Minh Duong was almost beaten to death by neo-Nazis on a Melbourne street and with the help of a good Samaritan, was planning to travel to Vietnam to see his family for the first time since the race-hate attack.

But Immigration Department officials have cancelled his student visa.

Minh is now stranded in Vietnam after being accused of overstaying his visa and banned from returning to Australia for three years.

Minh's good Samaritan, piano teacher Adrian De Luca, has started a petition on change.org which already has more than 13,000 signatures calling on Immigration Minister Scott Morrison to urgently intervene and allow the 23-year-old to return to Melbourne to complete his final year of study.