by A Sydney family is facing deportation from Australia after 13 years — despite one of their children being born here.
Emma and Nathan Mills left the UK for Australia in 2010 with their two children, and have since had a third who is an Australian citizen.
They came on 457 skilled worker visas but also planned to care for Emma’s dad, an Aussie citizen who has problems with his spine and mental health.
They settled in Sutherland shire, south of Sydney, with children Harry, who is doing his HSC; James, now 21; and daughter Daisy Grace, 11; who was born in Australia.
But now they face returning to England after being unable to secure a permanent visa.
“This is our home. We’ve built a life here,” Emma told Chris O’Keefe on 2GB.
“It’s just hard to comprehend that this is even happening.”
Emma said changes in the immigration system as well as her husband’s employment impacted his ability to apply for permanent residency, which would allow the family to stay.
He is an employment advisor, while she cares for her father and their children.
The family applied for a carer visa based on the support given to Emma’s father, but were rejected.
Emma said she found out when her children’s schools called to say their enrolments had been cancelled as a result of the visa revocations.
“The principal informed me that from the Monday she [Daisy Grace] was not permitted to return to school. I was in shock and disbelief,” she told O’Keefe.
“I then got a call from Engadine High School with the same news.
“What shocked me and frightened me the most is my eldest son (still in school) was due to sit his HSC the following week.”
The Mills family won an appeal in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal that should have allowed them to stay but were never granted their visas.
Then, on April 13, Emma said they got a letter from the Home Affairs Department telling them they had 35 days to leave, or they might be detained and deported.
Their Medicare cards have also been cancelled.
Emma, who pledged to keep fighting their case, said her father was “absolutely devastated”.
“We’ve tried to do everything the right way,” she said.
“Are we going to be sent back to a country that is essentially foreign to us all now?
“My children don’t have lives or memories of the UK, they have memories of Australia. This is their home.”
Emma noted her family had never gone to Centrelink for help and appealed to Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to reconsider the decision.
Minister Giles’ office told 2GB he was unable to comment on individual cases.
