Care worker Kirsty Grigg’s deportation reprieve

A hardworking Adelaide family at risk of being split by deportation has won an 11th-hour reprieve from the Immigration Department, with their case being reopened following a public outcry.

Nick and Kirsty Grigg with daughter Stevie and son Ben.

A hardworking Adelaide family at risk of being split by deportation has won an 11th-hour reprieve from the Immigration Department, with their case being reopened following a public outcry.

The Grigg family had been told that Scottish-born mother and aged-care worker Kirsty Grigg had to leave Australia by next Tuesday due to a visa bungle, leaving her Australian husband Nick and their two teenage children, Stevie and Ben, behind.

Ms Grigg was facing the threat of deportation due to a computer error, with her visa application inadvertently processed before it was complete, and the department’s rejection email sent to her spam folder just before Christmas. The family had been unable to get any assistance or clarity from the Immigration Department until The Australian revealed their plight two weeks ago, prompting South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas and Liberal senator Simon Birmingham to write to Immigration Minister Andrew Giles pleading their case.

Ms Grigg’s employer, Southern Cross Care, also made representations on her behalf, saying she was a highly valued aged-care worker who has been promoted since joining the company in 2021 when she moved to Adelaide with her family.

The Australian understands that the family has been contacted by Immigration telling Ms Grigg to upload more documentation and not to make any plans to fly out of Australia.

The department told her that even if she does not hear of its final decision before April 9, she is welcome to apply for a temporary class E visa giving her the right to continue living and working in Australia.

The case has parallels with that of the Green family in Adelaide, when electrician Mark Green narrowly avoiding deportation back to Scotland last year after a visa bungle caused by a bankrupt former employer.

Mr Grigg told The Australian on Wednesday that he and his wife were now hopeful of a positive resolution.

“If deportation on the April 9 has been removed from the equation, then we hope and pray that deportation is not an option at all,” he said. “The whole family … are so relieved that Kirsty will not be deported on the 9th.”