Brother died need immigration help

[purplepots]

Good morning,
My brother passed away on Friday very suddenly.
He was living in Cambodia with his wife, his step-daughter and his two biological daughters who were born there.
I need to find out if it is possible for all four of them to come to England so the girls can continue to study, it is too expensive over there and they have no income.
I know the two youngest will be able to get British passports (although haven't started that process yet, will call passport office today)
If they come over would they get any benefits to help them live?
It is all very raw still and I need to help these girls and women.

Can the kids and wife speak English?

@Horizons83. The problem with the parent of a child at school visa is that the parent needs to be able to prove that they can support themselves by having a specified amount in their bank account and its not a small sum.
The govt has closed many access routes over recent years.

The younger kids are entitled to British passports and you can help them with that process, it gives them options as adults. I'm not sure it will be simple for the widow to get a visa - there is a scheme but I don't think she will have recourse to public funds so will have to support herself fully here from day 1, she will probably need to prove she has funds too. Helping to support them in Cambodia probably is easier, she may earn less but she has lower costs

Like a PP I used to work in the relevant government department. Your brother's two daughters are British Citizens by Descent, they are entitled to British passports and have the right to live and work in the UK (the by descent bit only matters if and when they have their own children). They could come tomorrow providing there was somewhere for them to live and go to school.

Unless your brother's wife already had ILR or British Citizenship when he died she would not get it now. If they had been living in the UK when he died there is a route but not living abroad. His stepdaughter would only be able to go down a standard student / work visa route and wouldn't have any other rights regardless of her family assuming he didn't formally adopt her.

I would focus on what the UK based family can do to support your brother's family in Cambodia, practically or financially. His two biological children may wish to study in the UK when they're older and would be able to do so.

@Geamhradh you’re right, of course, I think the baby brain is strong today! I’ll shut up and avoid causing more confusion

Do the 2 girls want to leave their mum and move to the UK, where will they live. It will cost quite a bit to fly them over so maybe that money could go towards school fees instead.

Getting the youngest UK passports would be fairly painless. Getting anything for the step-child will be very difficult. And I imagine that by the time anything was done, she'd be out of education anyway.

@zafferana

In that case, I really wouldn't get her hopes up OP. Your DB's two biological DC should be eligible for British passports, which would allow them to come here as adults, but it seems very unlikely indeed that they'll be able to come here with no sponsor, no income and no right to claim benefits. Are you and the wider family able to help them out in Cambodia? That's probably the most realistic option.

Very very unlikely they be allowed without a sponsor etc

Who is planning to pay for the family if they come over? Because I imagine the wife will come on a visa and the dc can’t work. Please don’t bring them over to rely on benefits. I know you are grieving but it would be terrible to do that.

I suspect that your step-daughter was hoping that you'd be able to financially support the DCs' education over there, rather than intending that they all come over here to be educated.

I'm sorry for your loss. Please be aware that to remove grieving children from their home and all they know (friends, family etc) would be incredibly damaging for them. At this time they need familiarity, not to be taken halfway across the world.
It will be a very costly process - applying to be a British citizen will be about £1200 each. You will need to speak to an immigration lawyer for the mother and half-sister as that will be very complicated and expensive. To be honest, if you can't afford to support them in their home country, how do you expect to be able to do it here?

Wise words

It is usually, the case to recommend, not making any big decisions during the first year of the passing of someone

I have been to Cambodia.

It would be better to offer to support the family there.

Perhaps, in time you could go to visit

@saraclara

I suspect that your step-daughter was hoping that you'd be able to financially support the DCs' education over there, rather than intending that they all come over here to be educated.

Agree. It is possible you are seen as the well off (relatively speaking) part of the extended family in a culture where it is the norm for relatives to be called upon for support, both financial and practical.

Did your DBro formally adopt the stepdaughter?

(the children)...are entitled to British passports and have the right to live and work in the UK (the by descent bit only matters if and when they have their own children).

Although if they wish to access university on home status, they need to be resident here for the previous three full years. So the children couldn't come to the UK when they're 18 and get home status. They'd need to be attending school here for the previous 3 years or work for 3 years before enrolling.

Whereabouts in Cambodia do they live, OP? And do they speak English or other languages?

So sorry for your loss, and for the children to lose their father so suddenly. How awful for you all.

There is lots of poor information on this thread. Firstly, as someone who worked in the relevant government dept said above, his daughters will be able to get British passports. That means they can live here whenever they want, as long as they have somewhere to stay - no need for financial sponsors, and they will have the same eligibility to education and anything else as any other British citizen.

If they do want to come while your nieces are children, your sister-In-law could apply as their parent: www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa/parent - although, the difficult bit is that they would have to come first (ie be living in the UK when she applies). She would have the right to work, but not to claim benefits, or claim benefits on their behalf, and would have to take a test to prove a certain level of English. I'm not sure how she would need to prove the ability to financially support the family, but that is something you could research. The 'easiest' (if the wider family has the funds) would be for her to have savings in her name for a minimum of six months - and it would be a lot, £60,000+, and possibly more if she is also applying for her oldest daughter, on top of housing.

Getting a family visa for your step-niece might be tricky, unless they move before she turns 18 (and as I said, this would increase what your SIL would have to earn/ have in savings in order to apply). This is from the Gov.uk website:

Applying with other children
You can add other children to your application as dependants if one of the following applies:

• they are under 18 on the date you apply
• they were under 18 when they were first granted leave on a family visa and do not live an independent life

This must all be so new and terrible for you now, but you (they) do have options if they want, even if it will be difficult and expensive to come here. When you are ready, I would advise contacting a community law centre or a charity like JCWI, who offer some legal advice: www.jcwi.org.uk/Pages/Category/legal-advice

Good luck, and all the best.

