I am a scientist from Russia, whose dream ever since I was a teenager was to move to Australia. I came here 8 years ago as a Skilled migrant and am now a proud citizen. I met my husband here in Australia, and we now have a beautiful baby boy who is almost 2 months old.
My parents are still in Russia and I am their only child. Up until recently, every year either they would come to visit us or we would visit them. Unfortunately, just like many other Australians with parents overseas, we were unable to see our family for over 3 years now due to the closed borders. To make things worse, the war in Ukraine has led to some of the harshest sanctions on Russia, which meant I could no longer send any mail or money to my family, and the money they had in their savings halved in value practically overnight. The economic and political situation in Russia is becoming so dire that we had no choice other than to apply for the 143 visa for both my parents so they could spend their last years with their only child and their only grandchild, in a safe and stable place like Australia (life expectancy in Russia is 10 years less than in Australia). We were hoping to apply for the 143 and bring them over on the 870 5-year visa while waiting for the outcome of the 143 visa. Although the Immi website says the waiting time for a 143 visa is around 5-6 years, simply dividing the number of current applications in the backlog by the capped annual number of parent visas granted is quite disheartening as it suggests they may end up having to wait for 18 years. This means that after a maximum of 10 years with the 870 visa here with us they will have to fly back and forth on a tourist visa until the 143 is granted.
This is creating a lot of uncertainty and stress for my family and makes me feel like a sub-citizen who isn’t entitled to simply have my parents here with me during their final years. I have contributed so much to the pandemic in Australia as a frontline worker, risking my life and the life of my husband and my unborn child at the time, that the lack of a clear path to bring parents over to Australia makes me feel used and unappreciated by the government.
Additionally, Russian culture isn’t unique in that assisted living for the elderly isn’t really a thing, so as the only child at some point I will have to take care of my parents when they are weak. And up until now, I would have thought that the Australian government would prefer for me and my family to stay here by bringing my parents here instead of letting me and my family move back home to care for my parents during my peak earning years.