Muckleford father to face visa tribunal, possible deportation

Italian native Andrea Tindiani, who is on a bridging visa after having his permanent residency application recently denied, will face a tribunal on June 20 in his fight to stay in the country.

He has set up a GoFundMe page to help finance his legal action and has started a change.org petition titled "Please Help MARLEY to KEEP HIS DAD Andrea in Australia!" which so far has 864 signatures.

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Central to the case is that Marley would "experience extreme trauma and hardship by no fault of his own" if his father was forced to leave Australia.

"It's very simple: there is no dad coming to pick him up from school, there is no dad taking him out to the playground, there is no dad taking him for ice-cream," Mr Tindiani said.

"There is no dad for him to lean on or to give him advice while he becomes a man."

He said that he didn't think "there is a price" that could be put on the benefits of that time with his son, whose mother he shares custody with.

Mr Tindiani, who has lived in Australia for 11 years, initially applied for permanent residency in 2016.

He was set to be sponsored by his employer, however workplace changes left Mr Tindiani without a job and no longer eligible.

Since then he has remained through a mix of temporary visas, with the second, more recent, attempt to get permanent residency failing.

But it has left him with the chance to spell out why he should stay to the tribunal.

In his time in central Victoria, Mr Tindiani has built deep connections in the community.

He contributes to Men's Work, a collective offering support groups for men with talking therapy, emotional work and trauma healing.

The prospect of him being separated from Marley would create a "fatherhood wound" for his son.

"What I do for a living is help other men father themselves because they have this 'fatherhood wound' that a lot of men carry," Mr Tindiani said.

"It will be a total failure for me to give that 'fatherhood wound' to my son by circumstances that I cannot change."

He said without intervention Marley would "be forced to be without a father".

He is calling on the Minister for Immigration, Andrew Giles, to intervene and grant him permanent residency on "compassionate circumstances", citing the separation from his young son.

Mr Tindiani said he faced costs of around $5000, made up of a range of government and legal fees, to appear before the tribunal.

"But this is not a guaranteed procedure," he said.

"What we're going to do in the tribunal is basically present the scenario and ask for it to be referred to the minister of immigration, so they could hand pick my case, and look into it."

Now, Mr Tindiani said, he wanted to raise awareness and embolden communities to say: "I stand with you guys."

"There are two key components of this: firstly, our request for financial support, to be able to secure legal assistance and cover costs," he said.

"Second is awareness, (to say) 'stand for this cause that is about keeping families together, because it's the right thing to do'."

He said his commitment to his son was unwavering.

"And we know that there is a fatherhood crisis that's already taking place in society, we have all these boys that don't have direction," Mr Tindiani said.

"There are a lot of fathers that don't have the tools or means (to support their son)."

"I've proved in so many ways, not just to myself or my son, but to many others, that the commitment and dedication is massively high - and this (separation) is completely avoidable and preventable."

If you'd like to support Andrea and Marley you can donate to the GoFundMe here and sign the petition here.

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