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The Impact of Partners on Adult Dependent Relative Visa Eligibility

Published on December 22, 2024

By Kiara van Hout – Legal Associate

20 Dec 2024

1. Adult Dependent Relative Visa: Key Requirements Explained
2. Scenario #1: Your Grandmother Requires Care But Your Grandfather Does Not
3. Dependency Requirements Under ADR 5.2
4. Meeting the ADR Visa Requirements: What This Means for the Family
5. Scenario #2: Only One of Your Parents Wishes to Move to the UK Permanently
6. Scenario #3: Your Parents Are Separated But Legally Married
7. What Constitutes a ‘Subsisting Relationship’?
8. Scenario #4: Your Grandfather’s Spouse Is Not Related to the Sponsor
9. Unique Challenges in Adult Dependent Relative Visa Applications
10. Contact Our Immigration Barristers
11. Frequently Asked Questions
12. Glossary

1. Adult Dependent Relative Visa: Key Partner Requirements Explained

At Richmond Chambers, we commonly receive enquiries from clients seeking to bring an elderly, unwell or disabled relative to the UK via the Adult Dependent Relative Visa route. Our clients often need to know how their relative’s partner might affect an application’s prospects of success, or whether their relative’s partner will be able to migrate to the UK too. The Adult Dependent Relative Visa route presents both possibilities and pitfalls for clients in these scenarios.

Those interested in a broader overview of Adult Dependent Relative Visas may benefit from consulting the relevant section of our website on the subject. In simple terms, the Adult Dependent Relative Visa is available where:

You (the sponsor) are British, settled in the UK, have limited leave to remain in the UK under Appendix EU or have refugee leave or humanitarian protection status;
The applicant is an adult and is your parent, grandparent, sibling or adult child;
As a result of age, illness or disability, the applicant requires long-term personal care (that is, help performing everyday tasks such as washing, dressing and cooking);
The applicant is unable to obtain the required level of care in the country where they are living, even with financial help from their family in the UK, either because:
- it is not available and there is no person in that country who can reasonably provide it; or
- it is not affordable;
The applicant will be adequately maintained, accommodated and cared for in the UK by your family member, without recourse to public funds;
The applicant can provide a tuberculosis test pass certificate (if required).

Here we will explore the issue of partners on the Adult Dependent Relative Visa route. Of particular interest for the purposes of this article is the partner requirement set out in Appendix Adult Dependent Relative (‘ADR’) of the Immigration Rules. Paragraph ADR 5.3A.1 of Appendix ADR states:

“If the applicant is the sponsor’s parent or grandparent they must not be in a subsisting relationship with a partner, unless that partner is applying for entry clearance or permission to stay as an Adult Dependent Relative at the same time.”

Below, we examine four hypothetical scenarios based on commonplace family situations, and consider whether the requirements of Appendix ADR are likely to be met in each scenario. But, as every application is unique, we recommend seeking legal advice from a specialist in immigration law to work out exactly how the law will apply in your family’s circumstances.

2. Scenario #1: Your Grandmother Requires Care But Your Grandfather Does Not

You live in the UK. Your grandparents both live abroad. Your grandmother is elderly and unwell, and she requires help to perform everyday tasks like washing, dressing and cooking. Your grandfather is also elderly, but he is less frail than your grandmother and in good health for a person his age. He doesn’t require any day-to-day assistance or care. You want both of your grandparents to come and live with you in the UK.

Appendix ADR of the Immigration Rules sets out a dependency requirement at paragraph ADR 5.1, which states:

“The applicant, or if the applicant is applying as a parent or grandparent, the applicant’s partner, must as a result of age, illness or disability require long term personal care to perform everyday tasks.”

Put simply, a person has long term personal care needs for the purposes of Appendix ADR when their physical or mental condition means that they cannot perform everyday tasks for themselves. This includes daily tasks such as washing, dressing and cooking. An applicant can prove that they have long term personal care needs by providing medical evidence about their condition, such as medical reports from the applicant’s treating physicians or other medical experts.

