Residence Permit for Minor Assistance and Family Balancing: What the TAR Campania Says

 Residence Permit for Minor Assistance and Family Balancing: What the TAR Campania Says

Good morning, I am lawyer Fabio Loscerbo and this is a new episode of the podcast “Immigration Law”.

Today we examine a particularly significant decision by the Regional Administrative Court of Campania, Sixth Section, published on 9 July 2025, with number 5148 of the year 2025, concerning the revocation of a residence permit for employment reasons issued by the Police Headquarters of Benevento. It is a case that clarifies a crucial point: when family ties are involved—especially those concerning a minor—the administration must perform a genuine balancing assessment between the public interest and the protection of family life.

In this case, the Police Headquarters had revoked the residence permit, considering the declared employment relationship fictitious, since the company where the foreign citizen was supposedly employed did not exist. The applicant, however, demonstrated her family situation: she is the mother of a young child living in Italy and part of a fragile domestic context due to the father’s health conditions.

The administration argued that this situation could be addressed through the residence permit for minor assistance, the instrument provided under Article 31 of the Italian Immigration Act. In other words, the Police Headquarters believed that maintaining the employment-based permit was unnecessary, as the woman could resort to this alternative form of protection.

The Regional Administrative Court rejected this approach. According to well-established case law—also reaffirmed by the Council of State, Third Section, in its decision of 24 June 2022, number 5210—the administration, when examining the issuance, renewal, or revocation of any residence permit, must concretely evaluate the individual’s family ties, and cannot delegate this constitutional obligation to alternative legal institutions.

The Court also clarified the function of the minor-assistance permit. It serves a very specific purpose: it is granted “for serious reasons connected to the psychological and physical development of the minor” and it is revocable when those conditions cease. It cannot be used as an automatic replacement for an ordinary residence permit based on stable family life, nor can it serve as a shortcut to bypass the legally required balancing exercise.

The core of the ruling is clear: the protection of family unity requires a concrete, current and complete evaluation. Since the Police Headquarters failed to perform this assessment, the revocation was deemed unlawful and annulled.

The decision also recalls Article 22 of the Italian Immigration Act, noting that the loss of employment does not automatically lead to the revocation of a residence permit, and that the individual has the right to a minimum period in which to seek new employment.

This is an important ruling, relevant to all situations where the administration attempts procedural shortcuts, overlooking the family reality and the needs of the minor involved. Immigration is never a purely bureaucratic matter: it concerns personal histories, parental responsibilities and integration processes that the legal system protects with precision.

I am lawyer Fabio Loscerbo. Thank you for listening to this new episode of the podcast “Immigration Law”. We will meet again soon for another in-depth analysis.