Bring an elderly parent to live with you in the UK

The Adult Dependent Relative (ADR) route is the only UK visa route designed for an adult family member — a parent, grandparent, sibling over 18, or adult child — to settle permanently with a British citizen or settled relative. The framework is at Appendix FM, Section EC-DR of the Immigration Rules, with eligibility requirements at E-ECDR.2.1 to E-ECDR.3.2.

The route was substantially tightened on 9 July 2012. Before that change, an ADR applicant had only to show financial dependence and a relationship to the UK sponsor. Since 2012, five separate requirements apply and all five must be met. They are: a qualifying relationship (parent, grandparent, sibling, adult child); the applicant’s age (over 18 with limited exceptions); a long-term personal care need arising from age, illness or disability; the unavailability or unaffordability of suitable care in the country where the applicant lives; and the UK sponsor’s ability to maintain and accommodate the applicant without recourse to public funds.

The fourth requirement — care availability — is where most applications fail. The Court of Appeal in R (Britcits) v Secretary of State for the Home Department[2017] EWCA Civ 368 upheld the rules but emphasised that the test relates to the practical level of care the applicant requires, not the applicant’s preference for living near family. UKVI applies this strictly. If a local care provider could meet the applicant’s needs, even if that provider is expensive or imperfect, the application will be refused. The same applies if the applicant has local relatives who could help, or financial means that could fund local care. This is a high bar.

The evidence package is therefore decisive. Successful applications are typically built around independent medical evidence identifying specific care tasks the applicant cannot perform alone (mobility, washing, dressing, cooking, medication management); written statements from local care providers showing what services exist and why those services cannot meet the applicant’s specific needs; and sponsor financial evidence showing the UK family can support the applicant indefinitely.

Where the application falls just outside the Rules — for example, where some local care exists but is plainly inadequate — the residual route is Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, applied via GEN.3.2 of Appendix FM at first instance and on appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. Article 8 is not a primary route; it is a proportionality safeguard, and it succeeds only where refusing leave would be a disproportionate interference with established family life. Section 117B of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (inserted by section 19 of the Immigration Act 2014) sets the public-interest considerations that decision-makers and tribunals must apply.