New Zealanders (Australian citizens) applying for child visa for child with autism

In 2009, my husband, two young children and I moved from New Zealand to Brisbane,  Australia. My sister was already living in Australia so we moved to be closer to her and for a better lifestyle and more opportunities for our family. We settled quickly with jobs, built a house and the kids were thriving - we were living the ‘Australian Dream’.

We knew early on that Australia would be home. My husband gained his citizenship in 2012. It was a very straightforward process as his father is Australian so my husband was able to gain Citizenship by Descent. By this time, I started to look into pathways for myself and our two children to also gain permanent residency so we could all eventually become Australian Citizens. As I had travelled to Australia when I was a child, I was able to meet the criteria to apply for permanent residency under the Return Resident Visa (RRV) pathway. Again, I found this a straightforward process and once I was granted my permanent residency, I was excited to be able to sponsor my children so they could also gain permanent residency (Visa Subclass 802) and have a pathway to citizenship.

As proudly as I stood at my citizenship ceremony in September 2015, it was a really bittersweet day for me as it came only a few weeks after I had received the devastating news that my son Cameron’s permanent residency visa had been declined due to him not meeting heath requirements. Both myself and my two children are vision impaired and legally blind but this did not seem to pose an issue - after all, my visa and my daughter’s visas were granted so I was really taken aback that Cameron’s visa was declined. Upon further contact with Immigration, I was told this was due to Cameron’s autism and intellectual disability. He did not meet the health requirements to become a permanent resident as the estimated cost to support him was deemed to be a ‘burden’ on the Australian Commonwealth.

The figure they estimated Cameron to cost the Australian government was absurd, especially given that as a New Zealand citizen, Cameron was already entitled to use  Medicare, to access special schooling and to access a disability pension at age 16 under the Trans-Tasman agreement.

With the help and support of our friends, family and a wonderful migration agent, we fought a tough battle for Cameron. We applied for a health waiver but this  was declined. Dissatisfied with that, we appealed at the AAT and sat through not one but two gruelling AAT hearings only for Cameron’s visa to still be denied.

On the brink of giving up and facing a return to NZ, we dug deep and decided to take Cameron’s case to Ministerial Intervention. We had no new evidence to give and to be honest, we were not hopeful of a positive outcome but whilst there was even a tiny glimmer of hope, I felt like I owed it to Cameron to take that chance.

I don’t think I will ever forget the day 3rd July 2017, when I received the call from our migration agent to tell me that the Minister of Immigration had in fact exercised his right to overturn the decision of the AAT and had granted Cameron’s permanent resident visa! I was in absolute disbelief, I sobbed tears of joy and was so very grateful. This was a life changing day for us.

The final part of the journey came when Cameron was then granted his Australian Citizenship in November  2018. We finally feel settled and know we can truly call Australia home now.

As I look back to 2014, when I started the visa process for my children, I had no idea what lay before us. It was an incredibly tough few years. I still feel emotional today thinking back on the whole process. By the time Cameron’s visa was granted, we had spent thousands of dollars which of course was a financial strain on us. It was a hugely time consuming process too - letter writing, statutory declaration writing, phone calls, emails all took a huge amount of hours away whilst I was trying to hold down a full time job. But, it was the emotional stress that took its toll the most and looking back now I don’t know how we kept going at times. The process consumed me and at times it was all I could think about.  I felt a huge amount of anger at the Australian government for their treatment of our son. How can they grant three out of four members of a family Australian Citizenship and decline the remaining one on the disability factor? I was angry to learn that Australians in New Zealand have much clearer pathways to permanent residency and NZ Citizenship - where is the ANZAC spirit from the Australian Government?

I am deeply saddened at the Australian government's disgraceful attitudes to health and disability. How hurtful it was to have my son labelled with a dollar amount and to be told he would be a burden to the Commonwealth and therefore not worthy of becoming an Australian Citizen! I am passionate about disability rights and equality and narrow-minded attitudes like this are certainly not helping the acceptance of disability as a whole within our communities. As a person with a disability myself, I have faced discrimination and know how damaging this can be. I also know first hand that it is truly unfair to label health and disability in one box. There is ABILITY in disability and the government are refusing to see this.