Form Set (F) for child's ILR

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I divorced with my son's biological father 6 months after my son was born.
Five years ago, I applied T2 working visa to come to UK. My son came with me at the same time on a dependent visa. Back then, my son was 2 years and 11 months so I had been a single parent for more than 2 years by then. I submitted a sole responsibility statement without providing divorce certification and court orders and got approved so I successfully took my son to UK. The reason that I did not submit court orders is that on the divorce arrangements, he should pay £500 a month and have visit rights. However, he literally disappeared so he did not pay or visit at all. I had to take care of my son without any relatives help, even without my parents.

I got my ILR after 3 years' time in UK via a global talent visa in 2023. Now I will apply for my son's ILR because he has stayed in the UK for 5 years. Now I need to provide evidence of sole responsibility but I still confront the issue that I do not have legal documents to prove it. I have emails from the schools and council to show that I am the person who is responsible for my son's school transfer, parent meetings, lunch meal selections, etc. I have my job contract and bank statement to show that I support him financially and no other people sent money to us. I have other evidence showing I am responsible for his GP visit, dentist visit, holiday arrangments, school club attendance. However, I am very worried that it will be rejected because I could not prove legally that I have the sole responsibility. I saw many cases on this forum that the evidence that I am providing can be considered self-serving. I need some advices for my situations.

Speaking of my son's biological father, I have no idea where he is but most likely, according to common sense, he should be staying in our home country. He does not have a visa to work or live here.

Another situation is that I have a new family here where my partner and I have been living together for 3 years but we did not get married. My current partner is a British citizen who is also involved in my son's lives. For example, in his job, he bought the medical insurance for my son and myself. So my son has been emotionally attached to my partner and we live as a family. Again, we do not have legal proof for this because we did not get married. I am thinking whether it can be used as evidence to show that it is for my son's benefits to stay in UK because he is one of our family and he does not have any relatives in my home country.

Any advices would be extremely helpful.

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I just wonder if any evidence can strengthen my sole responsibility in this case? Any opinions that I will get rejected?

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I am applying for my son's ILR. Is it correct to apply via the Form Set (F) on the UKVI website? There are some questions that I do not know/unsure.

1) They ask for your parent. I am applying for my son. so it is my information. When it asks for the second parent, if I want to claim sole responsibility, do I need to say I do not know the second parent?

2) it also asks "do you have family/social group/friends" in the country of birth. Since my son was brought by me to UK before 3 years old, he did not attend school back then and only stayed home. So I can just say no to social group or friends ? By family, what people are counted?

Thank you!

[zimba]

Your first mistake was thinking that a child needs 5 years for ILR. Children do NOT have any residence requirement for ILR. They settle when both parents settle. In case of sole responsibility, he should have settled with you in the same application

Applying using SET(F) is correct. Answering question about the other parent does NOT affect sole responsibility. The immigration rules cover sole responsibility in detail under Appendix Children:

You are not considering whether the child’s parent (or anyone else) has day-to-day responsibility for the child, but whether the parent has continuing sole control and direction of the child’s upbringing, including making all the important decisions in the child’s life. If not, then they do not have sole parental responsibility for the child. You must carefully consider each application on a case-by-case basis. The burden of proof is on the applicant to provide satisfactory evidence that a parent has sole parental responsibility.

For entry clearance cases, it may be necessary to use local intelligence relating to the applicant’s home country or location to advise on what evidence you should expect to see, or what is likely to be available that you could reasonably ask for, as well as how much weight to give to particular types of evidence. Country-specific information can be found in the country of origin information or via the relevant UK embassy or high commission staff.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... e_parental

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Thank you zimba so much for the answer!!

I thought my son needs 5 years but does it affect his current application if I did not include him in the first place?

I have another question regarding the form. My son came to UK on the PBS dependent visa. I see PBS dependent should use form set (O). In my case, is Set (O) or Set (F)?

Since I established sole responsibility to bring my son to UK five years ago, would my current evidence be sufficient? I mean that will the case worker consider the fact that I have been approved once, so this time the fact that I do not submit a court order will not affect much? I know no one is sure about the answer, I just want to see if I need more evidence to strengthen my case. I already mentioned in my cover letter I established my sole responsibility to bring my son here five years ago.

Thank you

[zimba]

It has no effect; just that it could have been sooner. As I said, SET(F) is the correct form. I assume if sole responsibility is established before then you should not face much difficulty now

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Thank you zimba for your answer. I will update the outcome when I get one to give others some helpful information. Thank you!

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Thank you zimba for your earlier responses.

I have another question. While I went through this forum, I noticed this post https://www.immigrationboards.com/indef ... 39355.html

In the post, you suggested they use form set (O). My son is also a PBS dependent, although I settled through a global talent visa because I changed my visa from T2 to global talent visa. Should I also use set (O) as the OP in the post? Sorry for keeping focusing on the same questions. I got too nervous about each detail.

