A grandmother who has lived in Australia for over 40 years is ready to be deported after it was found she is within the nation illegally.
Mary Ellis, 74, left London for Australia on the age of 31 in 1981 and has since created a life for herself in NSW‘s picturesque Northern Rivers area.
Her accomplice on the time informed Mary he had acquired everlasting visas, however 40 years later, the pensioner now dangers being deported at any second.
In Tweed Heads, Mary is thought to be a neighborhood hero for the time she spends volunteering and elevating cash for The Salvation Military.
She was awarded the celebrated NSW Volunteer of the Yr in 2023 for her work for Agape Outreach, which supplies sizzling meals for the homeless.
Nevertheless, the Good Samaritan could also be compelled to return to the UK regardless of having an Australian driver’s licence, a Medicare card and a pension card.
‘That is my house, I really like Australia,’ a teary Mary informed A Current Affair on Monday.
Mary Ellis, 74, left London for Australia on the age of 31 in 1981 and has since created a life for herself in NSW’s picturesque Northern Rivers area
She labored in hospitality and for the NSW Authorities for 30 years, the place her visa standing went unquestioned by her employers.
Mary has a son, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in Australia.
The grandmother mentioned ‘no one mentioned something’ about her visa till she was contacted by the Dwelling Affairs division.
The pensioner was requested to go to the Brisbane workplace, the place she was informed she had been dwelling in Australia illegally for greater than 4 a long time.
‘She is aware of not a soul over there [in England], not a soul,’ migration agent Stanley Schneider mentioned.
‘She’s at all times paid her taxes, she hasn’t even had a dashing ticket, she’s by no means infringed something, she’s by no means offended anybody.’
Mr Schneider, who helps Mary professional bono, mentioned the pensioner qualifies as an ‘absorbed particular person’ underneath the Migration Act 1958.
To be recognised for an absorbed particular person visa, a non-citizen should have been in Australia from April 2, 1984, and have by no means left the nation on or after that date.
Mary says she has by no means left Australia, not even for a vacation, since 1981.
Nevertheless, Dwelling Affairs claims Mary entered Australia 3 times underneath a special alias, and was in another country between February 1983 and November 1986.
The division mentioned in a letter that they imagine the true identification of the now-deceased man she was in a de facto relationship with on the time, Martin Ellis, was really Trevor Warren.
Mary was awarded the celebrated NSW Volunteer of the Yr in 2023 for her work for Agape Outreach, who present sizzling meals to these in want
Australia’s Dwelling Affairs division claims Mary did depart Australia underneath completely different aliases in February of 1983 and didn’t return till November of 1986
‘As you weren’t in Australia on 02/04/1984, you aren’t thought-about an absorbed particular person and don’t maintain an Absorbed Individuals Visa,’ the letter states.
Nevertheless, Mary insists that is ‘mistaken’ and says she would not know why Dwelling Affairs believes she has left and re-entered Australia underneath completely different aliases.
She has paperwork she claims show she was in Australia at these occasions, together with a job reference from a restaurant in Tasmania.
It states Mary labored there from 1983 to 1986 as a waitress and cashier.
A profitable Medicare enrolment letter signed by the then-Minister of Well being, Neal Blewett, can be getting used to argue Mary’s case.
Mr Schneider says she wouldn’t have been despatched the letter if she was not dwelling in Australia on the time.
‘Mary Ellis is an honest particular person, an individual we must be completely thrilled to have in Australia, and he or she’s an Australian, let’s face it,’ he mentioned.
