Highlights
- Indian visa holder gets travel exemption after two rejections
- Changed application from ‘compassionate grounds’ to ‘critical skills’
- ABF has received over 87,600 applications seeking exemption from the travel ban
After two rejections, Sydney-based Dr Srikanth Srinivas Manda is thrilled to have secured an exemption for his wife and newborn son from Australia’s travel ban this week.
Dr Manda last saw his wife and newborn son in December 2019.
“I work as a Data Scientist at the Children’s Medical Research Institute in Sydney and am on temporary 457 work visa,” Dr Manda told SBS Hindi.
His wife travelled to India last year to deliver their first child and was due to return this year with their newborn.
“But before we could get my newborn’s passport and visa done, Australia shut down its borders to temporary visa holders,” Dr Manda said.
The border closures brought in additional problem for the Manda family as it meant he had to first secure a travel exemption before his son’s visa could be processed.
“My wife and I have the visa but when we applied for our son’s visa as our dependent and it wasn’t processed for a long time, we got in touch with Immigration department and were told they couldn’t help until we had a travel exemption,” Dr Manda said.
The family spent the next few months applying and re-applying for a travel exemption, only to meet with further disappointment.
“I applied on compassionate and compelling grounds but was rejected twice,” he said.
He later shared the matter with his boss, who helped with an employer’s letter stating how Dr Manda was crucial to the company.
Indian visa holder gets travel exemption after two rejections Source: Supplied by Srikanth Srinivas Manda
“My Director wrote a strong letter about what value I brought to Australia and how my skills are being used to advance cancer research and how Australia would lose me if my wife and son couldn’t travel to Sydney. I was planning to head back to India if my wife and child were not allowed to come,” he said.
This time, Dr Manda applied under critical skill category.
“I basically had to convince them why my skills are critical to Australia. I attached my Director’s letter and stated how I was hired from overseas to do this work,” he says.
“This time, I was granted an exemption for my wife and child.”
Since his approval, Dr Manda, who is part of a closed Facebook group of temporary visa holders stuck overseas, has been inundated with requests for help.
Thousands of temporary visa holders have been stranded overseas and are unable to return to Australia due to border closures.
“My only tip for them is to be specific about what value they bring to Australia,” says Dr Manda.
Since his exemption, things have started moving for Dr Manda.
“I just received an email that my son’s visa is being processed and they have asked for a medical examination,” he says.
Dr Manda hopes to be reunited with his wife and son before his child turns one.
“I have missed out on bonding with him in the first months of his life. I have missed out on so many milestones. I hope we get to celebrate his first birthday together,” he says.
Australian Border Force has received over 87,600 applications seeking exemption from the travel ban during the period March 20 to July 31, 2020, of which only 13,260 foreign nationals had their request approved.
