Immigration Updates.
Filed under: Getting to New Zealand, Immigration Advisers, NZIS & Immigration issues
There’s actually been quite a lot happening on the immigration front here – I’e just been too lazy (and too depressed by it all) to blog about it. So Instead of writing an stream of rather sad and depressing posts – I decided to do it in one short sharp shock, and write an update instead.
1/ Immigration New Zealand being idiotic over relationship statuses.
It’s an annoyance that never seems to go away – but another couple are being harassed my INZ over the fact that INZ don’t believe their relationship is real. They have a baby together, and they are in fact married – but that is not enough for the bean counters and paper shufflers at INZ.
Despite him being married and with a child on the way, Immigration NZ visa services manager Jan Clark said proof of a shared home, finances, belongings and household chores were required to prove they were a genuine couple.
Marriage certificate and – dare I say it – an advanced pregnancy – isn’t enough???? A few years ago, I came across a poster on a forum who had to go through this farce despite being married for 40 years. Before joint bank accounts were common. At the end of the day lack of knowledge on the part of immigration staff does not constitute a lack of relationship on an immigrants part. So this isn’t a one-off situation.
Joint Bank Accounts and bills. It’s a necessity if you don’t want to have to deal with this kind of crap.
2/ More Kiwi’s employ slave immigrant labour.
This it has to be said, affects mostly ethnic minority or pacific islander immigrants, who seem to be less confident and knowledgeable about their rights and the law. That is not to say that western immigrants don’t get similar treatment, but it tends to be of a lesser scale (paid considerably less, conned into taking 2 year work visa positions and forced to do a job that differs markedly from that applied for or you lose your visa- that sort of thing).
In this case – a Wellington “businesswoman” – whose identity is protected by name suppression laws, employed 2 Fijians, did not pay them the minimum wage, and did not pay them holiday pay. She also employed them illegally while they were here on visitors visas.
3/ Immigration Adviser holds on to a passport for over a year.
This is a bit of an odd one, as I can’t find the adviser listed at the IAA, even under past licence holders. So hopefully this guy, Piliki Talanoa, will be prosecuted under the Immigration Advisers Licencing Act. His client, a hairdresser by trade, gave him the passport last September in order to get a work visa renewal. The agent apparetly closed his office down last month, at which point the police managed to get the passport back.
Mr Talanoa says Mr Cohen changed his mind about which category visa he wanted to apply for and that caused the delay, a claim Mr Cohen strongly denies.
A hairdresser by trade, Mr Cohen says he’s pleased to have his passport back and hopes to have a new work permit approved by Immigration New Zealand. But the delays have cost him the chance to apply for residency, he says.
“I have to apply for a work permit from the beginning.”
His advice to other people seeking work permits is to deal directly with Immigration New Zealand.
Mr Talanoa wouldn’t discuss why he abandoned his former office in Otahuhu so suddenly.
But property manager Johan Ackerman says Mr Talanoa had already left the property when the owners showed up to evict him.
Hmmm, there’s a story there – including why he doesn’t appear to have ever held an Immigration Advisers licence. Of course the IAA has no authority to read this article and act on its contents unless someone makes a complaint. The police haven’t charged Mr Talanoa with anything. Question is: why not?
4/ A good news story – 102 year old bypasses the system.
I say good news – as it undoubtedly is for the lady who has been given a 3 year visitor visa instead of the normal 6 months, and for her daughter. It’s not so good though for the hundreds if not thousands of people who refused help or consideration from the Immigration Ministry. So on the one hand I am chuffed to bits about this one, on the other hand it annoys me considerably.
The details are that Louise Sydes UK rest home was being closed, and rather than be relocated, she wanted to move to be with her daughter in Auckland. They contacted the Immigration Minsiter’s office and appear to have just asked them to let her stay. Ive read 2 articles about this – neither of them mention anything about going via Immigration New Zealand, or applying for residency via the family stream, or indeed having to pass the stringent medical tests.
Speaking from New Zealand her daughter Sue Pearson said she was ‘excited’.
She said: ‘Usually family members are only allowed to come for six months but we wrote to the minister of immigration who granted us permission for her to come and live with us.
