Murray Bridge mum given permanent residency after visa dispute
Ying-Hsi Chou will be allowed to stay in Australia with her husband and children after a personal intervention by the Assistant Immigration Minister.
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All’s well that ends well for Ying-Hsi Chou and her family.
Only weeks ago, the Murray Bridge mum was told she would have to leave the country and go back to Taiwan over an historic issue with her visa, despite having lived peacefully in Australia for the past decade with her husband and three young children.
Her desperate plea for compassion started with a petition gathering signatures at the local shops, but ended up being heard around the country: first in Manly Observer and this publication, then metropolitan newspapers and national TV stations.
A fortnight later, Assistant Immigration Minister Matt Thistlethwaite – alerted to her case – granted her a temporary bridging visa, a short-term reprieve.
Then, last Friday night, came the phone call Ms Chou had been awaiting.
The minister had intervened to grant her permanent residency in Australia.
She could stay in Murray Bridge with her family.
“‘Oh,’ I said, ‘thank you, thank you, thank you so much … you can let me stay here and I can take care of my kids, my family,’” Ms Chou told Murray Bridge News this week.
As soon as she got off the phone, her lawyer called to say he had already got the paperwork.
Everything would be alright.
“It’s a so, so, so happy (feeling),” she said.
“I still cannot believe (it) … I really got it.”
A spokesman for Mr Thistlethwaite told Murray Bridge News the minister had been really happy to grant Ms Chou a subclass 151 visa and bring an end to the uncertainty she had experienced.
For nine years, Ms Chou said, she had suffered sick feelings and sleepless nights, worrying about whether the government would someday send her away.
“I remember when I go to the court, (thinking) maybe I’ll lose the court (case), and I feel very sad – how can I do like that?” she said.
“It’s still feeling low, every night while you’re sleeping, rest or something, you were thinking, ‘How to do? How to try?’”
She had resolved in her mind that she would leave her children in Australia, return to Taiwan alone and endure a three-year wait for a new visa 6800 kilometres away from everyone she knew.
Instead, she and her husband, Ben Cox, will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary together in Murray Bridge this July.
Ms Chou’s new visa will even allow her to re-enter the workforce.
Down the track, she hoped to apply for Australian citizenship as soon as she was allowed.
She thanked Demi Miller, the local woman who put the family’s petition online; the more than 4000 people who signed it; and the media organisations which shared her story.
“Now is everything good for us,” she said.
“When I needed help, everybody, the community, everybody from everywhere, they helped me, signing their signatures and everything – they let me stay here (and) take care of my family.
“Thank you, thank you everyone.”
