A Vietnamese family has been living in Australia for almost 10 years and is fighting to stay in the country after their sponsor made a mistake and ‘abandoned’ them.
Thanh Duc Nguyen, 30, and his parents and 20-year-old brother had their application for permanent residence rejected, through no fault of their own.
“We’ve waited and hoped for almost 10 years and because of someone else’s mistake, we were turned down. It’s very frustrating,” Duc told Daily Mail Australia.
The error was that the sponsor had hired an employee with an expired visa in 2019. As a result, the sponsor could no longer nominate employees for permanent residence.
After the family appealed the decision, the application was denied for another reason beyond their control: the sponsor was no longer considered financially strong enough.
The family, who live in Bathurst, New South Wales, now have only one option: file a ministerial intervention this week or risk losing “everything” they have worked hard for over the past decade.
Duc said his mother Hue, 54, moved to Australia in January 2015 after being sponsored as a chef at a Vietnamese restaurant in Bathurst.
A few months later, he, his father Hoa, 60, and his brother Justin, 20, joined her.
The Nguyen family’s (pictured, left to right: Duc, Hoa, Hue and Justin) application for permanent residence has been rejected after their sponsor made a mistake
Hue, 54, (pictured serving customers) was sponsored to become a chef at a Vietnamese restaurant in Bathurst, NSW in January 2015
Two years later, Ms. Nguyen was eligible to apply for permanent residence for the family, and she filed the application in June 2017.
More than two years later, in August 2019, the family was informed that their residence permit had been refused.
At that time, the Nguyens discovered that their sponsor, who owned the restaurant and other businesses including a nail salon, was employing someone with an expired visa.
In March 2019, the company lost the ability to nominate employees, but the family was not informed of this until they received their rejection letter in August of the same year.
Adding to the family’s frustration, they had already purchased the restaurant from their sponsor a month before their rejection, having been told they had no choice but to buy it.
“Our sponsor told us sometime in April or May (2019) that they were planning to close the restaurant, and if we wanted to keep our visa, we had to buy the business,” Duc said.
‘They told us it was a requirement for our visa, if we didn’t buy it they would close it down and we would lose our sponsorship.
‘We didn’t know any better back then, so we did what they said.
“We now know that they shouldn’t have told us that. We didn’t understand the law and what we were supposed to do.”
When they found out a month later that their application had been denied, the Nguyens filed an appeal with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) in October of that year.
But due to Covid the process was delayed.
After three hearings were finally granted in May and June last year, the family’s request was again denied.
This time, the family was told that the original sponsor was not financially strong enough to sponsor Mrs. Nguyen.
The family contacted the sponsor to try to “work together,” but after that they stopped communicating with the family.
The sponsor told the family that the restaurant would close if they did not buy it, and that the purchase would be the only way they could stay in the country.
The family has been working mostly seven days a week to slowly pay off the restaurant, which they did last year (pictured, center, Justin and Hue with customers)
“They let us down last year. They made so many mistakes, I think they wanted to wash their hands of it,” Duc said.
“Our business is based on sponsorship and they don’t want to cooperate with that anymore.”
After months of not hearing from Ms. Nguyen’s sponsor, the family, following legal advice, filed an appeal in federal court in September 2023.
But after being told there was no set timeframe for an outcome, the family withdrew their appeal and will lodge a ministerial intervention with Immigration Minister Tony Burke later this week.
The family, who worked nearly seven days a week at their Vietnamese restaurant Anam, finally paid off the bill in August, but they fear it was all for nothing.
“We will lose everything we have worked hard for over the past 10 years,” Duc said.
“We will be very sad if we have to leave, because we have a strong bond with the community and many friends.
“We are very frustrated that we may have to leave our home.”
Duc, who came to Australia at the age of 20 and is now Anam’s boss, worries that his brother, who was just 10 when the family arrived, will find it hardest if they are forced to return to Vietnam.
“He has no friends in Vietnam. He wouldn’t be able to find a job because the education is different,” he said.
The family was told their sponsor had made a mistake by hiring a worker with an expired visa, meaning they could no longer nominate workers (pictured second from right, chef and owner of Vietnamese restaurant Anam Hua Nguyen, 54, with customers and Justin in the background)
‘He wanted to go to university here, but that was postponed because it was very complicated with the visa.’
The 30-year-old says he also worries about his mother and father’s financial future, as pensions “don’t really exist” in Vietnam, where citizens must have worked for a company for a while to qualify.
“And if they did get a pension, it would be very little: $100 a month,” he said.
Duc said the only Vietnamese restaurant in the area, in addition to its strong community ties, is doing “really well” and serves a wide range of local guests, including families and students from Charles Sturt University.
“We pay our taxes. Last year we paid an estimated $45,000 in GST alone,” he said.
“We are so grateful to be able to run the restaurant in Bathurst and for all the wonderful support.”
The family has contributed to the local Bathurst community and has strong bonds and friendships (pictured Hue with customers)
“But if we lost our home and our business, we would lose everything,” Duc said.
As evidence of the local community’s support for the family, Bathurst Mayor Dr. Jess Jennings sent a letter to the Minister of Immigration in early July.
The mayor told Daily Mail Australia that he had drafted and signed a mayoral letter for the Nguyens. The vote was unanimous and all councillors signed the letter.
“We wanted to show our support for a family that has an established name and is contributing to the local economy and community,” he said.
“The fact that they have over 18,000 expressions of support shows how much people want them to stay.
‘I’ve been eating there (at Anam) for ten years and I had no idea they were under an immigration cloud.
“I want them to stay in the community where they belong.
“They have also made a unique contribution to the culinary landscape of Bathurst, which contributes to the culture of (the city).”
The Mayor will resend the Council’s letter of support to the new Minister of Immigration.