The question every Nigerian family in Britain asks
Your parents are getting older. Maybe Mum has started forgetting things, or Dad is slower on his feet after a hospital stay, and the relative who used to pop round has moved away. You're in the UK with work, children and a mortgage, and the natural thought is: bring them here, where you can look after them yourself.
In practice, the UK makes this very hard. This page explains the routes as they stand in 2026, what they cost, and the other option: care for your parents in their own home in Lagos, run by nurses, with proof every day that it happened.
How to bring your parents to the UK: the adult dependent relative visa
For a parent to come and live with you, the route is the adult dependent relative visa. It's for parents, grandparents, adult children and brothers or sisters who need to be cared for by a relative in the UK. Your parent must show that:
- they need long-term personal care to do everyday tasks, such as washing, dressing and eating, because of illness, disability or age;
- the care they need is not available or affordable in Nigeria, even with your financial help;
- you can house, care for and support them without public funds. A British or settled sponsor signs an undertaking to do this for five years.
The fee from outside the UK is £3,635. The test is strict on purpose. In a 2021 debate in Parliament, MPs heard that of 908 applications made from 2017 to 2020, only 35 were approved at the first attempt. The Home Office doesn't publish current figures separately, but immigration lawyers describe it as one of the hardest UK visas to get. If you want to try, speak to a regulated immigration adviser first.
Many families searching for a “parent visa UK” discover there isn't a simple route for a parent who is simply getting older and would be happier near their children. The visa is built for parents who already need a high level of daily care that can't be arranged at home.
Visit visas for parents, and the cost of NHS care
Most Nigerian parents come to the UK as visitors. A visit visa allows stays of up to six months at a time. Long-term visit visas let them come back again and again: from 8 April 2026 they cost £506 for 2 years, £903 for 5 years and £1,128 for 10 years.
The catch is health care. Visitors don't pay the immigration health surcharge, but they aren't covered by the NHS for hospital treatment either. Overseas visitors are normally charged 150% of the NHS cost at the point they use it. For a parent with high blood pressure, diabetes or a past stroke, one hospital stay can cost thousands of pounds, and travel insurance for older people with existing conditions is expensive and may not cover them.
What your parent gives up by moving
Even when a move is possible, it isn't always what a parent wants. In Britain they would leave their house, their church, their friends and the freedom of going out on their own. Many spend the day indoors while the family is at work or school, and a British winter, with short dark days from November to February, keeps them inside even more. Parents often tell their children, gently, that they would rather stay home.
For you, a move usually means becoming their main carer around a full-time job. That is a huge commitment, however much you love them. Care is work, and it is easier to do well when trained people share it.
Bringing them over or care at home in Lagos: side by side
How care at home in Lagos works from the UK
Home Care Nigeria is a nurse-led home care agency in Lagos. We look after your parent the way you would if you lived around the corner: someone they know, at the same time every day, who notices when something isn't right.
- You enquire from the UK. Tell us about your parent on the enquiry form. It takes a few minutes.
- A registered nurse visits your parent at home. They meet your parent and anyone living with them, read the medical notes, and agree safe ranges for readings like blood pressure and sugar. You can join by video call.
- Within 48 hours you get a written care plan and a monthly quote.
- Care starts. A trained caregiver visits daily or lives in. They check in at the home on our app and record the visit as it happens.
- The nurse signs every report before you see it, and you read it on the family portal, with readings, medicines given or refused, meals, mood and anything that worried the caregiver. Urgent concerns reach the nurse and you straight away.
Time zones: almost no difference
Lagos is on West Africa Time, UTC+1, all year. That's the same time as the UK in summer and one hour ahead in winter. You can read a morning report over breakfast, and call the nurse during your working day without anyone being up at night.
Paying from the UK
You pay us directly, by card or bank transfer, and every invoice appears on the family portal next to the visit reports, so you can see exactly what you paid for. Paying the agency directly also means the money for care doesn't pass through a relative. If you send money home for other costs, since 1 May 2026 transfers through licensed money transfer operators are paid out in naira, and the pound to naira rate you get depends on the operator. Our guide to making sure money sent home is spent on care explains how families keep it safe.
When you visit
Flights from London and Manchester to Lagos make it easy to visit. Meet the nurse and the caregiver in person when you come home, or plan the assessment around a trip. You don't have to wait for one, though: the nurse can do it with you on a video call.
Example: a daughter in Manchester and her mother in Lekki
This is an illustration of how care works, not a real client. Names and details are invented.
Funke is a nurse in Manchester. Her mother, 80, lives in Lekki with a house help. Over the past year her mother has started repeating questions and missing her tablets. Funke looked into the adult dependent relative visa, but her mother is still fairly independent, the fee and the odds were daunting, and her mother didn't want to spend the winter indoors in Manchester.
Funke enquired on a weekday evening. Two days later a nurse visited her mother at home, with Funke on a video call, and suggested a GP review for memory changes. The plan put a caregiver with her mother every morning: breakfast, tablets, a walk, and a blood pressure check, with the house help still there for the rest of the day.
Now Funke reads the report on the tram to work. When the report showed her mother had refused her tablets two days running, the nurse visited, found she was confused about which tablet was which, and arranged a pill organiser that the caregiver fills each week. Funke still calls every evening. Their calls are about family now, not about whether Mum ate.
Questions to ask any agency in Lagos
- Is a registered nurse responsible for my parent, and can I speak to them?
- Will I get a written report after every visit, or only a phone call?
- What checks have the caregivers had: ID, guarantor, references?
- What happens if the caregiver is sick, late or leaves?
- Who acts at night if something goes wrong, and how will I hear about it?
Our guides to early signs of dementia, hospitals in Lagos for older parents and old people's homes in Lagos go into more detail. See also how care is priced, and our pages for families in the US and Canada.