Immigration NZ issue and petition

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kiwifidget

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#273006 30-Jul-2020 10:13

Full disclosure : the Lauren in this situation is my first cousin.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/a-new-zealand-visa-policy-has-kept-this-australian-man-and-his-wife-apart-for-six-months

I was at her wedding in January, in Reporoa, NZ.

Her Australian husband returned to the UK to finish up his affairs (of the non-adulterous kind), booked to return to NZ late March, and resume life as part of our family, and start their own family.

Then along came Covid, and now he is stuck in England and INZ will not allow him to return as he does not have a partnership visa, which Australian partners have never needed before, but now suddenly do. By the time you work out that you need one, you can't get one. There was a time in NZ where being legally married meant something, apparently not anymore.

If you think INZ is being a dick, please consider signing this petition to support Lauren, our family, and anyone else who may be in this dire situation:

https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/petitions/document/PET_99466/petition-of-lauren-bell-grant-australian-partners-of-new

EDIT : added that petition closes Oct 4, 2020.

I don't have a very large digital footprint and Geekzone would be the largest online community that I belong to, so I beg your forgiveness and understanding for posting a thread like this here. Hopefully our mods are ok with this.

If you got this far, thank you for listening.

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#2531268 30-Jul-2020 10:45

Thanks for the support Mauricio.

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Zeon

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#2531276 30-Jul-2020 11:00

I feel like this virus situation has really shown a section of bureaucracy in New Zealand to not be any more special or pragmatic than other countries. Example - there is a special dispensation for compassionate leave etc. yet it has a blanket ban from the beuracrats and requires a judge to force the actual rules/law to be considered properly. The impact - a son didn't get to see his dieing father.

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wellygary

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#2531317 30-Jul-2020 12:11

This story and situation has now been picked up by the local NZ Media, and it does appear its has political visibility...so I would expect some developments in the future,,

"Despite only taking on the portfolio last week, Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi told Stuff he was aware “there are known issues with current settings” and has “sought advice from officials”.

"National’s immigration spokesman, Stuart Smith, sent a letter to Faafoi’s predecessor Iain Lees-Galloway on June 24, pledging support to couples in this situation.

“It makes sense to allow Australian citizens to travel to New Zealand to reunite with their partner, obviously after establishing they are in a genuine and stable relationship.

“... requiring them to apply for a partnership-based visa will only add unnecessary strain on both partner[s] and INZ who will be required to process these visas”, the Kaikōura MP wrote.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/love-sex/122214667/coronavirus-transtasman-hearts-breaking-in-wake-of-border-closure

Scott3

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#2531319 30-Jul-2020 12:16

kiwifidget:

There was a time in NZ where being legally married meant something, apparently not anymore.

When the civil union laws were passed (At the time parliament was not willing to allow same gender marriage), a lot of other laws were altered to change "marriage" to "partnership". This allowed same gender partners to enjoy privileges that had previously exclusive to straight married couples. Note that married people aren't automatically entitled deemed to be in partnership, as there are some other requirements. The laws recognized the status of people who had been an stable and genuine relationship for a period of time, but had never got married or entered civil union.

While bad for OP's family, generally I feel this move was good for NZ. There is a lot of immigration fraud that goes around marriage in countries like the USA.

With regards to INZ, they have been poorly preforming for decades, but over the last few years things have got a lot worse. Processing times have blown out to the point where they are becoming cumbersome.

I wouldn't count on the partition having any impact. The next issue that is likely to hit the media is NZ citizens who are in dire situations offshore (visa's expiring, job losses etc.) that cannot return home because of scarce flight ticket availability driven by the government restrictions on arrival numbers.

Obviously the husband is not deemed to normally live in NZ, or he would meet the criteria on his own as an Aust citizen. And the need to be currently "living together" means he doesn't qualify for the Partner of a New Zealander Visitor visa.

The Aussie travel bubble falling over must have been like a kick in the teeth for them.

