{"id":10637,"date":"2026-05-13T18:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/10637\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:42:12","slug":"victorian-emergency-department-nurse-faces-deportation-due-to-sons-condition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/10637\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian emergency department nurse faces deportation due to son’s condition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between night shifts in a busy emergency department in regional Victoria, registered nurse Christin Das tries to keep a brave face for her young children.<\/p>\n

But she is facing a rapidly approaching deadline, May 29, when her family’s bridging visas expire.<\/p>\n

The family of four from Bendigo, in central Victoria, faces deportation after the Australian government rejected their permanent residency application due to their six-year-old son’s developmental delay.<\/p>\n

Ms Das said her son Jaziel’s challenges were due to a condition called corpus callosum thinning, which affects the signals between the left and right sides of the brain.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jaziel Joseph attends a specialist school and receives allied health support. (Supplied: Christin Das)<\/p>\n

After three years working as a nurse in Bendigo, Ms Das has made a final plea for ministerial intervention.<\/p>\n

“I just want the Minister for Home Affairs [Tony Burke] to get involved and look at my application and give me justice,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It really breaks my heart because when I am taking care of people, my own son is denied care from the government.”<\/p>\n

Australia’s migration regulations allow a visa to be refused if a person’s care will significantly cost the community.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the policy was changed to exempt some Australian-born and residing children, and the Significant Cost Threshold increased from $51,000 to $86,000.<\/p>\n

But some experts say the government should waive the health requirements for people working in high-demand industries.<\/p>\n

A better life<\/p>\n

Ms Das and her husband, Jineesh Joseph, migrated from Ireland with their son Jaziel in April 2023.<\/p>\n

Their two-year-old daughter, Hazel, was born in Australia.<\/p>\n

Ms Das said Jaziel was experiencing respiratory issues in Ireland’s cold climate, and she was open about his challenges when applying for their Australian visas.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jaziel was born in Ireland and Hazel was born in Bendigo. (Supplied: Christin Das)<\/p>\n

Now settled in Bendigo, Mr Joseph is a chef at a hotel and Jaziel attends a specialist school and receives allied health support.<\/p>\n

“There has been massive progress in [Jaziel’s] development,” Ms Das said.<\/p>\n

“And then it’s like we are going to take everything away from him.”<\/p>\n

The family applied in June 2023 for permanent residency as employer-nominated skilled workers.<\/p>\n

The visa is subject to a health requirement, including being free from a disease or condition that is a significant cost to the community.<\/p>\n

In a refusal letter seen by the ABC, a Commonwealth medical officer found services to support Jaziel would likely cost the Australian community $1.245 million, including NDIS, disability services and special education.<\/p>\n

But Ms Das said no-one could say what his future needs would be.<\/p>\n

“He may be able to have a normal life. Nobody can predict the future. I cannot tell you what tomorrow holds for me,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s so stressful being a frontline worker, having a challenged child at home and going through all this for three years.<\/p>\n

“I just ask the government to look into my case. If not on humanitarian grounds, look at the skills we have brought here and serving the community.”<\/p>\n

More news from regional Victoria<\/p>\n

An online petition supporting the family has received more than 4,000 signatures.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Bendigo Health said it was an “incredibly difficult time” for Ms Das’s family, colleagues and all who know her.<\/p>\n

“Bendigo Health acknowledges and deeply values the contribution registered nurse Christin Das has made to our emergency department and to the Bendigo community,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

“The matter is now following due process with federal authorities, and we sincerely hope for a positive outcome for Christin and her family.”<\/p>\n

Policy ‘discriminates’<\/p>\n

Immigration Advice and Rights Centre chief executive and principal solicitor Joshua Strutt said in cases such as Jaziel’s, factors including his parents’ employment in skilled occupations were not taken into account.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Joshua Strutt says Australia’s migration policy discriminates against people with health issues. (Supplied: IARC)<\/p>\n

“We see these cases all the time. It is a huge issue,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We often see families considering leaving children off applications because they’re worried it might mean their visas are refused.<\/p>\n

“Or we even see parents just leaving Australia because they don’t want to do that to their children. It’s pretty harrowing.”<\/p>\n

Mr Strutt said Australia’s immigration system was “really confusing” and it could be unclear what visa people would be eligible for when they arrived.<\/p>\n

He was calling for all visas to have access to health waivers, and for the home affairs department to be given flexibility to consider each family’s unique situation.<\/p>\n

“It really discriminates [against] people with health issues,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Especially if they’re working in critical industries, [they] should have made available to them health waivers so they can stay here as a family unit.”<\/p>\n

Immigration Minister Tony Burke was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

A departmental spokesperson said it could not comment on individual cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Between night shifts in a busy emergency department in regional Victoria, registered nurse Christin Das tries to keep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,11707,11708,11709,11705,814,2800,6872,40,11706],"class_list":["post-10637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bendigo-health","tag-chef","tag-childs-condition","tag-christin-das","tag-emergency-department","tag-home-affairs","tag-immigration","tag-nurse","tag-significant-cost-threshold"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}