To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to relax the rules on adult dependent relative visas to benefit non-British NHS staff whose parents are overseas.
Answered on
26 January 2022
The Home Office continues to keep the Immigration Rules for adult dependent relatives under review and makes adjustments in light of feedback on their operation and impact. The adult dependent relative rules were reviewed in 2016 and the report of that review can be seen on GOV.UK, under 'Adult dependent relatives review'.
It is right and fair that the Rules for adult dependent relatives apply equally to all and are applied consistently. Whilst we appreciate that for the adult dependent relatives of both British and non-British doctors and other NHS staff, any additional burden to the healthcare system may be offset by their sponsor’s contribution to it, any decision to relax the Rules for family members of NHS staff could undermine the principle behind the Rules and would be discriminatory to those in other professions, many of whom face similar concerns and are contributing to the UK in other ways.
Our overall assessment is the Rules represent a fair deal for the UK taxpayer and are helping to ensure public confidence in the immigration system by protecting our public services from the significant NHS and social care costs to which these cases can give rise.