Given the desperate needs of some people I have come across to get a visa to live in New Zealand, and the crap they have to go through to get it – IF they get it (often they don’t)- I cant help but be a little angry about this. It does kinda make a mockery out of the pain of other families who are refused the right to live together.
5/ Another Indian family facing deportation.
Pooja Kapila, whose husband Satinder is in Waikeria Prison awaiting deportation, was so desperate to avoid what she says is the death sentence of being returned to the slums of the Punjab that she refused to sign the documents presented to her at their Te Puke home on October 21.
They have been living here in New Zealand for 10 years. They have three children, one of them is a New Zealand citizen by birth, having been born here just one year after they arrived. This was before the loophole allowing this to happen was closed. Now I’m probably going to come over as heartless and cold on this – but I really think in case like this we cannot keep holding INZ to blame. Often from reading these kinds of articles, I find I end up making a judgement (based on very little information) about whether I feel the families should be allowed to stay or not. I really cant work out why in other cases I feel compassion, but in this one I don’t. Perhaps it’s because the third child was born so soon after arriving, perhaps it’s because after 10 years of living in New Zealand Mrs Kapila needs an interpreter. Perhaps it’s because once again “celebrity” Immigration Adviser Tuariki Delamere is involved.
As is often the case with these articles – they are full of emotion, and short on facts. As is also often the case, the comments with the article are somewhat enlightening.
Congratulations to Mum and Dad
Today, my mum and dad got thier passports back with thier “permanent” permanent residence visas in them.
Just one more to go in about 7 months for my brother and then we are done with Immigration for good!
Glad my family is through this nightmare already.
Wealthy parents jump the queue
Ally Wang wants to work fulltime but says she can’t do so until her parents Zhi and Ying Xu are given residency and can help look after her son Kevin and daughter Cathy. New immigration schemes aimed at wealthy retirees have attracted 27 applicants who are prepared to invest a total of nearly $26 million. The parent retirement policy, launched last year, has drawn 22 applications from nine countries, with the highest numbers coming from China and the United Kingdom. Each applicant has to have a settled child here and invest at least $1 million over four years to gain permanent residency. They need to have good health but will not need to have health insurance, and as permanent residents they will be entitled to the normal health and welfare assistance. However, the scheme has been criticised as being unfair, as applicants jump the queue of the regular parent immigration schemes.
I beleive I said that a while back.
MP Raymond Huo, Labour’s Chinese community affairs spokesman, said the scheme gave New Zealand a bad look overseas. “It is one thing for a country to be selling off its assets, but this policy shows the world that even our immigration visas can be bought,” he said. Mr Huo said letting rich parents jump the queue over legitimate applicants who are less wealthy would just create resentment within migrant communities.
I could not agree more. While I understand the need to bring foreign money into the country up to a point – the miniute you make immigration more about money than skills and settlement facorts you change the entire ethos of the system. Its not about how good you are for the country – its about how much money you will pay to get in.
Immigrant single-mother Ally Wang says she desperately needs her parents here to help her look after her children so she can find fulltime employment. The 36-year-old, who works part-time in a GP clinic as an administrator, feels it’s “extremely unfair” for the Government to overlook her needs “just because mum and dad do not have $1 million to spare”.
Ms Wang, who has a 12-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter, has been waiting since 2009 for Immigration to give the nod for her father, Zhi Wang, 67 and mother Ying Xu, 61, from Guangzhou, to come and live with her. Instead, what she received last week was a request from the department to “update her income details” because it said her current income wasn’t enough to support her parents.
“The the only way I can earn more money is to find fulltime employment, and I can only work fulltime if my parents are here to help me take care for my children,” Ms Wang said.
Now – this is a bit odd to be honest. You have to have the required income BEFORE you can sponsor your parents. Not “if you let my parents in I will be able to work more and thus afford to sponsor them because they will provide childcare”.
When you sponsor family – you have to prove an income of just under $30,000 a year – which is not a whole lot. But that’s the deal we all have to work with. Unless your parents have a stack of cash they can bribe NZ with of course.
