We migrated here years back along with our kids and consorts but we are unable to migrate our parents as some of us are unable to meet the Balance of Family test. In many countries and cultures, it is the prime responsibility of son to look after their old parents where as daughters are married off and have less responsibility to look after them. The parents are getting old and according to WHO(World Health Organisation), the life expectancy for Indians especially is short. This is a fact that scares us as our parents will have to wait for 16 to 30 years in queue, even if they meet the Balance of Family test and the ugly truth is it is very likely that they won't make it.

The current visa (subclass 600) which has condition 8558 only allows parents to live with family for only 12 months and after that they have to spend atleast 6 months out of Australia. Some of the parents are too old and Travelling every year is very hard as well as expensive. When they live by themselves without any care, they become vulnerable to crime and face the risk of their lives too. There have been many incidents where criminals take the advantage of their conditions and they lost lives and everything.

We are requesting you to introduce some special kinds of visas for parents who are hoping to spend more quality time with their children and grandchildren. We want to suggest you some solutions that may interest you and help us as well.

If the DIAC introduce a 10 years visa with a 2 years continuous stay and a compulsory 10 day country out period, it can seriously help the migrants and their parents. This is a great way of reuniting the parents with their family.

By using this visa, we can also generate a lot of business in Australia by making compulsory insurance( covering all of their medical expenses) during their stay in Australia and won't cost the Australian tax payers a single penny.

We hereby want to launch this petition to show how many of us are suffering from the current visa arrangements. It will also highlight how many people support the idea of long term visa for parents. We hope that you'll look into the matter and bring out the best in our interest.

Yours sincerely,

Arvind Duggal                 Parminder Sohal                Davinder Pal Singh