Jonny has spent $12,000 trying to become a permanent resident in Australia... he says the price is getting to be too much

Published: 10:45, 18 June 2026 | Updated: 10:58, 18 June 2026 A UK migrant has revealed his frustration at still not receiving permanent residency after five years in Australia and spending more than $10,000 on the process.  Jonny Gbla applied for his visa last year and said he was hoping to receive his invitation for permanent residency this month.  Yet, he was disappointed when the Department of Home Affairs failed to respond.  'Tell me why it's crickets in my email,' he said.    'I still have no security about staying in the country I've lived in for five years. I've spent so much money, I'm over it.' Mr Gbla, who moved to Queensland on a Working Holiday Visa, has forked out $12,000 for visas, medical exams, police checks and English tests.  He said he had done everything by the book in hopes of finally being granted approval.  'Australian government, if you see this, I'm a law-abiding citizen,' he said. Jonny Gbla applied for his visa last year and said he was looking forward to receiving his invite for permanent residency this month 'I'm a good boy, but please, I just wanna stay here, man. I pay my taxes, I'm a good man, I don't smoke, I don't drink, I hardly go out.' Now living in Melbourne, Mr Gbla works full-time as a podiatrist and creates fashion and food content online.  To stay in Australia, he said he has spent another $5,000 applying for a new visa, with further costs continually adding up.  With his work visa expiring in November, Mr Gbla told Yahoo News he applied for a Skilled Nominated visa late last year, which he found was extremely expensive. 'Even if I wanted to do it with an agent, probably looking at maybe like $9,000, and this is not even factoring in an English test I had to do, which was $300,' he said. To afford it, Mr Gbla said he had been living out of his car before subletting his room in Windsor, which cost about $350 per week.   He now splits his time between staying with his girlfriend and sleeping in a Brunswick studio he rents for $600 a month.  'So it's kind of cheap,' he said. Mr Gbla, who moved to Queensland on a Working Holiday Visa, has had to pay $12,000 for his visas, medical exams, police checks and English tests 'I literally sleep on a blow-up bed mattress… [and] it's freezing in there.' He also keeps his wardrobe in his car and does his laundry at work as well. Although the costs were his main burden, Mr Gbla said he has sacrificed a lot just to stay.  'I feel like I've had to literally change my life just to make a lot of these things achievable,' he said. 'It's just insane. I've got nieces and nephews I haven't seen in five years, which would have been a lot more achievable if I didn't have to spend so much money on visas.' Despite believing Australia's immigration laws are 'expensive and tedious', Mr Gbla says his ultimate goal is to stay.  'I feel like people do make it very difficult to immigrate here... but this is my home,' he said. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.