Family facing deportation to South Korea wins right to stay in Australia

A hardworking family who was facing deportation after being cruelly scammed by their migration agent has won the right to stay in Australia.

A hardworking family who have been in the country for more than a decade are and faced deportation have won the right to stay in the family. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

A hardworking family facing deportation after being cruelly scammed by their migration agent has won the right to stay in Australia after the Immigration Minister intervened in their case.

Husband and wife, Wonsang Lee and Soonyoung Park, said they had received a call from their lawyer Park & Co Lawyers on Thursday morning and were told Immigration Minister Andrew Giles had granted their family with permanent residency visas.

It comes just days after the Herald Sun first revealed the family had been facing deportation to South Korea after losing $20,000 to a migration agent who never submitted their visa documents to authorities.

Mr Lee and Ms Park, along with their two adult children, Sojung, 25, and Donghoon, 23, have lived in Melbourne’s east for almost 20 years.

Ms Park said she was “overjoyed” to receive the good news.

Minister of Immigration Andrew Giles has granted the Lee family the right to stay in Australia. Picture: Supplied

“My family and I are so grateful to everyone that has supported us throughout this very stressful time,” she said.

“Thank you to Mr Giles for giving our family the opportunity to live in Australia, a country that we love so much.

“We are so grateful to everyone in the community who has assisted us with our case, we are so happy that we are crying tears of joy.”

Ms Park said the family planned to celebrate the news with their close friends.

“We are planning to go to a restaurant on the weekend and spend time with our friends who have supported us throughout this process.

“We are glad that we never gave up hope and we are so thrilled to have this wonderful result.”

Deakin Federal Liberal MP Michael Sukkar, who assisted the family with their case, said this was a wonderful outcome for the Lee family.

“I am so happy that we, as a community, have been able to support a genuinely decent family to be granted permanent residency,” he said.

Since moving to Australia in 2005, the family has spent almost $100,000 on legal fees and other costs incurred for applying for visas.

A change.org petition, which had called for the minister to urgently help, gathered almost 13,000 signatures before Mr Giles intervened.

Ms Park and her daughter both worked long hours as nurses during the Covid pandemic, while Mr Lee was a bus driver before he switched to a career as a travel agent.

Donghoon has completed an accounting degree and works in retail full time.

In March 2016, the family applied for Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) visas – a pathway to permanent residency – through Ms Wood, who was based in Glen Iris.

But after several unanswered calls and emails to the agent about these visa applications, the family realised something was wrong.

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