Maria Duminica has lived in Australia since she was a child but now the 20-year-old is forced to make a desperate plea as she faces deportation
- Young Romanian woman faces deportation
- Maria Duminica has spent half her life in Australia
- READ MORE: Refugee to be kicked out of Australia after brutal attack saw man get his EAR severed
A woman who has spent half her life in Australia has made a desperate plea to the immigration minister to let her stay.
Maria Duminica, 20, first came to Australia from Romania with her mother and stepfather, who is an Australian citizen.
She travelled on a tourist visa to Sydney, where her mother and stepfather tied the knot a few months later.
Ms Duminica's mother applied for a partner visa with her daughter as a secondary applicant.
The pair were put on a series of temporary bridging visas while they waited for the permanent visa to be approved.
Maria Duminica, 20, first came to Australia from Romania with her mother and stepfather, who is an Australian citizen
Ms Duminica said she still clearly remembers landing in Sydney as a 10-year-old and going straight to Bondi Beach on a hot summer day.
'I would walk down the street and people would smile at you, it was very nice,' she told 9NEWS.
But as a teenager, things were not so happy and Ms Duminica's relationship with her mother and stepfather deteriorated.
Ms Duminica said she wanted to leave home as a 13-year-old, but waited until she turned 16 and left for good.
She stayed with friends for a while before moving into temporary crisis accommodation.
Stepping Stone House, at Dulwich Hill, in Sydney's inner west, took Ms Duminica in and gave her a safe place to live.
Ms Duminica continued studying at high school while living in the refuge, travelling more than an hour each way from Dulwich Hill to Rose Bay.
She said she always grew up with the mentality that she had to finish school, but her world was rocked by some 'frightening' news while she was sitting her HSC trials.
A few weeks before her 18th birthday, Ms Duminica was told her bridging visa had been cancelled for a month.
Ms Duminica said she was scared and shocked because her whole future in Australia was in doubt and she didn't know what she could do about it
Her mother, who was still waiting on the approval of her partner visa some seven years later, had taken her daughter's name off her application as a dependant.
Ms Duminica said she was scared and shocked because her whole future in Australia was in doubt and she didn't know what she could do about it.
With limited options, her solicitor at the time applied for a protection visa, which was refused in 2022.
An attempt to appeal the decision at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal was also unsuccessful, but the tribunal member overseeing Ms Duminica's appeal decided it could meet the special circumstances required for a ministerial intervention.
Her case went to Immigration Minister Andrew Giles' office in June last year, but she is still waiting to hear whether he will let her stay in Australia permanently.
Ms Duminica said living month-to-month with the threat of being deported was exhausting, explaining that she doesn't feel like Romania is her home country
'I don't know anyone in Romania and I don't know how to speak the language. I don't have any connections there,' she said.
'If I do have to go back, I will be a young woman on the streets. I will be homeless.'
After finishing school, Ms Duminica got a job at a Sydney hotel and moved out independently.
But Ms Duminica said her future still felt precarious.
She was given working rights but she did not have permission to study.
She would also like to get a car or a place to live, but she fears 'that's money gone' if she is deported.
Almost 10,000 people have signed an online petition which Stepping Stone House started, calling on the minister to grant Ms Duminica permanent residency.
Stepping Stone House CEO Jason Juretic described Ms Duminica as a 'genuinely outstanding' young woman who had shown grit and determination to get As and Bs in eight school subjects while working part-time at two florists.
Ms Juretic said it was clear the minister needed to intervene because Ms Duminica doesn't have a support system in her home country, where young women are very vulnerable to human trafficking.
Ms Duminica's immigration lawyer, Sally Jackson, said her client's case was unusual and she wants to bring that to the minister's attention.
A spokesperson for Mr Giles said the minister's office was looking into Ms Duminica's case.
