A family who moved to Australia to help care for a dying relative is fighting to stay in the country after being asked to leave just hours after their loved one died.
Bonnieta Silvery “gave up everything” in India and moved to Melbourne in 2016 to look after her sister Charlotte Dara who was diagnosed with a rare and life-threatening blood disorder.
The 47-year-old started building a life here – her husband getting a job and son starting university – while she spent “day and night” with her sister, but when Dara passed away she was told the visa she’d been waiting years for was no longer on the table.
“They’re just kicking us out,” Silvery told 9news.com.au.
Silvery had initially been travelling back and forth between Melbourne and India, only deciding to move after her Dara and her husband Samuel suggested she make it permanent with the whole family.
She applied for the carer visa, which allows permanent residency, with her husband Brendon and son Joshua after winding up their successful wedding business in India.
The government worker said the family passed the strict rules to qualify for the visa, which costs just under $4000.
That included her sister being examined by BUPA doctors assigned by the government who agreed she needed a carer and she would live for two years.
They were living in Australia under a bridging visa while they waited a notoriously long waiting period for the other to be approved.
The Department of Home Affairs website said the wait for new applications for the carer visa was seven years as of last month.
An expert told nine.com.au when the family applied that it was about three years.
As they waited, Dara got progressively sicker with severe aplastic anemia – a rare disorder in which the bone marrow fails to produce enough blood cells.
Silvery spent most of her time looking after her sister, who was an Australian citizen, often leaving her husband and son alone in their new country while juggling a full-time job.
“I was in the hospital day and night with her,” she said.
Her husband started a successful business in event management and transport, while her son enrolled in university.
The family were heartened when they were contacted by the department asking for more information to process the visa, indicating it was finally getting to the front of the line. The visa would then allow them to stay for good, whether or not her sister was alive.
Days later, Dara died.
Callous email on day of beloved sister’s death
Silvery contacted immigration officials to let them know of her older sister’s death on the day she passed, October 21, 2019.
She was shocked when she received an email back to notify the family their visa had been refused and they had 35 days to leave the country.
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”They did not show any empathy that I’ve just lost my sister,” she said.
“We would not have given up everything in India before making the big move if it was a temporary visa.”
The family went to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to have the decision overturned, but officials said they no longer qualified for that visa as her sister died.
The years they spent waiting for the visa to be processed while caring for Dara, which Silvery argued saved the government money, didn’t matter.
“I feel like we’ve been used and abused,” she said.
The family is not allowed to leave the country while they fight to remain.
“We’ve been living like prisoners,” Silvery said.
They face having to return to Hyderabad in India in June.
It’s a prospect Silvery said has caused them all, including her widowed brother-in-law, severe stress.
Her son is the only one who can stay, as he’d qualify for a student visa while studying.
But that doesn’t help his parents who wouldn’t qualify for any other other type of visa.
‘It’s not the Australian way’: Carers’ contribution not valued by government
What the family is going through is “very common”, according to migration agent Mateja Rautner.
She argued the government should recognise the valuable contribution carers make to the Australian community.
“The carers who come to Australia to look after their relatives come with genuine intentions to help, and often put their own lives on hold to help others,” Rautner told 9news.com.au.
“It is not fair or compassionate, and not the Australian way that these visa holders are requested to leave Australia in such a short and abrupt manner when dealing with the loss of a family member they cared for.
“They should be shown compassion and be allowed to stay in Australia permanently.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs refused to comment on the Silvery family’s case.
“All non-citizens applying for visas to enter and remain in Australia are considered on an individual basis and against legal requirements set out in Australia’s migration legislation,” a statement to 9news.com.au said.
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