Thank you!

[zimba]

The Tier 2 PBS route does NOT exist anymore. In this case, you may use either form to settle your child. Unlike SET(O), SET(F) is only used for children settlement (under any route) who are eligible for ILR

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Thank you zimba for the response.

I am using the SET (F) now. When I go to the Documents option, one of them is

Letter of consent from your parent(s) or legal guardian(s)
A letter of consent that confirms:
the relationship between you and your parent(s)/legal guardian(s)
consent from your parent(s)/legal guardian(s) to the application
consent from your parent(s)/legal guardian(s) to the living arrangements in the United Kingdom and the address where you will be staying
whether one or both of your parent(s)/legal guardian(s) have responsibility for you
Both parents/legal guardians must sign the letter of consent, except where only one parent/legal guardian has sole responsibility for you.

Is this a cover letter actually? Thank you.

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Sorry that I realise it actually involves two parts, sole responsibility proof and consent of letter. Am I understanding correctly?

[zimba]

Sorry that I realise it actually involves two parts, sole responsibility proof and consent of letter. Am I understanding correctly?

Yes

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Hi Zimba, thank you so much for the swift responses!

One of the questions asks "Do you have any other reasons for wanting to stay in the UK?" I will just say no?

Do you think that if I include the evidence that I have been living with my current unmarried partner for 3 years and provided photos of my son, my parnter and his mother and I traveling together will enhance the evidence that my son should stay here with me? Or I just need to focus on the sole responsibility?

Regarding the sole responsibility, I brought my son here to UK five years ago via he being my T2 dependent without his father's any involvment. I submitted sole responsibility evidence 5 years ago. Since my son was granted visa 5 years old, I can automatically assume that my previous sole responsibility evidence was accepted? I do not want to make a wrong assumption and include it in the cover letter. Do they have a record of it? How could I prove what happened 5 years ago on that successful visa application?

Thank you very much!

[zimba]

You do NOT need to provide any other reasons for your son to get ILR. The answer NO is correct.
Send all evidence of sole responsibility as that is still a requirement. They have access to the previous information too

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Hi Zimba, thank you very much for all the helpful advices! I really appreciate it.

I am finishing the set (F). There is a verification sent. I download the document of Declaration of consent for the Home Office to request verification checks. Part 1 is

"PART 1: Consent for the Home Office to verify application information
You (the applicant) should sign the Part 1 consent, and relevant other parties should
sign Part 2 and 3, where they are relevant to your application. You must send them
with your supporting documents If you fail to do, your application may be refused.
"
My question is about the Part 1. My son is the applicant but he is 7 years old. the above seems to indicate that it requires the Applicant to sign it but do I ask my son to sign it (a 7-year-old boy) or I should sign it as a parent?

For part 2& part 3, I assume that I should sign part 2 &3 as the third party and sponsor. Am I right?

Thank you in advance for your time and kind help!

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Hi Zimba, sorry for a follow-up question. If I sign it, do I sign my name or my son's name? It explicitly requires the applicant to sign it.

[zimba]

You sign on behalf of the child. Children cannot sign a consent form !

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Hi Zimba, my son's ILR was approved. Thank you so much!!!! It literally a huge relief to my life.

Just want to leave some tips to help others in the future.

Biometric date : 07/03/2025 (8.45am Friday)
Super prioty : extra £1000
Approval date : 09/03/2025 (10.31am Sunday)

The documents I did not submit : divorce certificate, biological fathers' agreement, court order;
My situation: son's biological father disappeared for more than 7 years so I cannot get his biological father to sign an agreement. Regarding the divorce certificate, I think it was an honest mistake that I forgot it. We do not have a court order in our country.

The document I submit:
Set (F) is the correct form. Thank you Zimba!!
1) a sole responsibility declaration: a Word document about our case; including his father's disappearance; we do not have relatives in my son's birth country because I was an immigrant there, a summary of evidence attached. I wrote 2 pages.
2) evidence from GP, dentist, schools, school club, and recreational activities (e.g., basketball club, holiday flight tickets showing only my son's and my name). These letters show I am the only registered carer for my son. I got some help from another single mother about payments. I went to the bank statement of a particular day and downloaded the bank statement of that day and highlighted the payment to show that I was the person who paid that. The single mother who helped me suggestted me to put them in one page in a PPT file and highlight them. I did it. For each evidence, I have a separate cover letter for it to explain what these evidence is about.
3)I attached three years' bank statements to show that I only have income from my job without anyone sending me any money to support my son.
4) I opened a joint bank account with my son two years ago and attached all the statements from the joint bank showing I have been the only person sending money to this account.

In total, the sole responsibility evidence is nearly 300 pages.

Thank you this forum and zimba for your huge help. I cannot do it without help from you. Deeply thankful!!!!

[zimba]

Congratulations