Exclusive: Sophia Lee and her family are stuck in a nightmare limbo.
However, Sophia, along with her parents, brother, and sister, are confronted with the threat of being deported to South Korea due to a misunderstanding, leaving them in limbo for almost three years without any resolution.
Documentation cited by this masthead shows the AAT last upheld its decision to refuse their visa on August 11, 2022.
A written confirmation of the refusal has not been given to the family due to “member availability”.
They have been on bridging visas for three years as they await the final decision.
The family are now desperately seeking a ministerial review.
Now, with the potential necessity of relocating their family – including 11-year-old Yesol and 17-year-old Sehun – to South Korea, Sophia mentioned that her parents are extremely anxious.
They are carers for Eun Kyo’s elderly parents, who have permanent residency in Australia.
The couple also support their sister’s two children with austism, both of whom are Australian citizens
The Park-Lee family is requesting that Immigration and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke reconsider their visa rejection and grant them permanent residency on compassionate grounds.
“They’ve invested so much here,” Sophia said.
“My dad is really close with my grandparents, and if he has to go back… he can’t take care of them or visit them anymore.”
“They’d be so heartbroken to see us go.”
“After living in Australia for so many years, we are hoping for compassion and fairness so that we can continue our lives here,” Sumni added.
Sophia has been forced to pause her studies and is worried her dream of becoming a nurse is slipping away.
Suekjin Park, a family friend and immigration lawyer, said the Park-Lee family’s visa refusal could have been avoided if a simple miscommunication around documents hadn’t taken place.
Not only have I lived in Australia for 17 years, I grew up with Australian values and culture and I feel like I belong in Australia.
“The family’s visa refusal appears to centre on Public Interest Criterion 4020, specifically concerning ambiguity in the evidence of full-time work required for a Subclass 887 visa,” Park said in a statement to 9news.com.au.
“Importantly, this does not involve any finding of deliberate fraud, but rather a misunderstanding or lack of clarity in documentation – a distinction that is often crucial in PIC 4020 assessments.
“The applicants later supplied additional records and invoices which, if considered earlier, may have led to a different outcome.”
Park said she believes the Park-Lee family deserve ministerial consideration under Section 351 of the Migration Act.
This grants the Australian Immigration Minister the power to substitute a decision made by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) with a more favourable one.
