Woman facing deportation is given last minute visa

2023-03-08

Englishwoman facing deportation despite living in Australia for 11 years is given last minute bridging visa just hours before flight back to UK

Belinda Checkley, 36, came to Australia in 2012
Was due to be deported on Tuesday after visa rejected
Given last minute bridging visa hours before her flight

A British woman who is facing deportation after living in Australia for 11 years has been granted a last-minute reprieve just hours before she was due to board a plane.

Belinda Checkley, 36, first came Down Under as a backpacker in 2012 and stayed in Byron Bay for more than a decade, but her visa was rejected when her employer sold the business she works for.

The café worker was told she would need to leave the country on Tuesday.

However, on Monday, she was given a three-month bridging visa in order to apply to stay long term.

Now, she is facing another battle in order to stay in Australia where she has found love and made a life, with more than 35,000 people signing a petition and urging Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to intervene and let her stay.

Belinda Checkley, 36, first came Down Under as a backpacker in 2012 and stayed in Byron Bay for more than a decade, but her visa was rejected when her employer sold the business she works for

‘I’ve had an amazing result after intense pushing in the last two weeks. I’m so, so grateful that I’m not packing my bags to leave tomorrow: I’ve been granted a bridging visa for another three months,’ she wrote on her Change.org petition.

‘While I’m praying for a good outcome and other opportunities to take shape, I’m still quite nervous that I may have to say goodbye to my home, my life in the coming months.’

Ms Checkley first came to Australia on a working holiday visa and ‘instantly’ fell in love with Byron Bay.

After a three-month stint working on a farm, she studied hospitality management before getting a job in the New South Wales tourist town and working her way up to café manager.

But in 2018, the café changed ownership, causing her visa to be cancelled.

Ms Checkley is now appealing for public support to stay, with many Byron Bay locals speaking out in support of her place in the community

She says she’s built a ‘beautiful life’ in Byron Bay and has ‘no life’ back in the UK.

‘I have worked hard to build a secure future and my goal has been to obtain permanent residency.

‘It has been a long journey – one filled with countless personal, emotional and financial sacrifices – to work within the Australian immigration system,’ her change.org petition explains.

After six years happily living in Australia, in 2018 she was told her visa had been rejected. She later found out her migration lawyer had filed the application on her behalf and hadn’t done the paperwork correctly.

She found a new lawyer and filed her appeal with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).

After a three-month stint working on a farm, Ms Checkley studied hospitality management before getting a job in the New South Wales tourist town and working her way up to cafe manager

At the same time, Ms Checkley was beset with personal tragedy when her partner took his own life.

‘This was an unimaginably painful experience and it is something that will be with me forever,’ she explained.

‘The magnitude of love and support that I received from my incredible friends and members of the local community was a clear testament to the fact that this beautiful town is truly my home.’

While working through her grief, Checkley faced a further setback when her employers sold the café she was working at.

This lead to the immediate cancellation of her visa.

‘I appealed this unique set of circumstances to the Department of Immigration,’ she explained.

‘My case rose to the level of Ministerial Intervention – to be personally reviewed by the Minister of Immigration himself.

Now, she is facing another battle in order to stay in Australia long term where she has found love and made a life, with more than 35,000 people signing a petition and urging Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to intervene and let her stay. Pictured with her partner

‘So for another two full years – during the pandemic – I lived, worked hard, and waited anxiously for an outcome.

‘Then this past Christmas, I got one: My appeal, too, was rejected by the Department of Immigration without further review.

‘I was informed there was no option to apply for any alternative visa while still living in Australia.

‘And I had three months to prepare for my deportation. Once outside Australian borders, I would be legally barred from re-entering the country for the next three years.’

After successfully being granted a last-minute bridging visa, Ms Checkley is now appealing for public support to stay, with many Byron Bay locals speaking out in support of her place in the community.

‘I’ve given 11 years of my life to this country. To face rebuilding my life after years of hard work and dedication is surreal and unfathomable,’ she explained.

After successfully being granted a last-minute bridging visa, Ms Checkley is now appealing for public support to stay, with many Byron Bay locals speaking out in support of her place in the community

‘I’m a hardworking, law-abiding and productive member of Australian society. I work in an industry desperate for talented and reliable staff.

‘I’ve proven myself again and again and sacrificed so much just to call this place home. My only crime is that I was not born here.

‘I came, like so many of us still in Byron Bay, as a backpacker in my 20s. I loved it and have never left. I’m now 36 years old, settled down, and trying to begin my own family with my partner who grew up here.

‘I have no life back in the UK. It’s a cold and distant memory.’

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Traci Yan Yan Chen, Principal Lawyer at Maison Chen Law Group who specialise in Australian immigration said that cases like Ms Checkley’s are ‘unfortunately common’.

‘A refusal of an application greatly limits onshore options,’ she explained.

‘The process is quite lengthy and of course the Minister does not have to intervene, particularly when an offshore visa application can be made.

‘Before seeking Ministerial Intervention, applicants should consider their options carefully as they will need to apply for a Bridging E visa to remain onshore lawfully while their case is being considered.’

She added that the best way to avoid situations like this is to ‘obtain the correct advice’.

‘You need to be confident in the expert you choose to steer clear of any easily avoidable mistakes. However, for some applications, the departmental case officer still has the discretion to refuse the visa or employer nomination application.’

Her case has parallels with those of the Murugappan family from Sri Lanka who won the support of the township of Biloela, and the Green family from Scotland who had also been in Australia for a decade but were denied a visa due to changes of employer.

In both cases, significant media attention saw those families allowed to stay.

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