. There were signs in Thai all over the classroom! They even asked me which Thai dialect she spoke so they had obviously done their homework!

Don't panic, they pick up English very fast and our daughter actually won the schools personal achievement cup! Education is free and compulsory for all those aged between 5 and 16 years old. It does not count as 'Public Funds'.

As the Father was deceased the Mother only needed to show his death certificate this would demonstrate she had sole custody.