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Dad will be kicked out of Australia, leaving his wife and three children behind, due to a shocking paperwork error they knew nothing about.
- Lebanese father must leave Australia within 24 hours
- Mohamed Barghachoun must abandon three children and his wife
- Migration agent did not submit partner visa application
A Lebanese father will have to leave his three children and his wife in Australia within the next 24 hours because their immigration agent allegedly failed to submit their partner visa application.
Mohamed Barghachoun has been told by the Home Department that he must leave the country on Saturday after spending the last four years living in Bexley, south of Sydney.
Barghachoun had left Lebanon to marry his Australian fiancée Jihan Merhi in 2019 and was in the process of applying for his partner visa.
The couple paid $1,500 for an immigration agent to help with the process, but have since learned that no application has been filed on Mr. Barghachoun’s behalf.
A Lebanese father will have to leave his three children and wife in Australia in the next 24 hours because his immigration agent did not submit his partner visa application.
‘What it’s like [Jihan] Are you going to look after the three children by yourself?’ Mr Barghachoun told the abc.
The couple are hard of hearing and have few options left to prevent Mr. Barghachoun from being deported.
The Interior Department’s record of decisions revealed that they had provided “satisfactory” evidence of their relationship when they applied.
The couple then hired an immigration agent who was contacted six times by the department between August 2019 and January 2022.
A denial letter was sent to the agent after the department was unable to reach him each time.
The letter informed him that his client had 21 days to appeal the decision to the Administrative Court of Appeals.
Barghachoun said he had no idea about the letter and only found out that his application had been denied when his Medicare card was cancelled.
Ms. Merhi said that she had spoken with representatives of the department who revealed that they had not received any documentation.
Immigration has told Mohamed Barghachoun that he must leave the country on Saturday after spending the last four years living in Bexley, south of Sydney.
“Nothing had been arranged in terms of the marriage certificate,” he said.
His disability and the department’s lack of an AUSLAN interpreter has made communication difficult on both ends.
Barghachoun said the department had called him several times, but he has been unable to take the calls.
The couple discovered that the application had not been filed in July and even wrote a letter to Immigration Minister Andrew Giles in September.
They were informed that nothing could be done and that they could file a complaint with their immigration agent.
“With regard to the denial of your visa application, under Australian migration law, it is not possible for the delegate to consider additional information or reconsider a visa application, once a decision has been made,” the letter said.
Daily Mail Australia contacted the Home Department and the immigration officer for comment.