A petition with more than 122,000 signatures has been delivered to immigration minister Scott Morrison’s office in Sydney, calling on him to halt the deportation of a gay Pakistani man.

Ali Choudhry is scheduled to be deported on Wednesday after his application for a partnership visa was refused. He grew up in the US and lives in Brisbane with his partner, Matthew Hynd, an Australian neuroscientist.

Paul Toner, a GetUp! member from Ipswich who created the petition, delivered it to the minister’s office on Tuesday. He said he decided to take action because he felt that Choudhry was not not being given a “fair go”.

“If their situation was slightly different and they were a heterosexual couple they would have been married two years ago and we never would have heard of them,” he said.

“We just wanted to do something to give them a little bit of a hand and we never dreamed it would turn into something like this.”

Choudhry fears imprisonment or harassment in Pakistan for being gay if he is deported.

He and his partner were one of the first gay couples in Queensland to register their civil union in March 2012. Despite his Pakistani heritage Choudhry cannot read or write the country's official Urdu language and has few contacts there.

“If he’s deported there’s a real risk Ali could be imprisoned for life in Pakistan, where being openly gay carries a long jail sentence,” Toner said.

"Ali cannot understand why theirs is not considered a legitimate long-term partnership, and neither can I.”

A spokesperson for the immigration minister has said same-sex couples are subject to the same assessments as heterosexual couples.

Choudhry has lodged a last-minute application with the migration review tribunal for a bridging visa.

Later in the day a spokeswoman for the immigration minister said that Choudhry had been granted a bridging visa and was not in danger of deportation.

“A bridging visa is granted whilst an application is being processed. At no time was Mr Choudhry in danger of being deported,” she said.

“Mr Choudhry is on a bridging visa to ensure he remains lawfully in the community while he has an outstanding matter before the Migration Review Tribunal.”