Angela and David Wilson-Stone along with their 15-year-old daughter Heather, may have to leave Australia- a country they moved to six years ago with a dream of having an enduring home.
The family may be deported in two months after having exhausted their visa options, despite putting their home and business on the line in their bid to stay in Australia.
“We ‘re in a state of devastation, panic and worry. We don’t know what to do,” Mrs Wilson-Stone told .
The family’s application for permanent residency in Australia was rejected in 2013 because of the suburb they lived in.
After arriving in Australia in 2011 on a , the family settled in Redbank Plains in south-west of Brisbane only to realise two years later that they had not been living in a designated regional or low population growth area which is just 20 minutes from where they lived.
In 2014, the federal member for Blair Shayne Neumann said the family had been misled about their visa entitlements.
Since the refusal of their first application, they have applied for several other visas, including a medical visa after Mrs Wilson-Stone was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, but they were all refused.
“We have spent upwards of $30,000 (on visa applications) and there are none left that apply to our circumstances,” she said.
The family’s appeal for a special ministerial intervention has been turned down.
A spokesperson of the Immigration Department said the minister couldn’t be compelled to intervene in every case.
“A person is able to write to the Minister and request intervention, however the Minister cannot be compelled to exercise his powers and he is not required to explain his decisions on any case,” The Courier Mail quoted a department spokesperson as saying.
