bringing orphan child relative to UK

[brit72]

Hi. I wonder if someone can point me the way to criteria for bringing a dependent child into UK. My husband and daughter both have ILR and will soon get citizenship when he gets around to doing life in UK test. His brother has just died in an accident leaving two young kids in Cape Verde. Their mother is sending them to grandmother family home as as she had remarried and cannot afford to bring up the two kids now that father cannot provide for them.

My husbands mother is nearly 80 and has already 5 grand-children in the house to look after. It is unrealistic to expect her to care for two more. We would like to try to bring at least one of the kids over here to help a bit. My husband has stable job and we do not use public funds. Although my husband earns it is not the required ?18 grand usually stipulated as required for bringing in dependent.. However my father will guarantee funds for another child if we are successful.

What are our chances? and what advice can you give us? Thanks very much. This board is a life saver and helped me successfully apply to bring over my husband and daughter to UK a few years ago.

[Wanderer]

Suspect you'd need to formally adopt the child and pass the financial tests, I doubt third-party support will help, if there is money available why not engage locally-based support in Cape Verde?

[PaperPusher]

Hi. I wonder if someone can point me the way to criteria for bringing a dependent child into UK. My husband and daughter both have ILR and will soon get citizenship when he gets around to doing life in UK test. His brother has just died in an accident leaving two young kids in Cape Verde. Their mother is sending them to grandmother family home as as she had remarried and cannot afford to bring up the two kids now that father cannot provide for them.

My husbands mother is nearly 80 and has already 5 grand-children in the house to look after. It is unrealistic to expect her to care for two more. We would like to try to bring at least one of the kids over here to help a bit. My husband has stable job and we do not use public funds. Although my husband earns it is not the required ?18 grand usually stipulated as required for bringing in dependent.. However my father will guarantee funds for another child if we are successful.

What are our chances? and what advice can you give us? Thanks very much. This board is a life saver and helped me successfully apply to bring over my husband and daughter to UK a few years ago.

If their mother is struggling financially, why not help financially. Would money go further in Cape Verde than in the UK? They have lost their father, do they really need to lose their mother too? If just one child will be brought to the UK, how on earth will you choose? Not forgetting that then the child will lose mum, dad, grandmother AND sibling. What would be the best thing to support these two children at such a difficult time in their lives?

Oh, and the title of your topic is misleading. These children are not orphans.

[brit72]

Thanks for advice. It is not as simple as you may think. The mother has already sent the children to their paternal grandmother when the father died. She had remarried and had other kids and as far as we know she will have no further input. One of kids has special needs and that is why we thought she would make better progress here. Ever tried wheeling a wheelchair on local roads? Of course we do not want to split kids up but...

[MPH80]

You should be aware that adoption within a family is heavily scrutinised by UKBA.

I have previously linked to - but cannot re-find on the new website - guidance which explicitly forbade 'gifting' of children between family members. (I appreciate you aren't considering gifting the child - but I think that's the term UKBA uses)

Now - in your case - given the death in the family there are extenuating circumstances. But UKBA might argue that there are two people capable of taking care of the child in the home country and adoption by yourselves is a matter of convenience rather than need (affordability for example - might not be considered a good argument - how many people in the UK have poor relatives around the world who can't really afford the kids they have?).

I would suggest finding a good immigration solicitor on this one.

M.