With regard to an applicant and their partner, the Home Office guidance on Appendix ADR elaborates:

“Where a couple, who are both the parents or grandparents of the sponsor, are applying as Adult Dependent Relatives, only one of them must require long term personal care.”

This is seemingly good news for this family, in which one grandparent (the grandmother) has long term personal care needs and the other grandparent does not have any care needs. The guidance expressly states that only one or the other grandparent needs to satisfy the dependency requirement of requiring long term personal care to perform everyday tasks, as a result of their age, illness or disability.

3. Dependency Requirements Under ADR 5.2

However, that is not the end of the matter. Appendix ADR of the Immigration Rules sets out a further dependency requirement at paragraph ADR 5.2, which states:

“ADR 5.2. Where the application is for entry clearance, the applicant, or if the applicant is applying as a parent or grandparent, the applicant’s partner, must be unable to obtain the required level of care in the country where they are living, even with the financial help of the sponsor because either:

(a) the care is not available and there is no person in that country who can reasonably provide it: or

(b) the care is not affordable.”

The consequence of this aspect of the dependency requirements is that the Home Office will examine whether the applicant’s long term personal care needs are able to be met in their country of residence. Though technically only one partner must have care needs under the dependency requirement in paragraph ADR 5.1, it will be difficult in practice to meet the dependency requirement in paragraph ADR 5.2 where one partner is unwell and the other is healthy. This is because the Home Office will expect the healthy partner to help perform the everyday tasks that would enable the unwell partner to get by. As the Home Office guidance states: “the partner must be unable to offer care.” In the eyes of the Home Office, a person with a healthy partner by default has a person in their country of residence who can reasonably provide them with some level of personal care.

4. Meeting the ADR Visa Requirements: What This Means for the Family

Thus, although only one partner must have care needs under the dependency requirement in paragraph ADR 5.1, it will be more straightforward in practical terms to satisfy the dependency requirement in paragraph ADR 5.2 where both partners have some care needs. Such care needs would not have to be as serious as each other: one partner could require considerable assistance due to very serious illness or disability, with the other partner requiring only some lesser degree of care (which might not amount to the Appendix ADR standard of ‘long term personal care to perform everyday tasks.’). What is important in this context is that the healthier partner cannot provide the care that the less healthy partner requires.

To return to our factual scenario: where one partner has care needs and the other does not, the Home Office will expect that the partner in comparatively good health (the grandfather in our scenario) would provide assistance to the partner with care needs (the grandmother).

It may be that the grandmother is so unwell and her care needs are so profound that they cannot be met even by the grandfather (who is basically healthy, but still advanced in age himself). If this is the case, the couple may succeed on the Adult Dependent Relative Visa route.

However, it may be that the couple is able to get by in their country of residence through the care that the grandfather is able to provide, whether on his own or in combination with others (such as relatives, carers or housekeepers). If so, the couple will not succeed in meeting the dependency requirements and their application will fail.

Each application will turn on its own individual facts. You might find it helpful to read more about proving the unavailability of care in our article Adult Dependent Relative Visa: Proving Unavailability of Care

5. Scenario #2: Only One of Your Parents Wishes to Move to the UK Permanently

You live in the UK. Your parents both live abroad. Your mother is disabled and your attempts to find a suitable carer to cater to her needs in her home country have failed. You want your mother to come and live with you in the UK. However, your father does not want to move to the UK permanently because he runs his own business in their home country. He would rather come to the UK as a visitor, as frequently as his business obligations permit.

Unfortunately, in this scenario your mother will not be successful in applying on the Adult Dependent Relative Visa route.

As indicated in the introduction of this article, Appendix ADR contains a partner requirement which states:

In this scenario, both of the sponsor’s parents are in a subsisting relationship. It is only possible for one parent to apply for an Adult Dependent Relative Visa if the other parent is also applying on the same visa route and at the same time. It is not possible for one parent to apply on the Adult Dependent Relative Visa route and the other parent to utilise some other immigration route which may better suit their intentions and needs. Provided that the sponsor’s parents or grandparents are in a subsisting relationship, both of them must apply for entry clearance or permission to stay as an Adult Dependent Relative at the same time.

