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In order to be eligible for the grant of a student visa, applicants aged less than 18 years of age must satisfy public interest criterion 4017 (outlined below).

The public interest criterion 4017 states:

The Minister is satisfied of 1 of the following:

(a) the law of the applicant’s home country permits the removal of the applicant;
(b) each person who can lawfully determine where the applicant is to live consents to the grant of the visa;
(c) the grant of the visa would be consistent with any Australian child order in force in relation to the applicant.

It is the policy of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship that in assessing the above requirement the mere fact (or claim) that a non-custodial parent has had no contact with the child for a long time (or cannot be located) does not negate that person’s rights with regard to the child. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that this parent consents to the grant of a visa. In such cases, 4017(b), outlined above, cannot be met and the applicants will need to satisfy 4017(a), also above, i.e. the sponsor/family head will need to obtain a court order permitting removal of the child, or provide other evidence that the laws of the child’s home country permits removal of the child.

In order to meet this requirement, applicants must provide either:

A - consent from the child’s non-custodial parent for them to migrate. Please note permission from the child’s parent must be in the form of a written declaration and must be witnessed by the local People’s Committee (if the parent is in Vietnam) or a Notary Public (if the parent is in a country other than Vietnam). This written permission must be accompanied by certified copies of the parent’s identification card and household registration (if in Vietnam) or evidence of identity and current contact address (if outside Vietnam) to enable the Department to verify the permission with the child’s parent.

Or

B - In a case where the birth certificate of the child has both parents named, but it is claimed that one parent could not be contacted for a long time, then this Department requires that

(i) A Court Decision recognising that one of the parents is missing is submitted to support the migration application. This Court Decision should be issued by the Local District Court.

(ii) Following receipt of the above official confirmation from the Court, the parent of the child should register and subsequently be issued with a Certificate of Natural Guardianship at the respective office as stated at Article 42 of Decree 83/1998ND-CP of the Vietnamese Government.

Or

C - In the case where the Birth Certificate of the child does not show the name of the father/mother then this Department will require:

(i) A confirmation from the Local Authority which originally issued the birth
certificate for the child confirming that there have been no amendments
made to the birth certificate of the child since the original was registered.

Last updated 25 August 2008