After a decade of living in Cairns, Nicole thinks of Australia as her home.
However, it may not be until 2068 that I can officially call it that.
At that time, Nicole, now 29, will be well into her 75s.
Four years ago, Nicole, a South African national, made a desperate move, applying for the only visa that would allow her to stay in the country with her father and the rest of her family: the remaining family visa. Nicole has lived in Australia since 2012, but faces a 50-year wait for permanent residency. (Supplied)
The visa has the longest waiting time of any Australian visa. The current official estimates of the Department of the Interior place the processing time at 50 years.
Other time-lapse visas that have skyrocketed over the past decade include a parent visa (30 years), an orphan visa (6.3 years) and a caregiver visa (4.5 years).
Nicole told 9news.com.au that she was in disbelief every time she talked to someone about the huge waiting time for her visa.
“Every time I tell someone they don’t believe me and I have to say,‘ no, it’s real, ’” he said.
Nicole’s mother died when she was very young and she spent most of her time growing up in England with her father and her family side.
He has no siblings, and over time, most of his close relatives moved to Australia, including his father, who came with a sponsored specialist visa.
Many visas have extended waiting times, but the remaining relative visa takes longer to process, about 50 years. (New: Tara Blancato)
Nicole moved to Australia in 2012, first getting a work holiday visa and then switching to a student visa when she started studying nursing.
At the same time, however, Nicole’s health began to deteriorate.
“I was having a lot of health issues, I kept ending up in the hospital, which was affecting my study,” he said.
Unable to continue her course, Nicole faced deportation.
He saw a migration agent who advised him that the only option to stay in the country was to apply for the remaining family visa.
“She said she would normally never advise anyone to opt for this visa, due to the waiting time, but she said that in your case it is better to apply for this visa and stay here legally, with your family.
“At that time, I was very ill and my father took care of me.
“I had no other choice. My only other option was to go to a country where I had no one and I didn’t know anyone and I had nowhere to live.”
Nicole has stayed in Australia on a bridge visa ever since, but says the uncertainty over the status of her visa has affected her life.
Nicole’s father, as well as her aunts, uncles and cousins, live in Australia. (Supplied)
“It causes a lot of anxiety, you really can’t plan for your future because you never know what’s going to happen,” he said.
Applicants for the remaining relative visa are eligible for Medicare, while employment rights may vary based on their previous visa.
Nicole can only work 40 hours every fortnight, and traveling outside of Australia requires a secondary bridge visa.
Your visa status also means that you have to pay full student fees for TAFE and college courses.
“I was hoping to study nursing again this year at TAFE, but it’s very expensive, about $ 22,000,” he said.
Nicole said she hoped the new Labor federal government would address the waiting times for her visa type.
“I want them to have some empathy. Corks and tails are crazy. We feel punished, it’s not fair,” he said.
“My whole family lives here, we’ve shown it to the government, what else can we do?”
Labor Immigration Minister Andrew Giles declined to comment specifically on the remaining relative visa waiting times, but said addressing the visa delay left by the coalition government is being considered an “assumption of ‘urgency’.
“In terms of the extraordinary delays we have seen in visa processing, this is a real priority for me and an Albanian Labor government,” Giles said.
“Whether it’s humanitarian, family reunion or specialized visas, we need to do it much better.”
Mateja Rautner is a former Professor of Migration Law at the National University of Australia and the current Director and Senior Migration Agent of Migration Plus.
Rautner said he often referred to migrants who waited for decades while applying for a remaining family visa, or a parent visa, as “forgotten people.”
In the vast majority of cases, applicants had compelling reasons to move or stay in Australia, he said.
“When you look at Nicole, for example, she wants to be a nurse. She wants to study and settle here,” Rautner said.
“She’s a young lady, and she’s just staying here, waiting forever. She’s really very, very unfortunate and unfair. She’s not Australian.”
Rautner said problems with the waiting list stemmed from the small number of seats allocated to various low-priority subclasses within the family visa flow.
“The last exercise was 500 seats and this exercise is the same,” he said.
“And that doesn’t just cover the remaining relative visa, it’s all kinds of family visas. So the queue is getting longer and longer.
“I think it was 10 years, and suddenly it was 30, and now we’re looking at 50 years.
“It simply came to our notice then.
“If this is a legitimate path that should remain, they should assign some appropriate numbers to these places.”
Sara Passarini is another young woman who has been waiting for years to be granted a remaining family visa.
The 20-year-old Italian has lived in Perth for more than half of her life since she was nine.
Sara Passarini came to Australia with her mother 11 years ago. They have been waiting for years to find out about their remaining relative visa applications. (Supplied by: Sara Passarini)
His family suffered years of financial hardship to raise the $ 63,000 needed to pay Passarini to complete his schooling in Australia while on his bridge visa.
After finishing his 12th year, Passarini said he had high hopes of studying at university, but had been forced to pursue an alternative career because of the huge fees it would entail.
“Right now I work 30 hours a week in retail, and I’m studying at TAFE, because it’s the only place I can study,” he said.
“I’m studying to be paralegal and I hope to be able to get into law.”
After finishing her studies in Australia, Sara Passarini has not been able to study at the university because she cannot afford to pay the full fees. (Supplied by: Sara Passarini)
Passarini said he planned to apply for a specialized visa, which requires four years of work experience once he graduates.
A petition initiated by Passarini in 2020 on his visa status collected more than 18,000 signatures.
Passarini said that thinking about the obstacles that stood in her way used to bother her a lot, but she had tried to make peace with it.
“It’s what it is. I’m very lucky and I’m very grateful to be here in this country, but I hope this new government really does something,” he said.
“We have a lot of hope, those of us who have this visa, but we’ll see what they do.”
Contact Journalist Emily McPherson at emcpherson@nine.com.au.