A Vietnamese family who have been in Australia for almost 10 years are fighting to be allowed to stay in the country after their sponsor made a mistake before “abandoning” them.
Thanh Duc Nguyen, 30, along with his parents and 20-year-old brother, had their application for permanent residency rejected for a reason beyond their control.
“We’ve been waiting and hoping for almost 10 years and because of someone else’s mistake we’ve been turned down. It’s very frustrating,” Duc told Daily Mail Australia.
That mistake was that his sponsor employed a worker in 2019 who had an expired visa, which nullified the sponsor’s ability to nominate any worker for permanent residence.
After appealing the decision, the family was rejected for another reason beyond their control: the sponsor was no longer considered financially strong enough.
The family, who live in Bathurst, New South Wales, now have only one option: lodge a ministerial intervention this week or risk losing “everything” they have worked hard for over the past decade.
Duc said his mother Hue, 54, moved to Australia in January 2015 after being sponsored as a head chef at a Vietnamese restaurant in Bathurst.
A few months later, he, his father, Hoa, 60, and his brother Justin, 20, joined her.
The Nguyen family (pictured, left to right: Duc, Hoa, Hue and Justin) had their application for permanent residency rejected after their sponsor made a mistake.
Hue, 54 (pictured serving customers) was sponsored in January 2015 to be head chef at a Vietnamese restaurant in Bathurst, New South Wales.
Two years later, Ms. Nguyen was eligible to apply for permanent residence for the family and submitted the application in June 2017.
More than two years later, in August 2019, the family received notice that they had been denied residency.
It was at that point that the Nguyens discovered that their sponsor, who owned the restaurant along with other businesses including a nail salon, had employed a person with an expired visa.
In March 2019, the company lost its ability to nominate workers, but the family was not informed until they received their rejection letter in August of the same year.
Adding to the family’s frustration was the fact that they had bought the restaurant from their sponsor just a month before it was rejected, because they were told they had no choice but to buy it.
“Our sponsor told us around April or May (2019) that they intended to close the restaurant and that if we wanted to continue with our visa, we had to buy the business,” Duc said.
‘We were told it was a requirement for our visa. If we didn’t buy it, they would close it and we would lose sponsorship.
‘At the time we didn’t know any different, so we did what we were told.
“Now we know that they shouldn’t have told us that. We didn’t understand the law or what to do.”
After discovering that their application was rejected just a month later, the Nguyens filed an appeal with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) in October of the same year.
But due to Covid, the process was delayed.
After finally being assigned three hearing dates during May and June last year, the family’s application was again unsuccessful.
This time the family was told that the reason was that the original sponsor’s financial position was not strong enough to sponsor Ms Nguyen.
The family reached out to the sponsor to try to “work together,” but they then stopped communicating with the family.
The sponsor told the family that the restaurant would close unless they bought it, and that buying it would be the only way they could stay in the country.
The family has been working mostly seven days a week to slowly pay off the restaurant, which they did last year (pictured, center, Justin and Hue with customers).
“They abandoned us last year. They made so many mistakes that I think they wanted to get rid of them,” Duc said.
“Our case is based on sponsorship and they no longer want to do that.”
After months of receiving no response from Ms Nguyen’s sponsor, the family filed an appeal to the Federal Court in September 2023 after receiving legal advice.
But after being told there is no fixed timeline for an outcome, the family has discontinued this appeal and will lodge a Ministerial Intervention with Immigration Minister Tony Burke later this week.
The family, who have worked almost seven days a week at their Vietnamese restaurant Anam, finally paid off their debt last August, but they fear it was all in vain.
“We will lose everything we have worked hard for over the past 10 years,” Duc said.
‘We will be very sad to leave when we have a strong connection with the community and many friends.
“We are very frustrated to have to leave our home.”
Duc, who came to Australia when he was 20 and is Anam’s manager, is worried that his brother, who was just 10 when the family arrived here, will have a worse time if they are forced to return to Vietnam.
“He has no friends in Vietnam. He couldn’t find a job because the education is different,” he said.
The family were told their sponsor made a mistake by hiring an employee with an expired visa, which meant they could no longer nominate workers (pictured, second from right, chef and owner of Vietnamese restaurant Anam, Hua Nguyen, 54, with customers and Justin in background)
“He wanted to go to university here but that was put on hold because it is very complicated with the visa.”
The 30-year-old said he is also worried about his mother and father’s financial future as pensions “don’t really exist” in Vietnam, where citizens must have worked for a company for some time in that country to be eligible.
“And if they could get the pension, it would be very little: $100 a month,” he said.
As well as having strong community ties, Duc said the area’s only Vietnamese restaurant is doing “really well” and catering to a wide range of locals, including families and students from Charles Sturt University.
“We pay our taxes. Last year we paid about $45,000 in GST alone,” he said.
“We are so grateful to run the restaurant in Bathurst and for all the great support.”
The family has contributed to the local Bathurst community and has strong ties and friendships (pictured, Hue with clients)
“But losing our home and our business would be losing everything,” Duc said.
As a sign of the local community’s support for the family, Bathurst Mayor Dr Jess Jennings sent a letter to the Immigration Minister in early July.
The mayor told the Daily Mail Australia that he organised a mayoral meeting to draft and sign a letter of support for the Nguyens; the vote was unanimous and all councillors signed it.
“We wanted to express our support for the family that is well established and contributes to the local economy and community,” he said.
‘The fact that they have more than 18,000 signatures of support shows how much people want them to stay.
‘Personally, I’ve been eating there (at Anam) for the last decade and I didn’t realize they were under a cloud of immigration.
‘I want them to stay in this community to which they belong.
‘They have also made a unique contribution to Bathurst’s culinary landscape, adding to the culture of (the city).’
The mayor will forward the council’s letter of support to the new immigration minister.