The request for preliminary ruling was lodged by the Federal Administrative Court of Germany, in the context of a dispute between SE, an Afghan national, and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), which refused to grant him refugee or subsidiary protection as a derived right from the international protection status of his son, who was a beneficiary of subsidiary protection. It concerned the recast Qualification Directive, Article 2(j). The referring court asked the CJEU to determine the relevant date for assessing whether the beneficiary of international protection is a minor.

The CJEU noted that the beneficiary of subsidiary protection was recognised this status on 13 May 2016, after he attained majority age, after having applied for protection while he was still a minor, on 21 April 2016.

The CJEU rejected the suggestion of the German Government that the date on which the competent authority of the Member State concerned decides on the asylum application submitted by the parent should be retained as the relevant date, given that in this case national authorities and courts would not be encouraged to prioritise the requests presented by the parents of minors thus not taking into account the vulnerability of the minors and could jeopardize the right to family life. In this context, the CJEU held that the relevant date for assessing whether the beneficiary of international protection is a “minor”, in order to rule on the asylum application lodged by his parent, is the date on which the parent submitted the request. The court held that such an interpretation is consistent with the purposes of the recast Qualification Directive and with fundamental rights. The court further noted that, where a distinction is made, in the national system, between an informal request and the submission of a request, in the event that the applicant informally submitted his application while his child was still a minor, such an applicant must, in principle, be considered as being at that date a member of the family of the beneficiary of subsidiary protection.