The federal government has promised to change “ridiculous” rules that were forcing parent visa applicants on dangerous trips overseas in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
In recent months, the home affairs department has been writing to some applicants for permanent parent visas, telling them that to gain final approval they must immediately make plans to travel overseas and stay offshore for at least three days, before returning to the country.
The letters left applicants with a stark choice: leave Australia and return in the middle of a pandemic or risk having their costly and protracted visa application collapse.
The government’s position was described as “madness”.
It led people like Ron and Julie Parsons to travel to the Covid-stricken United Kingdom just as the new mutant variant was taking hold. They were trapped abroad for weeks and spent $67,000 – their life savings – on aborted flights before finally managing to find a way home. It was a “nightmare”, they said.
The immigration minister, Alex Hawke, has now announced he will pursue changes allowing parent visa applicants to be granted their visas while onshore. The changes are expected to take effect in the first quarter of 2021.
“The government is pursuing changes to allow certain parent visa applicants who have applied for their visa outside Australia to be granted that visa while in Australia during the Covid-19 period,” Hawke said in a statement on Thursday.
“This temporary concession would apply to parent visa subclasses and will allow eligible applicants who are in Australia and unable to travel offshore due to Covid-19 impacts to be granted that visa.”
The government had previously resisted making such changes. The former immigration minister, Alan Tudge, caved to previous pressure in November and promised to end similar offshore requirements for partner visas. Those changes are yet to be implemented. Tudge, at the time, also refused to extend the changes to parent visas.
The Parsons on Thursday night welcomed the announcement. They told the Guardian they were “really happy for all those who will benefit from this point forward”. “It’s unfortunate it’s come a little too late for us,” they said in a statement.
The Labor MP Julian Hill campaigned on the issue for weeks. He said Hawke’s announcement was “too little, too late” and did not go far enough.
“Hundreds of Australians have already been forced to fly overseas and back again, wasting their savings and risking their health,” he told the Guardian. “They promised this for partners two months ago and now they say maybe in another few months [for parents].”
He also questioned what would be done about the dozens of other visa categories that require applicants to be offshore at the time of final approval. Hill said a private member’s bill he plans to introduce to change the Migration Act would fix the issue in its entirety.
Prior to Thursday’s announcement, the government had put in place measures to try to prevent parent visa applicants from travelling, including by giving them temporary extensions on their visa applications.
But the department also “inadvertently” sent out letters to applicants that said nothing of the temporary extensions nor made any mention of the pandemic.
That left applicants like the Parsons confused and afraid. The department was non-responsive to the queries of some applicants, leaving them with little choice but to follow the letters and make plans to travel overseas.
“We felt absolutely beholden to them,” Ron Parsons told the Guardian previously. “It was terrible, although we knew it was wrong, we thought ‘This can’t be right it’s so ridiculous’.”
