A deaf migrant father-of-three who was almost deported from Australia has been granted permanent residency.
Mohamed Barghachoun was told by the Department of Home Affairs in January that he would need to leave his home at Bexley, in Sydney‘s south.
It came despite Barghachoun having lived in the country for the last four years and marrying his Australian fiancée Jihan Merhi after leaving Lebanon in 2019.
Mr Barghachoun had paid a migration agent more than $1,500 to lodge his application for a partner visa.
Mohamed Barghachoun (right) has been granted a Former Resident visa, which is a type of permanent residency (pictured with wife, Jihan Merhi Barghachoun)
Mr Barghachoun claimed the agent had never properly lodged the application and had ignored letters from the Department of Home Affairs.
Despite the couple’s pleas to Home Affairs and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles, Mr Barghachoun’s visa was cancelled.
On Wednesday, the immigration minister intervened, granting a Former Resident visa, which is a type of permanent residency.
‘It’s just unbelievable. I am so happy,’ Mr Barghachoun told the ABC.
‘We are just so emotional, crying tears of joy,’ he said.
‘Now we can make plans with our family, think positive about our future and we can grow old together here as a family.’
Mr Barghachoun said he was thrilled he could now ‘watch our children grow up’.
The couple said they had difficulty dealing with department officials, as they can only communicate in writing or in Auslan, and cannot speak over the phone.
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The Department of Home Affairs’ decision record revealed they had supplied ‘satisfactory’ evidence of their relationship when they made the partner visa application in May 2019.
The document said officials then tried unsuccessfully to contact their migration agent six times between August 2019 and January 2022.
A rejection letter was sent to the agent after the department failed to reach him on each occasion.
The letter informed the agent that his client had 21 days to appeal the decision at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Mr Barghachoun said he was thrilled he could now ‘watch our children grow up’ and make plans for his family’s future
The couple claimed their migration agent had never properly lodged Mr Barghachoun’s visa application
Mr Barghachoun said he had no idea about the letter and only discovered his application had been rejected when his Medicare card was cancelled.
Despite the couple’s claim of being misled by their agent, the immigration minister’s office told Mr Barghachoun in January that his visa had expired, and he must leave Australia.
With the help of Auslan interpreters, Ms Merhi contacted the Department of Home Affairs’s Immigration and Citizenship, which said it had no evidence of her marriage or three children.
On January 23, the federal government granted a last-minute three-month visa extension to Mr Barghachoun, 24 hours before he was due to get on a plane to leave the country.
Ms Merhi grew up in Australia and met her husband online while he lived in Lebanon and said the pair had connected over their shared disability.
