Adult Dependent Relative visa advice

Hello,

I am a British citizen since 2018, now considering bringing my parents to come live with me in the UK via ADR visa. I understand this is a difficult visa to get with a very high rejection rate.
I was wondering if someone with experience, can please give me an advice on general success rate in my parents' situation.
So, my father is 75 and stepmom is 70. They used to travel to the UK fairly regularly before the pandemic using visit visas. They did manage to come to the UK on a visit visa last month too.
I understand most of these ADR applications get rejected because the applicant can not prove they are frail, need help with daily care etc...
My main question here is: how frail/ dependent you need to be to stand a chance? I am concerned because parents have been traveling to the UK with visitor visas including once last month, HO may use that against them? (i.e you are not that frail if you can travel overseas from one continent to another on a plane?).
My parents are from Iraq, needless to say, the healthcare system is falling apart/ non-existent almost. My father often travels to Some European countries for various health needs (prostate procedures, eye issues etc.. ). He can clearly provide evidence for this. My stepmom has limited mobility because of osteoarthritis, she can also provide evidence for that. I assume these things would help, but does HO expect you to be much frailer than this?
Me and my brother live in the UK - so parents live on their own now in Iraq (my other brother does in Iraq but in a far away city and rarely sees them), they are getting much older and I am wondering if this visa is for the like of them.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks

immigration-for-family-members/adult-de ... 87771.html

immigration-for-family-members/older-de ... 42420.html

The success rate is incredibly low and those that have been successful have only been through very costly appeal processes.

You should bear in mind that if you apply for them and they are refused, which is likely, then it shuts the door to any future visitor visas for them too.

You would have been better off moving to an EU country when you became British and bringing them to live with you there and then returning to the UK after a decent period. That door unfortunately is closed now.

The threshold for an ADR visa is two-fold.
a) that the applicant needs help with day-to-day activities such as bathing, washing, cooking, etc, and
b) that such help is either unavailable or unaffordable in their home country.

Point (b) is generally where most applications fail, as care costs in most countries around the world are much cheaper than costs in the UK.

The fact that your father is married weakens his case, as there will be an assumption that even if he needed the help listed above in (a), his spouse would be able to provide that help. Most ADR applications that I have seen on these platforms have involved single/widowed parents.

If your father has a son living in his home country, questions will be asked as to why your father and step-mother can't move to live with him, rather than move to the UK.

As CR001 has mentioned above, if an ADR visa application is made and refused, it is quite likely that your father and step-mother will almost certainly never be able to visit the UK again, as they have declared an intention to settle in the UK instead of merely visiting it.