1919165 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa by a dependent child who had turned 18. The applicant was seeking to be recognised as a member of the family unit of their mother, who had already been granted a protection visa. The applicant had previously worked part-time but was now studying full-time.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant, having turned 18, still met the criteria for being a member of the family unit for the purposes of a protection visa, specifically concerning the requirement of dependency. The Tribunal had to determine if there was a requirement for the dependency to have existed for a substantial period prior to the application.

The Tribunal reasoned that the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) did not impose a requirement that dependency must have existed for a substantial period. It found that the applicant's current full-time study and previous part-time work, coupled with their status as a dependent child of a protection visa holder, satisfied the relevant criteria. Consequently, the Tribunal remitted the matter for reconsideration with a direction that the applicant satisfied section 36(2)(b) of the Migration Act.