If you are a parent already in the UK or applying to enter the UK, you can apply for your child to either accompany you or join you in the UK. A child for the purpose of UK Immigration Law is considered to be under the 18 years of age.
Where both the parents are in the UK or are coming to the UK at the same time with the child the sole responsibility is not need to be established.
Sole Responsibility only comes in play when you are a single parent and the other parent is not coming to the UK, in such cases the sole responsibility becomes very important for the application of the child.
The word 'sole responsibility is a legal term used in UK immigration law. This means that if you are – on day to day responsible for the child upbringing, for example, you are the one who made the decision to which school the child attend, what religion the child will follow, etcectra.
The test for establishing Sole responsibility is provided by the case of TD (Paragraph 297(i)(e): “sole responsibility”) Yemen [2006] UKAIT 00049 –
The test is, not whether anyone else has day-to-day responsibility, but whether the parent has continuing control and direction of the child’s upbringing including making all the important decisions in the child’s life – if not, responsibility is shared and so not “sole”.
You must show that you have had exclusive parental control of your child for a substantial period either because your marriage/civil partnership broke permanently or your spouse/partner left your child and went into any other country for work or other purposes.
You or your relative (not your partner's relative) must take the day-to-day care of your child and control the direction in respect of the significant decisions about the child's upbringing until the child is 18.
The UK Home Office looks whether you have responsibility of making decisions in connection with the child’s upbringing This may include the following:
The burden of proof is on you to establish that you have sole responsibility and this can only be discharged with the evidence. For more information about UK Sole Representative Visa, check our website.
If you are looking for representations on any of the above routes you can get a free assessment from one of our lawyers at Visa and Migration Ltd. You can call 02034111261 or email info@visaandmigration.com
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