Hi Louise
Very strict. as in no room for movement where the legislation is clear. In the case you are mentioning, you do not get past first base as the definition of Remaining Relative does not allow the sponsoring of parents - you must be the "parent, brother, sister, step-parent, step- brother or step-sister of the applicant"
If you were to get past this base, there is an allowance of up to three overseas relatives if they are resident in a different country to the applicant and have had little or no contact with each other for some time. So again, unless your adopted sibling was residing in another country, this would disqualify your parents also. This allowance for 3 overseas near relatives vanishes from 01 November 2005 when the definition gets even stricter.
So they have possible Retirement Investment visa option.
If you think you have a special case with the circumstances of the adopted sibling, the only way you can go to the Minister for compbuttionate consideration would be if your parents had applied for a permanent visa, e.g. Parent visa, been refused, then had appealed to the MRT, been refused, then the Minister can, but very rarely does, make a favourable decision.
Tony
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