I know it will be an expensive, riskey (and objectively super wasteful) option, but has the option of the NZ based person traveling (in the midst of a global pandemic) to be with here partner, and then traveling back to NZ together. Hence quailing for the following limited exemption (which needs to be applied for):

Partners, dependent children (aged 19 years or under) or legal guardians of New Zealand citizens or residents who do not hold a visa based on their relationship and either:
are travelling with their New Zealand citizen or resident family member, or ordinarily reside in New Zealand.

I'm not too clued up on this, but my understanding is that somebody traveling from NZ, transiting Hong Kong doesn't need to isolate on arrival to the UK.

Alternately I know Aussie Allows New Zealanders to transit. Potentially the wife could do an NZ - NZ transit in Sydney (I don't know if this is even allowed), with the husband joining her in sydney (given he has an aussie passport).

Can't believe I just asked if somebody considered taking 48hours + of long hall flights (in addition to the required 14 days isolation on their return), in the midst of a global pandemic, simply to comply with some arbitrary border entry criteria.

[edit] From the stuff artical above:

“I have been told by INZ that even if I were to collect Gerry from England to bring [him] back, they would not let him in. We are very upset and the situation of not knowing when we will see each other is really tough."

Seems in direct conflict to what is on the INZ webpage...

And INZ's current processing time for a Partner of a New Zealander Visitor visa is 6 months, so applying for that visa in the UK is likely to be unworkable slow.

networkn

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#2531326 30-Jul-2020 12:35

Done.

MurrayM

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#2531340 30-Jul-2020 13:07

Petition signed.

I've had past dealings with INZ and I know how frustrating it can be.

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neb

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#2531423 30-Jul-2020 14:55

Zeon:
I feel like this virus situation has really shown a section of bureaucracy in New Zealand to not be any more special or pragmatic than other countries. Example - there is a special dispensation for compassionate leave etc.

The problem is that whatever they do it's the wrong thing, initially they were letting all manner of people out of quarantine for assorted compassionate reasons and it was only through complete blind luck that we didn't get Covid19 and accompanying CT back into the country. After a storm of criticism they tightened down, and now it's the exact opposite, they're being too strict. No matter what they do, they'll get criticised.

While I'm not unsympathetic to people who are stuck due to really crappy circumstances they can't control, I've seen what this does to friends in the US who have had it, (probably) permanent serious internal organ damage to those who have otherwise "recovered", and have a number of neighbours, friends, and family members who will die if this gets into the country (due to age, poor health, or being immunocompromised).

It's a really hard call to make.

kiwifidget

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#2531436 30-Jul-2020 15:12

Just to be clear, Gerry just wants to be allowed into NZ to be with his wife, he will do the 14 day isolation.

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Scott3

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#2531455 30-Jul-2020 15:34

Another largely similar case in the media.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300069205/leadfoot-festival-organiser-shelly-millen-declined-entry-into-nz-16-times

Same combination of not NZ resident or citizen, Not normally resident in NZ, not traveling together with partner and not eligible for partnership visa as they are currently stuck in different countries.

In this case they were advised that the husband could got the the USA so they could be traveling together on return, but in this case they are reluctant to due to the health risks to the husband.

I get the feeling OP's family was incorrectly informed by INZ about the option of going to the UK to pick up the husband. Doing so clearly meets the criteria published on their website.

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#2531459 30-Jul-2020 15:46

I signed that. INZ drove me nuts when I was dealing with getting PR, so I know how it can be!

Scott3

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#2531466 30-Jul-2020 15:59

kiwifidget:

Just to be clear, Gerry just wants to be allowed into NZ to be with his wife, he will do the 14 day isolation.

Doing quarantine doesn't make an arrival completly risk free, hence the need to keep numbers low, to improve our odds.

That said, "allowing families to unite" has been deemed to be worth the risk we carry as a country, and the current rule's don't quite reflect that.

Furthermore they create the intensive for additional people to travel across the word, in the midst of a pandemic, to tick the box of "Traveling together", hence increasing NZ's exposure. Not to mention imposing substantial cost, risk & inconvenience on the person who leaves NZ against our travel ban's for the box ticking exercise.