Entry clearance applications for settlement (ILR)

The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) has cleared up a significant misunderstanding of the requirements to be met by children coming to the UK for settlement.

An earlier decision of the Tribunal in a case called OM had been wrongly taken to mean that children coming to the UK for settlement (Indefinite Leave to Remain, ILR) would need to demonstrate evidence that the carer in the country of origin had given lawful consent to their coming to the UK or that a court order allowing the child to be taken out of the county had been made and that the child had to be registered with a local social services department in the UK. This was not the case.

The Tribunal in a case called FO & ors (Children: settlement- OM distinguished) Nigeria [2006] UKAIT 00089 said that OM (children: settlement- cross border movement) [2005] UKAIT 177 had been completely misunderstood. OM’s case covered situations where children came to the UK on a temporary basis, as visitors for example, but then sought to remain in the UK on a permanent basis. In such situations, the Home Office were perfectly entitled to ask for evidence that the parent or guardian in the country of origin had given their consent. This was precisely because there had been no entry clearance (visa) process whereby the facts could be assessed before the child came to this country.

This decision hopefully ends an important area of misunderstanding. As the Tribunal suggested, OM had been widely, and in some cases, bizarrely used. They note that it had been raised in a family visit appeal where it had been suggested that a child could not come to the UK to visit a parent without a court order permitting them to leave their country of origin.