If you can prove sole responsibility, you both can settle at the same time. Sole parental responsibility means that one parent has abdicated or abandoned parental responsibility, and the remaining parent is exercising sole control in setting and providing the day-to-day direction for the child’s welfare. Children do NOT have any minimum residence requirement for ILR and they can settle with a parent who has sole responsibility, in the same application
There are specific factors that will be considered in assessing sole responsibility:
•Whether the parents are married/in a civil partnership
•If the marriage/civil partnership is dissolved – which parent was awarded legal custody
•If the sponsoring parent has migrated to the UK – how long have they been separated from the child and what relationship they have with the child
•If the sponsoring parent has migrated to the UK, the nature of the child’s care arrangements before and after they migrated
•Who bears the child’s maintenance costs and at what proportion
•Who makes the important decisions about the child’s upbringing, for example, where the child lives, which school they attend, etc
Check out the 'Sole parental responsibility' section in this guide:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... tances.pdf
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