Men (Migration)

This matter concerned an application for approval as a parent sponsor, where the applicant sought to combine his income with that of his partner to meet the relevant income test. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal had before it the Department's file, the delegate's decision record, and notices of assessment from the Australian Taxation Office for both the applicant and his partner for the 2019 financial year. The Tribunal also confirmed the partner's visa status.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant met the income test requirements for approval as a parent sponsor, as stipulated by regulation 2.60U(1)(f) and elaborated in regulation 2.60W of the Migration Regulations 1994. Specifically, the Tribunal had to determine if the applicant's taxable income, when combined with his partner's, met the threshold specified in Legislative Instrument Number 19/146 for the relevant income year.

The Tribunal reasoned that regulation 2.60W(2) permitted the combination of an applicant's taxable income with that of their spouse or de facto partner. It was satisfied that the applicant's partner qualified under this provision. The delegate had incorrectly assessed the applicant's income based on the 2018 financial year, which was not the most recent completed taxable income year prior to the application's lodgement in November 2019. The Tribunal considered the 2019 financial year notices of assessment, which showed the applicant's taxable income as $50,260 and his partner's as $36,018. When combined, this total income exceeded the prescribed amount of $83,454.80.

Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that the applicant met the criteria for approval as a parent sponsor. The Tribunal set aside the delegate's decision and substituted it with a decision to approve the applicant as a family sponsor in relation to the parent sponsor class.