Last night, Greater Shepparton's John Fanning received an email that made his heart sink — "Your application has been rejected".
Stranded in a caravan park on the New South Wales North Coast with his wife Lynn, he'd been eagerly waiting for a reply.
But any hope the grey nomads will be allowed back into Victoria so Mr Fanning can care for his father, who is in hospital in Ballarat, now seems dashed.
"If he gets released, who's going to care for him?" Mr Fanning said.
Begging to be allowed back home
About 16,000 people in NSW have applied to the Victorian government for travel exemptions since July.
The state Member for Shepparton, Suzanna Sheed, said while she had been able to help some residents with exceptional cases return, many were still in limbo.
She is urging the Victorian government to address the issue as vaccination becomes the main goal for the state.
"Most of these people took advantage of vaccination early on," Ms Sheed said.
Waiting weeks to move to new house
Carl and Brenda King were another couple caught out by the border closure.
The Leeton duo were stranded in Tocumwal for 17 days while trying to make their way across the border to their new home in Shepparton.
After being rejected for two exemption applications, they were finally approved for their third.
In the meantime they had four negative COVID-19 tests.
"Now we have to go through the 14 days of isolation," Mr King said.
Grey nomads face uncertain future
The Fannings set off for Queensland in June.
But six weeks later, as they approached the Queensland border, NSW COVID numbers spiked and the state was declared an extreme risk zone by Victoria.
They decided to wait at a NSW caravan park until the situation changed, but seven weeks have now passed.
The couple says the entire process has been "shambolic".
"The worst thing about it is, you’ve got no idea when you’ll be allowed to go home," Mr Fanning said.
"Is it going to be September, October, November?