The main issue here is that 22 parents did not have to wait till thier children proved thier worth to New Zealand, and are willing to pay $1,000,000 each to jump the queue ahead of the rest of the people who are sat there waiting for INZ to do its job. I personally think this is shameful. NZ has said quite clearly it can be bought, and that the wealth of our parents is vastly more important than the skills we bring. I guess that why our MP John Hayes asked if my dad was “a man of means”. Thats all he cared about when we needed his help. He must be so proud of this new system.
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Scary lack of info about Immigration
An article out today says that the Chinese are topping the number of applications for immigration to New Zealand under the family scheme -
For the third consecutive year, China has topped Immigration NZ’s parent and sibling/adult child stream, with 1632, and a further 1264 others qualifying through the parent policy.
Now, I didnt really pay much attention to it, until I came across a thread about it on Property Talk entitled NZ is a such a soft touch, starting with the comment that
Man, when I read stuff like this, my blood boils. And we wonder why we’re going broke as a country!
What followed was depressing to read. Almost everything was based on factually wrong information – what people think happens vs what actually happens. Undoubtedly the chinese do have an advantage in wanting to sponsor parents to NZ – which is basically the point of the article. China’s one child policy makes it easier for migrants to pass the centre of gravity rules. (Though clealry equally unable to bring adult siblings in for the same reason).
But the misconceptions generally revolve around these elderly parents and grandparents (you can’t actually sponsor grandparents – but ho hum who cares – lets pretend you can) taking resources, benefits, healthcare of Kiwis, and us immigrants getting here, getting those elderly useless parents in, then the old “will bugger off to Aussie leaving us to look after the oldies” rubbish. Also complaints about these elderly parents being unable to work. Of course if they did then the complaint would be that they are stealing jobs from Kiwis. Jeeze – parents! Shoot the lot of them I say!
I know it’s natural to despise immigration. A lot of the waffle here was the same as you would hear in almost any country I’m sure. And the only reason I know any better is because I AM an immigrant. Ive seen what the process is, just how soul destroyingly hard it can be, and I know that most of what these people think is just not the case. What bugged me about this is that being on Property Talk – these posters are often the brunt of similar media beat-ups because they are property investors – so should know to think first rather than buy the spiel.
The worst thing today was finding myself dismissed as being someone who should not be here, because I have brought my parents and unskilled brother with me. And I don’t have children – who at least would presumably grow up to be a good kiwi, and presumably have the correct skills and not do what so many other kiwis do and leave at the first opportunity. To find that some people consider my worth as an immigrant in those terms was awful.
I did my best to correct many of these warped ideas, but still – it was not pleasant, and was a bit of an eye-opener. Don’t get me wrong – there is plenty that could be improved with Immigration Policy – but saying that people can only immigrate if they are prepared to leave family behind for ever is just cruel. This is after all a country that bangs on incessantly about “Whanau” – ie Family.
Personally I am proud and blessed to have a family I could not leave behind, and who wanted to leave thier lives and friends behind to join us.
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Found an interesting comment at the Residence Review Board
While I was looking at the case of the “people smuggler” (and I use the term loosely as while I may have agreed with INZ – I think its a bit OTT to be honest) – I had a quick trawl through some of the other cases at the RRB.
This one caught my eye becuase it was a Adult Sibling residence application, that had been turned down for not having an acceptable offer of employment. In this case, three consecutive offers were obtained and put to INZ, but were each deemed unacceptable becuase when INZ started the Verification process – the offers were withdrawn. The reasons given were things like change in circumstances, less income available – that type of thing.
Not necessarily surprising given that INZ won’t process these applications with any urgency.
The application went in in October 2007.
Verification of the first job offer started in March 2008 4-5 months after a job offer was made. (To be fair, like many people the applicant was told it would be in a “managed queue” and the application would take 12-18 months.) A few days later the offer was withdrawn as work had dried up, and the employer was not aware that INZ would be making “verification checks”.
This rumbled on and on – with the applicant getting new job offers, and INZ running “verification checks” on them, and them not panning out – leading to them eventually declining the application and it going to the RRB.
