Case No. UKUT-00063-(IAC)

. [ my emphasis ] 15. The respondent has produced guidance on how caseworkers are to apply the Immigration Rules. Of relevance is the ‘Family Policy – family life (as a partner or parent), private life and exceptional circumstances’, version 5.0. This reads, in material part, under the heading ‘Family life as a parent – eligibility’, and the subheading ‘Eligibility that must be met by a parent on a 5 or 10-year route (without consideration of exceptional circumstances under GEN.3.1. or GEN.3.2.)’: For both entry clearance and leave to remain applications as a parent, if the child normally lives with their other British citizen or settled parent or carer, that person cannot be the partner of the applicant (which for leave to remain includes a person who has been in a relationship with the applicant for less than 2 years prior to the date of application) and the applicant must not be eligible to apply for entry clearance or leave to remain as a partner under Appendix FM. The parent route is not for couples who are in a genuine and subsisting partner relationship. An applicant cannot meet the parent route if they are or will be eligible to apply under the partner route, including where for example the definition of partner cannot be met, or other eligibility criteria for access to a 5-year route are not met. Applicants in this position must apply or will only be considered (where they are not required to make a valid application), under the partner route, or under the private life route.