My name is Nathan and we are the Mills family, we moved from Britain to Australia in 2010 to take care of my wife, Emma's ailing father. We built our lives, raised our children, and thought South Sydney was our forever home.

Despite calling Australia home for 13 years and contributing as taxpayers and members of the community, we are facing deportation after the Minister of Immigration refused to intervene in our case for Permanent Residency.

We are appealing the latest decision having had to lodge a second Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT.) The current wait time for this is a daunting 800 days. This means, in the meantime, my wife, my two eldest boys and I are unable to leave Australia until our immigration matter is finalised. Should we leave Australia we would not be permitted to reenter. My mum was recently in Intensive Care in the UK and I was unable to travel to assist my elderly father and be with my mum when things were looking very bleak.   

Please sign and share our petition urging Minister Giles to grant us certainty and stability as a family. We understand and respect the nation's immigration law but we should not have to undertake another AAT Tribunal, bearing unnecessary financial and emotional costs.

We have encountered continuous hurdles in our journey towards eventually calling Australia home. In July 2022, we won an AAT appeal that referred our case favourably back to the Department of Immigration to process our Permanent Residency visas. The Department of Immigration rejected us again despite a favourable decision by the AAT. Immigration Minister Andrew Giles could at this point have intervened in our situation and exercised his powers of Ministerial Intervention. He refused and insisted we undertake a second AAT hearing whilst also communicating two huge inaccuracies which would have seen our family being unlawful in Australia. 

Despite the cost, the threat of becoming unlawful residents, and the previous AAT victory, we have pursued another appeal, spending over $20,000 in legal and application expenses. This is in addition to the tens of thousands of dollars we have already exhausted. 

Daisy, our youngest, was born in Australia and is an Australian Citizen. Her Grandfather who we care for is an Australian Citizen. The deportation notice threatens to tear our family apart.

Our sons, James and Harrison, have grown up to be Aussie youngsters who dream of studying at university in a couple of years and will be classed as International Students. This would come at an enormous cost which we simply do not have after spending tens of thousands of dollars in fighting our immigration nightmare.

We are urging Minister Giles to exercise his powers under ‘Ministerial Intervention’ and reconsider his stance.  Please sign our petition and urge the federal government to let our family finally call Australia their home.

Mills Family

Emma, Nathan, James, Harry, and Daisy