News & Insights

After a long battle for Australian residency, Macpherson Kelley client the Mills family has been granted permanent residency by the Department of Immigration. Principal Lawyer and Accredited Specialist in Immigration Kian Bone worked diligently to ensure the family could remain in the country that they had called home for more than a decade.

Often considered the ‘last resort’ for immigration matters, Macpherson Kelley petitioned the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Hon Andrew Giles MP personally through the Mills’ local federal member Jenny Ware MP and the Shadow Minister for Immigration, Dan Tehan MP to exercise his power to allow the Mills family to remain in Australia.

The family and Kian’s team also appealed to the media to highlight the unfairness and compassionate grounds involved in the Mills family’s circumstances. “The Mills family have always acted in good faith and have been adversely affected by a number of changes in migration legislation that have prevented them from becoming permanent residents,” said Principal Lawyer Kian Bone.

“There are real people behind immigration matters, with genuine reasons to stay and that’s what we wanted to remind the Minister and the public,” said Kian.

A complicated legal process, the family first entered Australia on a 457 skilled worker visa and eventually applied for a carer’s visa so that Emma Mills could care for her father, an Australian citizen who was suffering from serious health issues. The visa was refused which was when the family engaged Macpherson Kelley to advise them through the appeals process.

The family was successful at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, but upon applying again for permanent residency, their application was, in Macpherson Kelley’s view, wrongly refused, thus triggering the department to issue a deportation notice.

Without adequate time to undergo a lengthy appeals process, Macpherson Kelley submitted a plea to Hon Minister Andrew Giles MP to exercise his intervention powers which, following some administrative hurdles, he eventually did, granting Emma, her husband Nathan, her sons Harry and James permanent residency. Emma’s daughter Daisy was born in Australia and obtained Australian citizenship on her 10th birthday.

“PR means everything for the Mills family and now they can enjoy the things that many Australian citizens take for granted,” said Kian.

“Their middle son, Harry, now gets to travel to Fiji for schoolies. James, their eldest son, can stay in Australia with his long-term girlfriend. They will not be forced to uproot their lives and move back to a country in which they have not lived for over a decade – I cannot be happier for them.”

The information contained in this article is general in nature and cannot be relied on as legal advice nor does it create an engagement. Please contact one of our lawyers listed above for advice about your specific situation.