UK Adult Dependent Relative Visa: Care, Evidence and Application Guide

This guide describes the UK Adult Dependent Relative (ADR) route for an adult who needs long-term personal care and wants to join a qualifying relative in the UK. It is a narrow Family route. The applicant must show both that they need help with everyday personal or household tasks and that the required level of care is unavailable or unaffordable where they live, even with financial help from the UK sponsor.

The sponsor must be in an eligible status and be able to provide adequate maintenance, accommodation and care without relying on public funds. This is not a fixed-income threshold or a simple medical-condition checklist. The Home Office assesses the application against Appendix ADR, the evidence and the applicant’s circumstances.

First check that ADR is the relevant route

The first question is the applicant’s relationship to the sponsor and the sponsor’s immigration status. Under Appendix ADR, an applicant must be the sponsor’s parent, grandparent, son or daughter, or brother or sister. The sponsor must be a British citizen, settled in the UK, have protection status, or have the specified EU Settlement Scheme status. The detailed rules define that last category narrowly; check the current Appendix rather than treating every person with pre-settled status as eligible.

GOV.UK also identifies Irish citizens as eligible sponsors on its public application page. Permission length depends on the sponsor’s status. If the sponsor has temporary permission, the applicant’s permission is normally linked to it. If the sponsor is British, Irish or settled, GOV.UK says the applicant’s stay is unlimited; check the decision letter and the current Rules for the legal grant in the particular case.

If the sponsor is temporarily in the UK on a work or student route, the ordinary Family visa overview says the applicant cannot use the Family route on that basis and should check the relevant dependant rules. A work-route dependant route is also not a general route for bringing adult relatives. If the applicant is a parent seeking to care for a child in the UK, that is a different Family visa parent route; see our UK Family visa parent guide. Do not use its child-residence or parental-role tests to assess ADR.

Show the long-term personal-care need

The applicant must require long-term personal care to perform everyday tasks as a result of age, illness or disability. The practical question is what assistance is needed, how often, and which ordinary tasks cannot be done without it. Explain the functional impact: for example, support with washing, dressing, preparing food or other personal and household tasks. The Rules do not make a particular diagnosis an automatic qualification.

Useful evidence may include current medical records, assessments from relevant health or care professionals, a care-needs assessment, and a clear account from the applicant or existing carer. Match each document to the claimed need and explain any change in the applicant’s condition. If records are old, inconsistent or use unfamiliar clinical terms, provide dated context and check whether a suitable translation or explanation is needed.

The application must also address the second part of the test: the required level of care cannot be obtained in the country where the applicant is living because suitable care is not available and no person there can reasonably provide it, or because it is not affordable. These are alternatives in the Rules. The test is not simply whether the applicant would prefer care from their UK relative.

Evidence that care is unavailable or unaffordable abroad

Build evidence around the applicant’s actual location and care requirement. Availability may involve explaining which relatives, friends, paid carers, home-help services or residential facilities were considered, what care they can provide and why that level is insufficient or cannot reasonably be continued. The Home Office can consider whether someone in the country could reasonably provide care, including family, friends or a professional service.

For affordability, show realistic costs and the resources available to meet them. Consider the applicant’s income and savings, the sponsor’s proposed contribution, the hours or type of care required and any relevant service costs. A general statement that care is expensive or a provider list without cost and availability information may leave important questions unanswered.

This evidence is an organising framework, not an official exhaustive checklist. The decision-maker assesses the whole case. Do not assume that the existence of a care service automatically defeats an application, or that having no close relative nearby automatically proves the test.

Plan how care will be provided in the UK

The sponsor must be able to maintain, accommodate and care for the applicant without public funds. A care plan should say who will provide each part of the support, whether professional care is required, where it will happen and how it will be paid for. The plan may involve other family members in the UK, but the sponsor must show how the required care and costs will be met under the route’s rules.

There is no single published salary threshold for ADR. Appendix ADR requires adequate maintenance, accommodation and care. The financial evidence rules specify acceptable evidence for income, cash savings and other sources. Employment income or savings generally needs evidence covering the six months before application; self-employment, non-employment income and some other sources have separate evidence periods. Use the current Appendix FM-SE and application checklist for the source being relied on.

Accommodation must be available to the applicant and meet the relevant adequacy requirements, including overcrowding and public-health rules. Explain who lives in the property, who has the right to occupy it, the room available to the applicant, and whether the care needs require adaptations or a different arrangement. A mortgage or tenancy document on its own may not show the complete living plan.

The sponsor usually provides form SU07, a maintenance undertaking. Depending on the permission outcome, the undertaking covers five years from arrival where the applicant receives settlement, or the duration of temporary permission. It is a real responsibility: the government may seek to recover public funds used during the undertaking period. Read the current form carefully before signing.

Parent or grandparent applying with a partner

The Rules include a limited partner provision for a parent or grandparent of the sponsor. A parent or grandparent applicant must not be in a subsisting relationship with a partner unless that partner is also applying as an ADR at the same time. Where both people applying are the sponsor’s parents or grandparents, only one of them needs to require long-term personal care. The partner must still meet the route’s applicable requirements, and the sponsor must evidence the care and support plan for both applicants.

This does not create a general route for a spouse or partner of any ADR applicant. Check ADR 5.1 and the related provisions in the current Rules against the exact family relationship.

Application location and permission outcomes

For a first application to come to the UK, the applicant must apply for and receive ADR entry clearance before arriving. GOV.UK directs applicants to apply online, complete the relevant additional form and provide identity, relationship, care, sponsor and financial evidence. The application service will identify the current document-submission and biometric steps. Check whether a tuberculosis certificate is required for the applicant’s country and circumstances.

In-country permission is not a general switch route from a visitor visa or another immigration category. Appendix ADR says an applicant applying to stay must be in the UK and must have, or last have been granted, ADR entry clearance or permission. Human-rights or Article 8 cases are a separate, fact-specific legal route; they do not make the ordinary ADR care test optional in a routine application.

Permission length follows the sponsor’s status and the relevant grant rules. Applicants joining a British, Irish or settled sponsor are generally granted settlement under the published route information. Applicants joining a sponsor with temporary protection or specified pre-settled permission usually receive time-limited permission linked to the sponsor and may later extend or apply to settle in line with that sponsor. Confirm the grant letter, expiry date, any conditions, application fee and Immigration Health Surcharge before making travel or care arrangements. GOV.UK’s published service standard is usually 12 weeks outside the UK and 8 weeks inside, but a service standard is not a guarantee; check current processing information.

A practical evidence sequence

If the applicant is joining a UK resident child as that child’s parent, rather than seeking care as an adult, use the separate UK Family visa parent route guide. That page links back here because the parent and Adult Dependent Relative routes answer different questions and use different eligibility tests.

Frequently asked questions

Rules, forms, fees and processing information can change. Check the current GOV.UK application page and Appendix ADR before acting. This guide provides general information; it is not legal advice and does not assess or predict an individual decision.