The importance of understanding who is a dependent for the purposes of Immigration.

Most visas allow for the primary applicant to include members of their family unit as dependents on the visa application. This affords dependent applicants the same visa conditions as the primary applicant in terms of work and study rights, travel allowances and temporary or permanent visa status.

For the purposes of visa applications, members of a family unit are:

• The spouse or de facto partner of the primary applicant
• A child or step-child of the primary applicant or spouse/de facto partner of the primary applicant who is under the age of 18.
• A child or step-child of the primary applicant or spouse/de facto partner of the primary applicant who is between the age of 18 and 23 and is dependent on the family head.
• A child or step-child of the primary applicant or spouse/de facto partner of the primary applicant who is over the age of 23 and can show that they are wholly or substantially reliant on the family hear for financial support to meet basic needs for food, clothing and shelter.
• A child or step-child of the primary applicant or spouse/de facto partner of the primary applicant who is incapacitated for work due to the total or partial loss of the first person’s bodily or mental functions.

When the visa applicant includes family members, the primary applicant is required to meet all the criteria for the specified visa, however the members of the family unit are only required to meet secondary criteria including satisfying public interest criteria.

In this case the applicant engaged Immigration Solutions Lawyers to assist in the application of an Employer Nominated Scheme subclass 186 visa through the Temporary Resident Transition Stream. The applicant has a wife and two children and required them to be included on the application.

Immigration Solutions Lawyers were able to demonstration that the primary applicant met all the criteria for the 186 visa and as the family unit included the primary applicant’s wife and two children under the age of 18 years, they met the criteria to be included as dependents in the 186 application.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection granted the applicant, his wife and two children the permanent Employer Nominated Scheme subclass 186 visas.

Click here to read more about Immigration Solutions Lawyers and Anne O’Donoghue.