The Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia has recently considered whether an adult child who is “incapacitated for work” must be wholly incapacitated in order to be eligible for grant of a Child visa. The Court held that a person need not be wholly incapacitated for work to be eligible for a Child visa, but may be substantially incapacitated.
The Court found that the purpose of the Migration Regulations was essentially to allow grant of a visa to an adult child who, by reason of substantial incapacity to work, was financially dependent on his/her parents.
The Court held “we consider that “incapacitated for work” does not mean exclusively wholly incapacitated, but may extend to substantially incapacitated for work. It would not be appropriate to extend it to trivially or only minimally incapacitated for work because there would not be significant impairment of income earning ability.”
Rothstein Lawyers are very glad to see the Court take a common sense approach in this decision