Which is where it piqued my interest. Because of this:
Submissions on Appeal
[47] On appeal, the representative sets out the chronology of the application, submitting [verbatim]:
“4) The New Zealand employer’s frustration is that they have to wait for a long time before INZ is able to give any indication on the processing of an application and thus living them with no choice but to withdrawn the job offer;”
[48] The [RRB] Board does not accept that the representative’s comments and complaint are legitimate. The appellant was clearly advised that because his application was made under the Family (Sibling and Adult Child) category of policy, it was being placed in a managed queue. This was a result of a general instruction, made under section 13BA of the Act. An approximate timeline for processing was given as 12 to 18 months.
I really strongly disagree with the RRB on this. It’s patently ridiculous to have a policy that requires a job offer when you apply, that still has to be valid in 12-18 months. The only way you can do it is to have friends who are in a position to make these kinds of job offers and are willing to wait out the process and understand what it requires. This is a serious issue with the Adult Sibling category – and it does kinda appall me that the board is as blaze about it as INZ are. It makes absolutely no sense to be whatsoever.
Thankfully in my brother’s case, we had a very understanding employer, who was fully aware of what we were up against.
(And a possible comment that I hope said representative isn’t a licensed immigration advisor with such a poor standard of English – a standard which actually gets worse later on in the file.)
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Upgrades to Avalon’s Blog done :)
Filed under: The Book and Website, The Family Sponsorship Saga
Hubby has reminded me just how much he loathes coding – and was only calmed down my copious amounts of Tea, Chocolate and Top Gear yesterday while he battled to do the things I wanted him to do to the blog.
Mostly it was a case of de-cluttering and tidying things up. It’s amazing how this thing has evolved, and as it does so, widgets get added, things move, I join more blog directories, and before you know it – theres no room for me to write anything anymore!
The main changes are:
- The Family Sponsorship Saga posts have all moved up to the top menu, so they aren’t taking up room on the side.
- I’ve created one picture of the Book with both Book and E-Book prices on to create more room and we have a smaller Buy Now button.
- Ive moved the Really Useful Immigration Links into the Links page, rather than having them sitting with the BlogRolls.
- Ive tidied up and shorted the list of Categories, to make it easier to find posts.
But the main alteration is that the Amazon Store is now up and running, and can be found on the top Menu. This is something I always wanted to do, because I spend so much of my own time devouring books, and this is a great way to have a list of all the books that helped me on my journey – both to emigrate and to become a budgeting freak. Ill be adding books from time to time, but theres a pretty good starting list there: both books about New Zealand and books about personal finance. And yes, I will get paid if you click through from the Amazon Store page and you buy anything during that session. It takes you through to Amazon, and you will be buying through Amazon, not through me.
I get about 5% on any purchases you make, so please feel free to make use of the store and help me cover the cost of running this website.
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An amusing reply
Mum and dad recently sent out a “we have been here a year” email to their friends back in the UK.
This was a reply to that email:
No Clotted Cream
No Scones
No Gold Top
No Frozen Veg
15 miles to the nearest shop
No proper Weetabix
Good bread though for Dad, but he cant eat it.
Prices going up
VAT on food.
Dismal weather
Tragic deaths.
No bloody wonder you enjoyed the English elections????
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In any country you get idiots working in Immigration
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when i saw Nadene Ghouri’s story come up on my Google news alert this morning. Nadene was born and raised in Britain, and want to bring in her Kiwi husband to live with her there. They married in New Zealand a few months ago, but are planning a church blessing in the UK in a few weeks. Only her husband Sam has been refused a visa to live in the UK. Despite Sam having already lived in the UK for 5 years previously (and – as demanded of all long-suffering legal immigrants everywhere) left the UK when his previous visa expired.
Why, you ask? Is he a Terrorist? A repeat drink driver with a criminal record as long as your arm? Un-educated?
Nope. among the reasons given were that they have an overdraft, and are thus likely to try bludging off the state.
‘I am not satisfied that you or your sponsor will be able to maintain you or any dependants adequately without recourse to public funds,’ declared the immigration officer.
She said she’d reached her conclusion because my bank statements show an average overdraft of £1,000 to £2,000 each month. Sam’s accounts also show a small overdraft.
Well, I demand that forthwith – everyone with an overdraft be summarily removed from the shores of Britain – especially anyone in the immigration department (and especially especially anyone working for INZ in the UK who doesn’t have a spotless bank record).
