The sister of a woman with cerebral palsy who is facing deportation has issued a desperate plea for the Australian government to let her stay.

Jacqueline Schmidt Aravena, 61, has been living with her sister Marcela in Melbourne for nine years, after originally coming to Australia from her native Chile on a visitor visa in 2017.

Marcela, an aged care and disability support worker, said she had been looking after Jacqueline, who also has an intellectual disability, for most of her life – fulfilling a promise she made to her mother on her deathbed more than 40 years ago.

Jacqueline Schmidt Aravena, pictured with her sister at their Melbourne home. (Supplied: Marcela Schmidt Aravena)

“My mother had cancer and the night before she passed away, she said, ‘What is going to happen with Jacqueline?” Marcela said.

“I said, ‘Don’t worry, Jacqueline is going to be okay. I will take care of her.'”

Marcela acted as Jacqueline’s main caregiver for decades until 2005, when she fell in love and moved to Melbourne to be with her Australian partner. She is now an Australian citizen.

Having been advised it would be impossible to get a visa for her sister to come with her, Marcela paid for a carer to look after Jacqueline while they were apart, and flew home as much as she could.

When Jacqueline’s carer told Marcela she could no longer do the job, she arranged with the help of a member of parliament for her sister to come to Australia and apply for a remaining relative visa.

Marcela said her sister was happy and content living with her and her family and did not rely on the government for any support.

“My children grew up with Jacqueline and now our grandkids are growing up around her as well,” she said.

“They love her, she is like a little girl, mentally, so she likes playing with them.

“Normally, she does everything with me. I take her shopping, and everything I do, she’s in the car with me.”

Jacqueline celebrated her 60th birthday last year with her family in Australia. (Supplied: Marcela Schmidt Aravena)

In 2019, Jacqueline’s visa application was refused, under the grounds that she had other relatives in Chile. For the remaining visa to be approved, an applicant’s living relatives must all reside in Australia.

However, Marcela said her sister’s half-siblings in Chile were elderly, aged in their 80s and 90s, and were unable to care for her. The pair’s brother had also been estranged from the family for 20 years.

In 2022, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal upheld the department’s decision, despite noting the limited capacity of Jaqueline’s other relatives to care for her.

Two requests for a ministerial intervention into Jacqueline’s case have also been knocked back, with the second being refused in December 2025.

The family’s lawyer, Michael Cao from Challenge Legal, said both times the application never made it to the minister’s desk for consideration, because new personal procedural directions had narrowed the scope for intervention in cases like hers under compassionate grounds.

“The minister’s office found she doesn’t meet the new, narrowed criteria,” Cao said. “They didn’t even refer the case to the minister, which we believe is quite unfair and unfortunate for Jacqueline and her family.”

“We like to believe that Jacqueline did always satisfy the compassionate grounds because she has no family anywhere else that can care for her,” Cao said.

Marcela said her sister was well loved and cared for here in Australia, but “would not survive” in Chile. (Supplied: Marcela Schmidt Aravena)

Cao has since lodged a third application for a ministerial intervention, with the written support of Greens senator David Shoebridge.

Marcela said if her sister was deported back to Chile, it would be devastating for the whole family.

“She is not going to survive,” Marcela said.

“She would have to go to a nursing home, and nursing homes in Chile are nothing like they are here.”

The uncertainty has left the family in a harrowing state of limbo. Jacqueline’s bridging visa expired on Thursday, and the family spent the day waiting for news on a renewal while their third application for intervention sits with the department.

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Marcela has now turned to the public for help, launching a Change.org petition which has so far attracted more than 1800 signatures.

“We are not asking for special treatment or any kind of financial assistance. We are asking for humanity,” Marcela wrote in the petition.

Spokespersons for both the Assistant Minister for Immigration Matt Thistlethwaite and the Department of Home Affairs told nine.com.au they could not comment on individual cases for privacy reasons.