The family of a 10-year-old Queensland boy facing deportation has hand-delivered a 120,000-signature petition to the federal immigration minister, begging for them to remain in the country.
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Townsville nurse Maria Sevilla's visa application was rejected in September over fears her son Tyrone's autism could make him a "burden" to society.
"As a mother, or anyone can relate, if you have a child and someone from the government labels your child as a burden to society, that's too much for a parent to hear and accept," Ms Sevilla said.
On Monday Ms Sevilla, her mother Ching Morales, and Tyrone delivered 4000 pages of signatures from a Change.org petition to federal Immigration Minister Peter Dutton's Strathpine office.
"It (the number of signatures) is very overwhelming," she said,
"We're really lucky to have all this support in my hands."
Along with the petition, his mother handed in a letter Tyrone wrote with her help: "Dear Mr Dutton, Can i (sic) stay in Australia please… Tyrone".
Ms Sevilla, who has been in Australia since 2007 on a variety of education and working visas, works as a registered nurse at Townsville Hospital and has private health insurance.
She's been fighting since September to overturn the rejection of her Skilled Provisional Work visa, which would allow her to stay in the country another three years.
The 38-year-old's bridging visa was due to expire on Monday but Mr Dutton told 612 ABC on Monday morning Ms Sevilla would be granted another bridging visa while her appeal to his department was considered.
The minister said the department's decision had been upheld by an appeals tribunal but he could exercise a "discretionary power" to grant the visa.
"Obviously in these cases, we need to apply common sense," he said.
"We're a compassionate society and we want to help families that are in difficult situations."
But Mr Dutton said these considerations had to be weighed against "tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, if not in some cases millions of dollars" of taxpayer money potentially needed to support Tyrone across his lifetime.
The 10-year-old can only understand English and has spent most of his life in Australia.
His mum is worried his condition will deteriorate if the family is sent back to the Philippines.
"He will regress because everything will be changed, even probably for me as well because I have our family here, who has been supporting us since he was diagnosed," she said.
"It will be tremendously difficult for us."
Ms Sevilla said she was doing everything she could to ensure Tyrone wouldn't ever be a burden, and a Townsville doctor had even set up a trust fund, raising $20,000 for the boy's future.
"Tyrone is my child so he is my responsibility," she said.
"That's why I'm working hard to give him a bright future.
"And because of this there's a lot of people who's been helping us."
The Queensland Nurses Union has been active in supporting the Sevillas' bid to stay in the country and law firm Hall Payne Lawyers is providing pro bono legal assistance.
Ms Sevilla previously faced deportation when she applied for a higher education visa to study nursing at James Cook University.
She said former Immigration Minister Chris Bowen stepped in at the time to grant her application.
