A mum faces living thousands of miles from her daughter and partner after being told she must leave her home.
Ellie Jones, 27, from Dingle, met her Australian partner Louis in Liverpool nearly six years ago. In 2021, they moved their family to Townsville in Queensland, Australia.
However, Ellie now faces deportation along with her son from a previous relationship Alfie, 10, due to visa issues. She has a daughter Olivia, 2, with Louis and they share custody of Indie, 7, who is Louis' daughter from a previous relationship.
READ MORE: Mum 'shaking with panic' in woods until she stumbled across woman
Alfie is a British citizen, while Olivia has dual nationality through Louis. Louis and Indie both have Australian citizenship.
As a result, Ellie would be apart from her partner, daughter and step-daughter if she is forced to return to England. The issues stem from her partner visa, which the Australian Department of Home Affairs has refused.
As a result, Ellie said has been told that she and her son must leave the country by June 2 or they face being deported.
Customer Service Manager Ellie told the ECHO: "When we got here, we applied for the visa, which was really costly. They said they'd be in touch with more information. It comes in dribs and drabs, they'll ask for certain information to be uploaded.
"They asked for a medical, which cost $1,000 each for me and my son. And then they asked for an international police check for myself and my partner. That came back clear.
"Then they asked for a federal police check in Australia. We uploaded that and then didn't really hear anything from them."
Further issues arose in January 2023, when Ellie needed to come back to Liverpool to visit her mum, who was dying from cancer. However, she was not able to make it back in time.
She said: "In January, I had to get back in touch with them and say my mum had died. She had cancer and I just couldn't get back in time.
"I had to get back in touch with immigration because they wouldn't let me leave the country on the visa that I was on.
"I had to apply for a new one. I was told I could go back to England and was given twelve months that I could stay for and then I'd have to come back. At no point did they say my federal police check was outstanding.
Ellie added: "On Friday they sent a refusal letter, saying we didn't send federal police checks. I was told my visa would be declined and was told I had 35 days to leave the country or I'd be detained or forcibly removed."
Ellie said she was "devastated" and does not want her family to be broken up.
She said: "If I come back to England, I'll have no home, no job, no income. I'm going to have to leave my daughter in Australia with her father - I don't want to put her through that.
"My son is going to be ripped away from his step-father and his step-sisters. My daughter is going to be moved away from her mum and her brother.
"My daughter is Australian, my partner is Australian, my step-daughter is Australian. I pay taxes, I've been working here the whole time.
"We contribute to society and they're just going to do this over a piece of paper, which is completely redundant anyway. If I had actually done anything wrong here, they would have flagged me and they would've deported me regardless."
She added: "We made the choice to come here because my partner has a daughter here. We wanted our family to be together, we'd struggled to make ends meet in England.
"My mum was my real network of support I had. I grew up in foster care my whole life, she was my foster mum."
Ellie and Louis are appealing the visa decision. They are crowd-funding on GoFundMe and have a $3,153 goal to pay for the tribunal costs.
Ellie said: "We've just decided to apply for new federal police checks. They've both come through clear again. It's so disgusting that this is over a piece of paper that states I've never done anything wrong. It's shocking."
The Australian Department of Home Affairs has been contacted for comment.
You can view the GoFundMe here.
READ NEXT
Horrifying footage shows man hit by car and attacked by gang
Paedophile who sexually abused six children dies less than a year into
Scouser who played for Everton and Liverpool delivered Wrexham's Hollywood ending
Row erupts as Labour denies councillor is behind troll account after deleted tweet
Ten minutes that changed Paul Russell's life after Thomas Cashman murdered Olivia
