Dependent adult daughter without invalidity: the Court of Turin recognises the residence permit for family reasons even when applied for after reaching adulthood
June 26, 2026 | Studio Legale Oltre
The Court of Turin, Ninth Civil Section, with judgment of 26 June 2026 (case R.G. 864/2025), has upheld the appeal represented by lawyers Alberto Pasquero and Marylanda Abdullaj of Studio Legale Oltre, recognising the right to a residence permit for family reasons for a 21-year-old Argentine woman. The applicant, who arrived in Italy at the age of 19, lives with her mother — lawfully resident and employed as a nurse — is a university student, entirely supported by her family, and has a documented condition of psycho-physical vulnerability. The Turin Police Commissioner had declared her application inadmissible because it did not fall within Article 29(1)(c) of the Consolidated Immigration Act, which covers dependent adult children only if totally invalid.
The Court held that Article 29(1)(c) of Legislative Decree 286/98 must be interpreted in light of constitutional principles (Articles 2, 3, 29 and 30 of the Constitution) and of Directive 2003/86/EC on family reunification: this requires a concrete and individualised assessment of the effectiveness of the family bond, stable cohabitation, real economic dependence and personal and health conditions, without stopping at the formal requirement of “total invalidity”, which is absent from the text of the Directive. Also recalling Ministry of the Interior circular no. 17272/7 of 28 March 2008 and Article 5(5) of the Immigration Act, the Court excluded that prior possession of a family permit could serve as a dividing line, which would create an unreasonable disparity of treatment under Article 3 of the Constitution, and transmitted the case file to the Police Commissioner for the issue of the permit.
The judgment thus extends the protection of family unity to dependent adult children even outside cases of total invalidity, giving weight to actual economic dependence, the course of study and the condition of vulnerability.
This article is of a general informative nature and does not constitute legal advice. For a specific assessment of your case, we invite you to contact the Firm.