Then theres there blindingly stupid assertion that
‘Given your history of working overseas I am not satisfied you intend to live permanently with your spouse.’
Well, it seems that what the silly bint at immigration failed to grasp was that these two people work in Journalism, and it seems they often travel abroad reporting for such fly-by-night outfits as SkyNews and the BBC. So if they had switched their brains on (assuming they had any) I think its not too far a stretch to realise that while they may both work abroad a lot, their marriage is no more false then that of a pilot, air hostess, soldier or a host of other professions.
I have actually heard of people coming to New Zealand being asked to prove thier relationship was real – despite having been married 40 years. You just cant make it up.
Besides – you cant have it both ways – refuse them because they work for a living at the same time as refusing them for being probable bludgers on the state????
Thankfully Nadene and Sam have lawyered up and are appealing the decision. They have also done what we did, and starting getting letters of support and help off other people who know them and support their decision.
I also hope that the person responsible for this blindingly stupid decision is sacked for being so thick. It offends me immeasurably that people this stupid are given jobs that are so vitally important. These are the people supposed to be protecting our borders from undesirable immigrants – not keeping out a newly married couple who can earn money, pay taxes and make a successful life together. I hope their lawyer wipes the floor with the UK immigration Department, and the case officer goes and get a less demanding job – flipping burgers for instance.
Id also be tempted to say scratch the UK and come here instead – except you might get just as unlucky and get a case officer just as stupid. It’s still pure luck. Most people get decent case officers, who treat them as people and take time to use a bit of common sense. But without doubt, some of get robots with no ability to make sensible decisions. I guess you are as likely to meet the problem going from New Zealand as you are coming in.
Finally – good on Nadene for using the fact that she is a journalist to highlight this issue. If I was the UK Immigration Department I would be asking some pointed questions as to why my staff made such a huge balls-up with the case of a BBC / Daily Mail journalist.
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It’s not just us plebs that have trouble getting into NZ.
Today the papers are talking about the fact that the amazing Richard O’Brien cant emigrate to New Zealand, despite that fact that he actually grew up here from the age of ten, and his family is still here.
Seems he didn’t get Citizenship before he left in his 20′s to go to London, and create the best dance in the history of the world (possible excepting the Hokey Cokey if you really want to argue about it).
So now – he appears to have no automatic right to apply for residency as he doesn’t fit any criteria according to his immigration advisor. (Licensed, though it doesn’t say that on their website).
Now obviously – being a Newspaper report, there are a huge number of questions that aren’t answered. I’m assuming that at the time his family emigrated there were no such thing as IRRV’s which allow you to come back to New Zealand permanently even if you have been away for many years.
As it is it seems he was trying to apply under the family residence (adult sibling) category – the same as my brother, becuase he has two siblings here. Only hes too old and yes – you guessed it – he cant apply until he gets a job offer. I somehow thing that wouldn’t be an issue. The Retirement visas don’t seem suitable – one is for sponsoring your parents and the one that doesn’t is only temporary. His son is also in New Zealand as a Student, and apparently applying for residence himself.
It also turns out that Richard O’Brien is so well thought of as a Kiwi, that theres a statue of him in Hamilton, where he used to live. It even has a Webcam! Actually I find that quite fitting.
So now hes writing to Mr Coleman the minister and asking for help. I damn well hope he gets it. New Zealand is ever so eager to lame claim to all sorts of famous people – right up till the might ask for something back. I remember at the premier for King Kong, Andy Serkis was complaining that he couldn’t get residence here either – despite being part of a set of films that NZ just wont stop banging on about because they were made here. And yet Michael Barrymore got in despite having a rather disturbing criminal record that would have ensured any normal person wasn’t allowed in.
So here’s wishing Mr O’Brien the best of luck in his plans to retire to New Zealand as a Permanent resident. He has family here, history here, and he’s claimed as a Kiwi. Cant see the issue myself!
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A ritual cleansing of Immigration Paperwork.
The amount of paperwork generated by having to fight INZ was truly scary, and was taking up space in my filing cabinet that was better used for other things. Like Toilet Paper.
So, to say goodbye to the past 18 months, we have just had a ritual burning of all the crap. We have kept any original letters, but everything is scanned onto the computers anyway.
Blimey – it felt good!
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