1600855 (Migration)

This matter concerned an appeal by Mr Suwanjarat against a decision not to grant him a Contributory Aged Parent (Temporary) (Class UU) visa. The central dispute revolved around whether Mr Suwanjarat was the legally adopted child of Ms Natcharoen, an Australian citizen. The Tribunal was required to determine if the circumstances of Mr Suwanjarat's upbringing and the subsequent registration of his adoption in Thailand met the criteria for adoption as defined by Regulation 1.04 of the Migration Regulations 1994.

The legal issues before the court were whether Ms Natcharoen had assumed a parental role in relation to Mr Suwanjarat before he attained the age of 18, and if so, whether this was under formal adoption arrangements recognised by Australian law or the law of another country, or under other arrangements considered to be in the nature of adoption. Specifically, the court had to consider if the Thai adoption registration, which occurred when Mr Suwanjarat was 36 years old, satisfied the requirements of Regulation 1.04(1)(b) or 1.04(1)(c).

The Tribunal found that Mr Suwanjarat did not meet the criteria for adoption under Regulation 1.04. While Ms Natcharoen had cared for Mr Suwanjarat from a young age and provided financial support, the arrangement was described as informal, between sisters, and not a formal adoption at the time. Crucially, Mr Suwanjarat was over 18 when his adoption was registered in Thailand, and the stated purpose of this registration was to facilitate property transfer, not to establish a legal parent-child relationship that would have ceased the recognition of his biological parents. The Tribunal concluded that the arrangements did not meet the definition of formal adoption under Regulation 1.04(1)(b) as the biological parents were not legally recognised as ceasing to be parents, nor did they meet the criteria for other arrangements in the nature of adoption under Regulation 1.04(1)(c) due to the age of the applicant at the time of registration and the lack of evidence that formal adoption was unavailable or impracticable.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant Mr Suwanjarat the visa.