By Avneet Arora | SBS | Australia |
All doors seem to have closed on Mr Singh and his family, who have built a life and home on the Gold Coast.
Faced with the prospect of deportation to India, the family has lodged a petition seeking public support for their campaign to be allowed to stay in the country permanently.
The petition has garnered over 12,000 signatures and myriads of empathetic comments, but that hasn’t impacted their visa status.
Speaking to SBS Punjabi, the 37-year-old says returning was never an option.
“I have studied, lived and worked here. I have an eight-year-old son who was born here and has never visited India. If deported, we would have no pathway to return, which might impact my family’s future, especially my son’s health and education,” he tells SBS Punjabi.
Mr Singh came to Australia on a student visa in 2008. He pursued a bachelor’s degree in social welfare but went on to work as a manager at a local restaurant.
In 2016, he applied for the regional sponsored visa (Subclass 187) that allows skilled workers nominated by their employer in regional Australia to live and work there permanently.
But as luck would have it, his visa application was rejected. Following this, Mr Singh applied for a ministerial intervention which too was unsuccessful.
Read the the full story here.
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