A woman who has spent half her life in Australia has made a desperate plea to the immigration minister to let her stay.
Maria Duminica, 20, first came to Australia from Romania with her mother and stepfather, who are Australian citizens.
She traveled to Sydney on a tourist visa, where her mother and stepfather tied the knot a few months later.
Ms Duminica’s mother has applied for a partner visa, with her daughter as a secondary applicant.
The pair were granted a series of temporary bridging visas while they waited for the permanent visa to be approved.
Maria Duminica, 20, first came to Australia from Romania with her mother and stepfather, who are Australian citizens
Ms Duminica said she still remembers landing in Sydney as a 10-year-old and heading straight to Bondi Beach on a hot summer day.
“I was walking down the street and people were smiling at you, it was really nice,” she said 9NEWS.
But as a teenager, things were not so happy and Ms. Duminica’s relationship with her mother and stepfather deteriorated.
Ms. Duminica said she wanted to leave home as a 13-year-old, but waited until she turned 16 and left for good.
She stayed with friends for a while before moving to temporary crisis accommodation.
Stepping Stone House, on Dulwich Hill, in Sydney’s west, took Ms Duminica in and gave her a safe place to live.
Ms Duminica continued to study at high school while living in the shelter, commuting more than an hour each way from Dulwich Hill to Rose Bay.
She said she had always grown up with the mentality that she had to finish school, but her world was rocked by “frightening” news while she was in her HSC process.
A few weeks before her 18th birthday, Ms Duminica was told that her one-month bridging visa had been revoked.
Ms Duminica said she was scared and shocked because her entire future in Australia was in doubt and she didn’t know what she could do about it.
Her mother, who was still waiting for her partner visa to be approved some seven years later, had her daughter’s name removed from her dependent application.
Mrs. Duminica said she was scared and shocked because her entire future in Australia was in doubt and she didn’t know what she could do about it.
With limited options, her then lawyer applied for a protection visa, which was denied in 2022.
An attempt to appeal the decision to the Administrative Court of Appeal was also unsuccessful, but the member of the tribunal overseeing Ms Duminica’s appeal decided that it could meet the special circumstances required for an ministerial intervention.
Her case went to Immigration Minister Andrew Giles’ office in June last year, but she is still waiting for an answer on whether he will allow her to remain in Australia permanently.
Ms Duminica said living month to month with the threat of deportation was exhausting, explaining that she does not feel like Romania is her home country.
‘I don’t know anyone in Romania and I can’t speak the language. I have no connections there,” she said.
‘If I have to go back, I will be on the street as a young woman. I’ll be homeless.’
After completing school, Ms Duminica got a job at a hotel in Sydney and moved independently.
But ma’am Duminica said her future was still uncertain.
She was given labor rights, but she was not allowed to study.
She would also like a car or a place to live, but she fears that “that money will run out” if she is deported.
Nearly 10,000 people have signed an online petition started by Stepping Stone House, calling on the minister to grant Ms Duminica permanent residency.
Jason Juretic, CEO of Stepping Stone House, described Ms Duminica as a “truly outstanding” young woman who had shown perseverance and determination to achieve As and Bs in eight school subjects while working part-time at two florists.
Ms Juretic said it was clear the minister had to intervene because Ms Duminica has no support system in her home country, where young women are highly vulnerable to trafficking.
Ms Duminica’s immigration lawyer, Sally Jackson, said her client’s case was unusual and she wanted to bring it to the minister’s attention.
A spokesman for Mr Giles said the minister’s office was investigating Ms Duminica’s case.