6. Scenario #3: Your Parents Are Separated But Legally Married

You live in the UK. Your parents both live abroad. Your parents are functionally separated: they do not live together and they lead wholly independent lives. However, they never divorced. Your father suffers from serious ill-health and cannot perform everyday tasks for himself. You want your father to come and live with you in the UK. Your mother is in good health and leads a happy life of her own in your parents’ home country, and has no intention of moving to the UK.

Above, we discussed the partner requirement under paragraph ADR 5.3A.1. This rule provides that, where the sponsor’s parents or grandparents are in a subsisting relationship, both of them must apply for entry clearance or permission to stay as an Adult Dependent Relative at the same time.

7. What Constitutes a ‘Subsisting Relationship’?

In this scenario, the parents are in a legal relationship (they are married). But this is not the relevant question for the purposes of these provisions of the Immigration Rules. Instead, one has to look at whether they are in a ‘subsisting relationship’.

This concept is not expressly defined in Appendix ADR. However, the language of a ‘genuine and subsisting relationship’ is used elsewhere in the Immigration Rules (in particular in Appendix FM: family members). In that context, the terminology of a ‘genuine and subsisting relationship’ is used to refer to relationships which bear certain hallmarks like having children together, sharing financial responsibilities and having met one another’s family. You can read more about the concept of a ‘genuine and subsisting relationship’ as it applies to other types of family visas in our previous article entitled Genuine and Subsisting Relationship Requirement.

In short, being in a ‘subsisting relationship’ is not the same as being married: a person could be in a subsisting relationship without being married to their partner, or they could be married and not in a subsisting relationship with their spouse. It is important to look at the factual reality of the underlying relationship.

Therefore, in this factual scenario, it would not contravene the partner requirement under paragraph ADR 5.3A.1 if only the father made an Adult Dependent Relative Visa application. He is not in a subsisting relationship, and so the sponsor’s mother does not have to apply for entry clearance or permission to stay as an Adult Dependent Relative at the same time as the sponsor’s father in order for him to be eligible on this immigration route.

You live in the UK. Your grandfather lives abroad. Your grandmother passed away some years ago, and your grandfather has since remarried. As a result of his age and ill-health, your grandfather cannot perform everyday tasks for himself. You want your grandfather to come and live with you in the UK.

Unfortunately, in this scenario neither the grandfather nor his wife will be successful in applying on the Adult Dependent Relative Visa route.

The Home Office guidance on adult dependent relatives states: “If the applicant is the sponsor’s parent or grandparent, you should check that they are not in a subsisting relationship with a partner unless that partner is also the sponsor’s parent or grandparent and is applying for entry clearance at the same time as the applicant.”

In this scenario, the adult dependent relative (the grandfather) has remarried. He is in a subsisting relationship with his second wife. However, his wife is not related to the sponsor who is living in the UK. In this scenario, the application would fail because the applicant is in a subsisting relationship with a partner who is not the sponsor’s grandparent.

In addition, this couple would face the same difficulties set out in Problem #1 of having to prove that the adult dependent relative’s care needs cannot be met by their partner in the country where they are currently living – as the Home Office may well presume this to be the case, absent special circumstances.

9. Unique Challenges in Adult Dependent Relative Visa Applications

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Leo Tolstoy in Anna Karenina

Families face significant stress when a loved one who lives abroad is unable to care for themselves. For families considering bringing a parent or grandparent to the UK on the Adult Dependent Relative Visa route, understanding how a relative’s partner will impact their application is crucial to determining whether a family can meet the requirements of the Immigration Rules.

No two families are alike and a wide range of factual circumstances can arise in reality, which makes applying the law complex. The hypothetical scenarios described above demonstrate that adding a current or former partner into the mix can impact the application of a range of legal requirements under Appendix ADR. Whether you see echoes of your family’s predicament in one of the theoretical scenarios considered in this article, or you are trying to navigate yet another variation on family life across borders, our expert immigration barristers are able to help find a solution.

For expert advice and assistance with applications for an Adult Dependent Relative visa or challenging a refusal of an Adult Dependent Relative visa, contact our immigration barristers on 0203 617 9173 or complete our enquiry form below.

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