My parents visited us in October 2018 just a few days before our first child was born.
They came here on visitor subclass visa 600 and stayed with us for exactly a year to help us with our son as we don’t have any relatives in Australia.
In October 2019 they took our son with them to their home country assuming they will be back after a few months (requirement of visa condition in which they could not have stayed for more than 12 months).
Unfortunately, the borders were closed due to pandemics and my son was stuck overseas for 2 years.
Anyways long story short, my son was with his grandparents for the first 3 years of his life and was extremely attached to them (obviously). It was a horrific and traumatic experience for him to be away and separated from his grandparents.
It’s been more than 6 months since he came to Australia and he still misses them a lot and even cries remembering them.
Anyways, it is not only my son who misses his grandparents but even I miss them a lot and want to be with them.
In our culture, we live with our parents forever and I feel so miserable and helpless to think that when I was a kid and my parents helped me to take my first steps so why on earth I can’t hold my parent’s hands and help them to take their last?
I feel helpless whenever I hear that my parents are alone and there is no one to take care of them.
I have applied for 143 visa in September 2021 but it is gut-wrenching to know that there is a long queue and might take more than 15 years for the visa to be granted.. !!
How is this fair even when I am ready to pay top dollars!!
I also fail to understand why the government does not understand that when the elderly parents come here they are not a burden, but they do contribute to the economy as well because they will be eating, drinking, travelling shopping, doing entertainment as well for which someone will *pay* and the last time I checked the economy grows when the money exchanges hands.
They will be having medical insurance as well which will lower the burden on Medicare and again we will be *paying* for that too.
They will help to take care of our son as well which will reduce the burden of Centrelink support towards the child care.
On top of it, I now have developed anxiety and stress issues due to the concern over my parents which directly affects my work. I am sure there would be people like me who would be stressed like me and all of their professional lives will also be affected and thus have a negative impact on the economy at large.
In Canada (which has a very similar/comparable skill-based migration system) it is much easier, quicker and cheaper to get a PR visa for parents. How come Canada is not affected but Australia has all the concerns when it comes to PR visas for parents.
We have planned to sell my parent’s property to afford the exorbitant fees of 143 visa but *at least* the government should grant visas quickly.
Recently I have seen people expecting, praying and hoping that the government will expedite the process so the visas can be granted in 5 or 6 years, but my question is why not in 1 year??
Lastly, I would like to conclude by saying that I had to give up my citizenship of the country where I was born to take Australian citizenship and I am very proud and grateful for that but I don’t know what to say when someone asks me where is my motherland as my mother is still on my land.
It’s things like these that the government can do to actually generate and increase the loyalty and nationalism in migrants like me. I am not asking for any monetary or financial support from the government, all I am asking is to please allow me to unite with my parents forever *asap*.