Adult Dependent Relative visa

This is the route for bringing an elderly or disabled parent — or, less often, a grandparent, adult sibling or adult child — to live with family in the UK because they need long-term care. It is also the strictest family route in the system. The test is not whether the relative would be better off in the UK, nor whether the family wants to care for them, but whether the care they need cannot be provided where they live. Understanding that distinction before applying saves a great deal of money and disappointment.

The test

Three things must be shown together.

The need. The relative must, because of age, illness or disability, require long-term personal care to perform everyday tasks — washing, dressing, cooking, taking medication. The need is assessed on medical evidence: a report from a doctor or other health professional setting out the condition, its prognosis and the care required.

The care is not available where they live, even with your help. This is usually the most demanding part of the evidence. The rules look at whether the required care can be obtained in the applicant’s country at all, and if it can, whether it is affordable — taking into account that the sponsor could pay for it from the UK. Care being of lower quality, or the relative preferring family care, does not meet the test. Evidence usually needs to come from an independent source about the availability and cost of care in that country.

You can support them. The sponsor must show they can maintain, accommodate and care for the relative in the UK without recourse to public funds, for as long as the relative lives here. That includes the cost of the care itself.

Where the relative is your parent or grandparent and has a partner, the partner must apply at the same time as an adult dependent relative too.

Who can sponsor

The person in the UK must be a British or Irish citizen, settled (ILR, settled status or equivalent), a pre-settled status holder in the categories the rules allow, or hold refugee status or humanitarian protection. Someone on a temporary visa — Skilled Worker, Student, a partner visa short of ILR — cannot sponsor on this route. Their parents would need to qualify on some other basis, and for most there is none beyond visiting.

Applying

The application is made from outside the UK. The fee is £3,635 for most applicants, with a lower fee where the sponsor has refugee status or humanitarian protection. Because a successful application by a relative of a British or settled sponsor is granted as settlement, no health surcharge is charged in that case. English and the Life in the UK test are not required at the application stage.

The requirements are demanding and the evidence is specialised. This is a route where advice from an IAA-regulated adviser or a solicitor before applying is often worthwhile.

What is granted

If the sponsor is British or settled: indefinite leave to enter. The relative arrives as a settled person and can later apply for citizenship on the normal terms. If the sponsor has refugee status or humanitarian protection: permission in line with the sponsor’s, with settlement following the sponsor’s.

Common problems

Applying because the family wants to be together. That is not the test. The rules look at the availability of care in the home country, not at the family’s wishes.

Medical evidence that describes the condition but not the care. The report must set out what personal care is needed day to day, not only the diagnosis.

No evidence about care in the home country. An application that says nothing about what care exists locally and what it costs is likely to be refused on that point alone.

Sponsor on a temporary visa. Only the sponsor categories the rules allow can use the route.

Treating a visitor visa as a workaround. A parent who comes on a visitor visa cannot switch to this route from inside the UK, and repeated long visits can lead to refusal of further visitor visas.