At Connaughts, we are dedicated to going above and beyond for every client that instructs us. It is a strong ethos of our firm to provide a solution to every client and not simply think in the box or in the present case to confine our thinking only to what is in the Immigration Rules. If we come across matters or cases that the present rules don’t cater to completely then we take pride in alerting the Home Office to such novel matters and where required to them further to the appellate courts.
This year we have been granted permission by the Court of Appeal – the second-highest court in the land – to argue one such case. The hearing is set for later this year and if successful is sure to result in a change of the Immigration Rules.
When speaking about human rights and family visas, one category which is probably the most sensitive and closest to the heart is that of parents. The Home Office has a specific category known for parents wishing to come to the U.K. to stay permanently with their settled children in the U.K. This is known as Adult Dependant Relative category. This is a controversial category and has been subjected to litigation and challenged for being unlawful due to having such a strict qualifying criterion that it’s nearly impossible to satisfy. That is however not directly the subject of this post.
Our case has to do with a settled and established individual who lives and works in the U.K. along with his siblings. His mother came to the U.K. to visit him and due to change in circumstances whilst here, which were both to do with her health deteriorating and difficulties back home, she decided to make an application from inside the U.K. She had comprehensive health insurance cover and her family in the U.K were providing for her on all fronts from finances to accommodation. There was and is, therefore, no argument that she would be a burden on the state in any shape or form. This was simply a family wanting to be together and the children wanting to look after their elderly mother.
The Home Office refused the application stating that Adult Dependant Relative applications can only be made from abroad and hence although a strong analogy to that had been submitted by the representatives they were not prepared to look at the case through that monocle.
Permission from the Court of Appeal has now been granted, allowing the case to be heard with the Lord Justice explicitly noting that the Immigration Rules need to cater for parents who are already in the country living with their settled children.
We are quite confident that this matter will be successful and there may be a huge change in the immigration rules/policy guidance on this point. The hearing is scheduled to be heard in October and we look forward to the future of adult dependant cases!
Meanwhile, if you have made an application for your parent either from the U.K. or abroad on the ADR route and not been successful then please get in touch so we may discuss how this case may impact you.
Disclaimer:
The information in this blog is for general information purposes only and does not purport to be comprehensive or to provide legal advice. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the information and law is current as of the date of publication it should be stressed that, due to the passage of time, this does not necessarily reflect the present legal position. Connaught Law and authors accept no responsibility for loss which may arise from accessing or reliance on information contained in this blog. For formal advice on the current law please don’t hesitate to contact Connaught Law. Legal advice is only provided pursuant to a written agreement, identified as such, and signed by the client and by or on behalf of Connaught Law.
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