Balance of Family Test when eligible child does not live in Australia

[Timmin]

Hi everyone,

 

I have a somewhat technical question on whether a specific scenario will pass the Balance of Family test for a Contributory Parent visa (143), and would appreciate your inputs.

 

Consider this scenario:

 

Parent has 3 adult children that will be counted in the Balance of Family test, where:

• Child 1 is an Australian citizen (and also the sponsor) and lives in Australia
• Child 2 is an Australian citizen and lives in the United States
• Child 3 is not an Australian citizen and lives in South Africa

 

As per the Immigration & Citizenship website:

 

A parent meets the balance of family test if:

• at least half their children and stepchildren are eligible children, or
• there are more eligible children than children living in any other single country

 

and

 

A child is an eligible child if they are:

• an Australian citizen, or 
• an Australian permanent resident usually resident in Australia, or
• an eligible New Zealand citizen usually resident in Australia

 

 

My interpretation is that 2 children are considered eligible due to their Australian citizenship and that the test will pass since more than half of the children are eligible children. The "or" keyword between the eligibility rules lead me to believe that the rules are mutually exclusive and that the first rule ("at least half their children and stepchildren are eligible children") is satisfied in this case.

 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

 

Thanks!

 

[Timmin]

Bumping this thread for visibility