한 중국국적을 가진 여성이 공부도 마치고 기술심사도 통과하고 시드니에 한 식당에 주방장으로 취업도 되었습니다. 그리고 일을 합니다.

어느 날 고용주는 퍼스에 있는 같은 계열의 식당으로 가서 일하길 원합니다. 그 식당에 사람이 필요하고 경험있는 주장장을 사람을 구할 수 없어 그녀는 남편과 함께 갑니다. 퍼스라는 지역입니다.

2015년 12월 그 회사는 그녀를 스폰서하여 RSMS 비자를 신청합니다. 그런데 식당이 사정이 안좋아서 파산 신고를 하며 비자가 거절됩니다. 또한 더 심한 것은 퍼스가 2017년 3월에 RSMS에서 빠집니다.

회사에서 일은 하지만 비자 받을 길이 없다가 같은 계열의 식당으로 켄버라로 이동해야 했습니다. 6일을 거쳐 차로 동에서 서로 이동을 또 합니다. (이전에는 서에서 동으로 이동을 했었고)

그곳에 가서 일을 하는 동안 비자도 신청을 한 모양입니다. 비자 처리 중에 또 한번 시련을 당합니다. 하루 아침에 고용주가 더 이상 출근하지 말라는 통보를 전화로 받습니다.  그래서 비자가 거절됩니다. 2018년 4월이라고 합니다.

억울합니다. 비자 신청인 입장에서 보면 너무나 억울합니다.

RSMS 고용주 스폰서쉽 비자라는 것이 바로 이런 단점을 가지고 있습니다.

물론 흔하지는 않습니다.

예전에는 수개월이면 그란트 되던 비자였는데

지금은 14개월 이상이 소요되기 때문에 그 처리 시간에 고용주가 고용을 포기하거나 또는 파산신청을 하면 이 비자는 거절되게 되어 있습니다. 이 비자의 최대 단점인 것입니다.

신청인은 아무런 잘못이 없습니다.

그러나 외적인 요인으로 그녀의 삶이 완전이 바뀌는 이런 현상

안타깝게도 이민성의 왈 ‘어떻게 해 줄 방법이 없다’ 는 것입니다.

요즘 RSMS 비자 거절 비율이 높아지고 있습니다. 10개중에 7개 케이스가 거절되는 상황이라고 합니다.

2가지 케이스가 오늘 기사로 올라 왔고 한 이민법무사의 이야기를 볼 수 있습니다.

“So close, yet so far” is how Wei “Mira” Chen, a Chinese national describes her situation after failing to get a permanent Australian visa twice despite having been sponsored by a reputed employer.

The 29-year-old found a job as a junior chef at Jamie’s Italian restaurant in Sydney during her industry training and was later transferred to a restaurant in Perth that was short on experienced staff. In December 2015, the company sponsored her under the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) for a permanent visa.

“I flew to Perth to start my new life in Perth just two weeks after my graduation,” she tells SBS Punjabi.

While her visa application was still under process, the Keystone Group that owned six Jamie’s Italian restaurants in Australia, went into voluntary administration in mid-2016 and was no longer able to guarantee her employment for two years as per her employment offer.

“The processing time for an RSMS visa was 13 months at that time and it had been just about six months since I started my job. My visa application was refused by the Immigration Department because my job wasn’t certain,” she said.

“What makes it worse, Perth had been removed from regional areas in March 2017, which means RSMS visa is no longer available in Perth metro area.”

While she continued to work at the Perth restaurant, the Australian chain was bought back by Jamie’s Italian Restaurant Group in 2017 and her new employer once again sponsored Ms Chen’s RSMS visa to work at the company’s restaurant in Canberra.

“My husband and I moved a long way from the east coast to the west coast, and back to the east coast again. We travelled six days driving from Perth to for this job and settled down in Canberra,” she said.

But she had another setback in April this year when Jamie’s Italian shutdown its Canberra restaurant before a decision on Ms Chen’s visa application was made. She says the staff weren’t given any notice before ending their employment.

“The company terminated our contract in an improper manner- I felt like being dumped as garbage when I was told over a phone call not to come to work,” Ms Chen says.

Her second application for a visa sponsorship while working at the same restaurant was refused last month. She is now fighting for compensation for her leave entitlement and mandatory notice period.

The Department of Home Affairs, in refusing her visa, acknowledged that Ms Chen had been “negatively impacted” by circumstances that were outside of her control.

“She has been negatively impacted by two businesses running the same restaurant group going into administration over a period of 2.5 years. However, these factors could not override the requirements of the nomination application,” a Department official said while refusing her visa nomination.

“I failed in my visa attempt twice in the same business where I had been working for three years, in three different cities, from east to west, and now I have ended up with a situation that I am forced to leave the country without any entitlements paid,” she rues.

Samuel Lau, a Malaysian national is also in the same situation. His June 2016 application for an RSMS visa was refused after a Perth restaurant that sponsored him decided to shut shop in March 2018 while his application was still being processed.

Thirty-seven-year-old Mr Lau, currently earning a living by driving for Uber, says the experience has left him fearful of such arrangements where everything depends on the employer.

“It’s so unfair. I did everything right and the employer just sells his business and I got caught up in the situation,” Mr Lau tells SBS Punjabi. “I can’t go through this again because another shifty employer may do the same.”

Mr Lau has appealed the decision in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and also applied to the Immigration Minister for his intervention.

Jujhar Bajwa of Bajwa Immigration Consultants says the processing times for the visa have ballooned in recent years.

“Until four or five years ago, these visas were granted within a month. However, the Department has recently made us aware of its concerns about a high incidence of fraud in this category,” he says.

Mr Bajwa says employer nominated visas are “inherently risky”.

“In these visas, everything depends on the employer. We see many such cases where businesses are sold while nomination applications are still under process,” Mr Bajwa says.

He says refusal rates of RSMS applications are very high.

“Nearly seven out of ten RSMS applications are refused due to concerns about the company’s finances and the employers’ ability to pay an employee for two years on an on-going basis.”

Ms Chen says a long waiting period for visa processing is as much responsible for her situation as her employers shutting the business.

“The longer it takes the riskier it gets for applicants who have no control over the business. I did nothing wrong but ended up wasting my time, money, the hard work in vain and there is nothing I can do about it,” she says.

Want to share your story? Send us an email at Punjabi.Program@sbs.com.au