What Is Sole Parental Responsibility In UK Immigration

• Published date: 13 June 2022
• Subject Matter: Immigration, Family and Matrimonial, Family Law, General Immigration, Work Visas
• Law Firm: Thaxted Legal
• Author: Mrs Kasia Janucik

'Sole responsibility' is a legal term used in UK immigration law when there is a child's visa application and only one parent is applying for a UK visa (or has an Indefinite Leave to Remain/is Settled) and the other parent is still alive but remaining outside the UK. In family visa applications this usually occurs when the parents relationship broke down permanently and one parent wants to bring the child to the UK when the other parent remains overseas. For example, when the parent is on a spouse visa with a new partner or when the parent has an indefinite leave to remain and wants to bring their child to the UK by applying for child's indefinite leave to enter.

According to the Home Office guidance, sole parental responsibility for the purpose of the Immigration Rules, means that 'one parent has abdicated or abandoned parental responsibility, and the remaining parent is exercising sole control in setting and providing the day-to-day direction for the child's welfare'. This is a harsh and frequently unrealistic requirement to meet. In real life it is rare that only one parent takes complete control over all key decisions in a child's life.

This blog is focused on the sole responsibility in 'family visa applications'. We previously posted a blog on the sole responsibility under the work visa routes here. When you read this previous blog relating to work visa routes, you will see that there have been some recent positive changes in how the Home Office interprets sole responsibility under those routes. However, these recent changes do not apply to the family visa routes and we focus on what is sole responsibility under the family visa scenarios.

In summary, the UK immigration law on sole responsibility is not in line with how the sole responsibility is interpreted under the family law, and it may frequently be the case that you may be considered as having sole responsibility under family law but not under the UK immigration law when your child is applying for UK visa. The key starting point in understanding the sole responsibility in UK immigration law, is to know that the definition is specific to immigration law and should not be mixed up with family law.

HOW TO ASSESS SOLE RESPONSIBILITY

To start with, assessment of sole responsibility is a complex legal matter and requires excellent knowledge of the Home Office rules, guidance and also the caselaw on the topic. We present some of the relevant court cases on the topic of sole responsibility to illustrate...