Horsham research scientist Hari Dadu celebrated his wedding anniversary and one-year-old daughter's birthday this year alone due to Australia's COVID-19 border restrictions.
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"My family is in India but I still celebrated my daughter's birthday and my third wedding anniversary here in Horsham," Dr Dadu said.
"I video call them everyday to see how they are going and to see my baby grow."
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In 2019 Dr Dadu took his wife Anitha Vanipenta, who was five-months pregnant, over to India to be with her family.
"I had just finished my PhD so I went back to Australia to find a job," Dr Dadu said.
"My daughter Esha was born in India in June 2019 and I then started the visa process for them.
"It took three months to get the visa and two months to get a passport for my daughter in India - we finally got the visas on March 3 this year."
Mrs Vanipenta and Esha were scheduled to leave India on March 19, the day Australia imposed restrictions on international travel.
"We missed out by just one day ... they were supposed to land here at 6pm just before the travel restrictions came into effect," Dr Dadu said.
"But if their flight got delayed by some chance they would have been deported back.
"It would be heartbreaking for everyone so I didn't want to take that risk and I asked them to stay back."
Dr Dadu rebooked the flights for April 24 but travel restrictions had not eased.
"I have held my daughter only once and she was so tiny ... she was just 10 days old when I visited her last year in India," he said.
"Allowing people in from overseas seems to be increasing the number of cases here which is not a good sign," Dr Dadu said.
"But personally I want my wife and child here ... it would be nice for them to consider at least temporary residents.
"I applied twice to the Border Australian Force and got instant rejection."
Dr Dadu said he knows people from India who were granted entry in to the country immediately because they are permanent residents.
"We would be paying for the quarantine and also self-isolating for the 14 days," he said.
"There are many more people like me ... it will be more soothing when I have a date so I can give my wife some certainty."
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