Hope for British woman who faced being deported from Australia
Breakthrough for British woman who faced being deported in Australia despite living Down Under for 11 years as Immigration Minister makes dramatic intervention
- Belinda Checkley lived in Australia for 11 years
- Was facing deportation after visa rejected
- After three month battle she has been granted residency
A British woman who was facing deportation after living in Australia for 11 years has been granted permanent residency after the immigration minister dramatically intervened in her case.
Belinda Checkley, 36, first came Down Under as a backpacker in 2012 and stayed in Byron Bay for more than a decade. But her visa was suddenly rejected when her employer sold the business she works for.
The café worker was told she would need to leave the country in March, but was granted a three-month bridging visa just hours before she was due to board a plane.
Now Daily Mail Australia can reveal she has been granted permanent residency in Australia after Immigration Minister Andrew Giles intervened in her case allowing her to stay permanently.
A British woman who was facing deportation after living in Australia for 11 years has been granted permanent residency after the immigration minister dramatically intervened in her case
In a video posted to her Instagram on Tuesday, Ms Checkley explained: ‘Last Thursday, I received a phone call from my lawyers and they said that Andrew Giles has reviewed my case and has decided to intervene with the previous decision and has granted me permanent residency.
‘So I am now a permanent resident of Australia. It’s an surreal outcome.
‘I’m so so happy I can’t believe it is turned around since December when I was looking at leaving and where am I going to live and and now I am permanent in Australia.
Belinda Checkley, 36, first came Down Under as a backpacker in 2012 and stayed in Byron Bay for more than a decade, but her visa was rejected when her employer sold the business she works for
‘I never have to worry again or do another visa or write another letter or spend any more thousands.
‘And I feel like I can finally move forward with my life. So I’m so so happy and I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me because it’s been so amazing the support and I’ve literally blown me away’.
More than 35,000 people signed a petition urging Mr Giles to let Ms Checkley stay.
Ms Checkley first came to Australia on a working holiday visa and ‘instantly’ fell in love with Byron Bay .
The café worker was told she would need to leave the country in March, but was granted a three-month bridging visa just hours before she was due to board a plane
After a three-month stint working on a farm, she studied hospitality management before getting a job in the New South Wales tourist town and working her way up to café manager.
But in 2018, the café changed ownership, causing her visa to be cancelled.
Ms Checkley then appealed for public support to stay, with many Byron locals speaking out in support of her place in the community
She says she’s built a ‘beautiful life’ in Byron Bay and has ‘no life’ back in the UK.
‘I have worked hard to build a secure future and my goal has been to obtain permanent residency,’ she said previously.
But now she has been granted permanent residency in Australia after immigration minister Andrew Giles intervened in her case allowing her to stay
‘It has been a long journey – one filled with countless personal, emotional and financial sacrifices – to work within the Australian immigration system,’ her change.org petition explained.
At Christmas she was told she would have to leave, and informed she wouldn’t be able to apply for another visa without further review.
‘I had three months to prepare for my deportation. Once outside Australian borders, I would be legally barred from re-entering the country for the next three years,’ she explained.
After successfully being granted a last-minute bridging visa, Ms Checkley then appealed for public support to stay, with many Byron Bay locals speaking out in support of her place in the community.
‘I’m a hardworking, law-abiding and productive member of Australian society. I work in an industry desperate for talented and reliable staff.
‘I’ve proven myself again and again and sacrificed so much just to call this place home. My only crime is that I was not born here.
‘I came, like so many of us still in Byron Bay, as a backpacker in my 20s. I loved it and have never left. I’m now 36 years old, settled down, and trying to begin my own family with my partner who grew up here.
‘I have no life back in the UK. It’s a cold and distant memory.’
Her case had parallels with those of the Murugappan family from Sri Lanka who won the support of the township of Biloela, and the Green family from Scotland who had also been in Australia for a decade but were denied a visa due to changes of employer.
In both cases, significant media attention saw those families allowed to stay.
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