A family has been ‘almost annihilated’ after receiving 35-day marching orders to leave Australia despite the birth of one of their children in the country.
Nathan and Emma Mills are “absolutely devastated” by their immigration squabbles in the country they have called home for the past 13 years.
The couple arrived in Australia from the UK in 2010 with two young children and have since had a third who is an Australian citizen.
The family came up with 457 skilled worker visas to care for Emma’s father, an Australian citizen who suffers from severe spinal and mental health problems.
Nathan and Emma Mills arrived in Australia from the UK in 2010 with two young children and have since had a third who is an Australian citizen (pictured, with their family now facing deportation)
When the family arrived in Australia, they settled with their children in the Sutherland shire, south of Sydney.
But now, 13 years later, they are being kicked out of the country despite multiple attempts to get a permanent visa.
On April 13, Emma received a letter from the Home Office saying they had 35 days to leave or they could be detained and deported.
“Being told you have 35 days to pack up and leave the country, that’s just crazy, and it’s not even an option for us,” Emma said. A current situation.
“It almost destroyed our family and as a mother it is extremely difficult not to be able to assure and guarantee your children that their future will be here.”
Since then, the family have applied for bridging visas as they await their fate and have been advised not to leave Australia while their status is up in the air.
Nathan was forced to stay in the countryside while his mother in the UK was seriously ill a few weeks ago.
‘[I was] devastated, totally devastated, it’s not only my mother but also my father who is 80 years old and needed help and I couldn’t do anything and it was terrible,’ said a tearful Nathan.
The family has been told that their children’s school registrations are invalid because their visas have been revoked.
This is despite the fact that their middle child Harry, halfway through his HSC and daughter Daisy Grace, was born in Australia.
A ‘devastated’ Nathan (pictured) was forced to stay in the country while his mother in the UK was seriously ill a few weeks ago as their visa status was up in the air
The federal government denied multiple attempts by the Mills family to obtain a caregiver visa to care for a sick relative. After 13 years in the country, they are told to return to the UK (Photo: Emma Mills with her Australian-born daughter Daisy Grace)
told Emma 2GB Drive presenter Chris O’Keefe had tried three times to apply for permanent residency.
‘This is our house. We’ve built a life here… It’s just hard to believe this is happening at all,’ Emma said.
She says changes in immigration requirements continue to move the goalposts of what they need to stay in Australia, and the family applied for a caretaker visa on the basis of support for Emma’s father, but were rejected.
Emma said she heard they were being sent back to the UK from their children’s schools.
“The director has informed me that from Monday [Daisy Grace] was no longer allowed to go to school. I was in shock and disbelief,” she said.
‘Then I got a call from the Engadin High School with the same news. What shocked and frightened me the most is that my eldest son (who is still in school) would take his HSC next week.”
The family won an appeal to the Administrative Appeal Tribunal which they say should have seen them get the caretaker visa but it never did.
It was after that that they got the damning letter to leave the country.
Emma says she has tried to do everything the right way and will continue to fight, adding that her father is “absolutely devastated” by the news.
The couple have three children, one of whom was born in Australia and another in mid-year of HSC (Emma pictured with eldest son James)
“Are we going to be sent back to a country that is now really foreign to all of us?” she said.
My children have no life or memories of the UK, they have memories of Australia. This is their home.’
The Department of Home Affairs website states that to be eligible for a caretaker visa, the person must have an appropriate sponsor who is either an Australian citizen, permanent resident or New Zealand citizen.
Immigration Secretary Andrew Giles was unable to comment on individual cases due to privacy concerns, the department said in a statement.
Daily Mail Australia has also contacted Home Affairs and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles for comment.