Hi, first post here so for context; I'm not a mum. I'm someone who lived in Cambodia for close to two decades and recently moved back to the UK with my Cambodian partner and our infant son in order to give him a better life than he'd get there. I was informed of this thread by my own mother who asked if I might be able to help.

I've read the OP and skim read parts of this thread and will try to offer the best advice I can:

• Ignore people who say you can go to the Embassy for help on this. The British embassy in Cambodia is highly unlikely to offer any help or assistance in this matter, especially as the kids don't have British passports yet, but even if they did it's unlikely they would help. I understand that may sound unbelievable to people who don't have experience with the matter, but I do and that's my experience of it.

• Getting British passports for the kids isn't as easy or straight forward as you might imagine. Despite being listed as the father on the birth certificate and our son being blond haired and clearly not entirely Cambodian, we still had to produce a mountain of evidence that he was mine. It was hard enough with me being alive, it will be even harder in your instance given that the father is dead. It won't be impossible, but don't assume it will be quick or easy.

• There are various routes to immigration, the one that applies here is a "Humanitarian visa". It can be granted to the mother if you can prove it's in the kids best interests to grow up in the UK with their mother present, because this is a legal right that the kids will have when it has been established that they are legally British nationals. This visa type doesn't come with the "no recourse to public funds" condition that most other visa types have, so they would be able to claim benefits when they get here.

• I used a company called "5 star immigration" that are based in Glasgow. Send them an email and ask for Shereen. She dealt with my (entirely different) case and is fantastic. In my case we were able to get a regular "Partner/Spouse" visa because we met the requirements, but she's also well versed in the aforementioned humanitarian visa which is a route we explored in case the partner/spouse visa got rejected (which is how I know about it).

• There is a huge amount of paperwork involved. Unless the mother is very well educated by Khmer standards, she will need a lot of help in gathering the required documents and making sense of it all. There's a forum called Cambodia Expats Online, post there to try and find someone who can help her with it all. If the guy lived in Cambodia for a long time then there will be people on that forum who knew him and may be sympathetic to the cause.

• I think it will be highly unlikely that there is any possibility of getting the step daughter a visa to come too, but if you contact 5 star about it then you can ask them for an expert opinion. The mother will likely have to choose between staying there or leaving her behind. I'm sorry, I realize how horrific that sounds but I'm just trying to present you with the facts as best as I understand them.

I won't be following this thread any further but if the OP has any further questions, please send me a direct message and I'll be happy to respond with more specifics.

Further to my last post just based on some other post I'm seeing above: Yes, the kids are legally entitled to British citizenship, but proving it isn't that straight forward even if they look like their dad. Being entitled to something and actually managing to claim it are two different kettles of fish. This is surmountable but as I said, it is unlikely to be quick or easy. That being said, it's no where near as expensive as some people are claiming. Getting my half Khmer son's British passport took us about 5 months and cost a few hundred US dollars in total, that includes the application, cost of obtaining prerequisite documents, and getting them translated at the only place in Phnom Penh that is legally allowed to do it. Again, this is a process I have been through myself with my own son and I'd be happy to offer further details of the process via DM.

Sorry for the multiple posts, it won't let me go back to add to the previous one;

I've just taken the time to read through the whole thread and am pretty shocked by some of the misinformation being given to the OP here. The £60k in assets or £24ish k in income requirements are only for certain types of visa, as are language requirements. The humanitarian visa I referenced above bypasses the language requirement as well as financial requirements, and the holder is entitled to benefits. It's not a common visa type to apply for as it doesn't fit most circumstances, but this isn't most circumstances. In this case, the visa is not issued for the mother's sake, it's issueed so that the children can live in the UK because they are British and it is in their best interests to be allowed to live here with their mother.

Again, talk to the folks at the immigration firm I referenced above, they are professionals and do this for a living. Don't just take the word of random people on an annonymous forum and give up on the basis of it.

I apologise in advance if I have missed any questions
My SIL can speak English
She hasn't worked for as long as I have known her.
My mum and dad have spent most of the year funding their schooling (I found this out today)
My nieces can also speak English.
My brother never adopted his step-daughter.
The problem is they will not be able to afford to continue with an English program so will have to revert/begin a Khmer program of education.
My SIL would like for her and the girls to come over here if it meant they would have a better standard of living and education but I am seeing how hard and probably impossible it is going to be.
As I said before, I am just information gathering to see what options they have and have never wanted to rip them away from their family (or whatever someone's lovely choice of words were)
Thank you to the extremely helpful post above mine from somebody who has lived over there and the people who have worked in the government posts.
Thanks also to everyone who hasn't just thought I am a terrible person trying to bring these people to my country for apparently my own selfish reasons. I just want to help my family members.

@SecretKeeper1 they live in Phnom Penh and they speak English and Khmer

I am the one who referred to the 60k in savings - I was talking about the requirements for a family visa (parent, rather than spouse), not a 'humanitarian' visa. I was not being misleading - I did say that I don't know how exactly how the proof of income/ financial ability is worked out, but that if (big if) the wider family has access to savings, that could be an easier route than income. (Also - nowhere did I say that any of it would be straightforward or easy! I know from bitter experience that this will not be the case.)

Both types of visa might be an option in this case - we don't know enough to judge. What I do agree with RandomPerson about is to consult professionals (trustworthy ones), but don't read this forum and just give up!

So sorry for your loss OP. Don't rush into anything or get anyone's hopes up, is my advice. Moving from Cambodia to the UK would be a huge change and v expensive. Not something to rush into especially in the throes of grief.

There are various routes to immigration, the one that applies here is a "Humanitarian visa"

This doesn't exist for the UK. In any case Humanitarian visas refer to those seeking asylum or humanitarian protection which isn't the case here.