So, how exactly did we get residence for my brother so quickly? Part 3.
So, unbelievably, we managed to get a meeting, not with the case officer, because there wasn’t one; but with the person in charge of all family residence applications.
I didn’t sleep much, had a migraine when i woke up, and also had a doctors appointment that morning for some tests; which ran late. SO by the time it came to our meeting; i was exhausted, in pain, and terrified. I guess that sounds a bit over dramatic if you haven’t been there, but after the way we were treated by London, I was genuinely worried about what we would be faced with.
What we were faced with, it turns out, was a lovely gentleman, who sat us down, went through the file and told us that in fact they could make a decision on whether Visitor Permits were extended, and that despite what we had been told by other staff, and a $450 an hour lawyer – it does NOT require the immigration minister to intervene.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I really didn’t.
He also looked through the file, and said that he could spend a week or so going through it, and look at whether the residence application could be processed now. I think he could see what a mess I was and took pity on me. I did tell him i hadn’t slept properly in months. It also helped that my brother was through the medical, so it basically made it an easy case to process, and i guess gets them nearer their targets.
I was gobsmacked.
Well, by the time i got home later that evening – a case officer had been assigned. He said it would take a few weeks to process the application. 2 days later, we got an email to say it had been approved in principle, and just had to be verified by management.
I screamed.
A few days later they asked for a letter from the prospective employer stating that the job offer was still available. This was a week after the meeting. We had to wait a few days to get that because the guy was away, but once again he came up trumps and got us a scanned copy via email, which was followed up by a letter in the post. The scan was sent to INZ on the Monday, and the original handed in on the Wednesday.
Wednesday afternoon, just as hubby was phoning me about being redundant, and just 2 weeks after our meeting – my brother opened a letter saying his residence was confirmed and could they have his passport and Migrant Levy.
Thursday morning at 9am I sat in the Wellington office, and 10 minutes later was asking a very nice man if they could possibly take the money in person and let us have the permits today. He didn’t know, but asked the case officer, who said yes, and 10 minutes later I had my brothers passport in my hand with a residence permit in it.
And somehow I did not embarrass myself by bursting into tears in the middle of Immigration in Wellington.
THE END .
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So, how exactly did we get residence for my brother so quickly? Part 2.
We managed to enjoy a family Christmas, but during January, the panic over how to deal with my brother possibly being kicked out of New Zealand started to return. I started not sleeping again, and began to wish I’d never come here in the first place. I started writing a letter to immigration stating the reasons why it would be unreasonable to expect my brother to return to the UK, and just what effect it would have on the rest of us. I also started trying to work out how the hell we would go about selling all our properties if we had to leave. Where would we live? What would we do?If my brother had to go back, my parents would go back. And I just couldn’t bear the thought of them all having to go back when they had given up so much to come out with us.
I emailed the immigration officer who had dealt with the Visitor Permit, to ask some questions about the Job Offer, and what information the employer had to provide to prove the offer was real. The employer was getting a bit concerned, and wanted to get as much sorted out as he could ready for when immigration finally got round to asking. (This is the kinda attitude that makes coming to NZ worthwhile). After two weeks i had no reply, so had to ask again. It didn’t improve my mood.
I was told to ask the Head of the Family Residence team – something that then put me in cold sweat after dealing with the horrid woman in charge in London. But this guy answered my questions quickly and properly. He did suggest (as had the lady dealing with the visitor permit) that a work visa could be organised, but it would have to be Labour Market Tested.
I did point out that an admin job fails the labour market test.
We also decided to ask people we know for letter of support to go in with this, with the intention that all the letters would accompany a second application for a visitors permit.
In the end, I got so worked up, and started to doubt my own judgment. What scared me most was that we had been told this would require the Immigration Minister to make the decision. I shed a lot of tears over my stupidity in arguing about the Immigration Advisors Licensing bill and the fact that it would probably cost my family so much. The frustration was literally overwhelming some days.
I was so at a loss, I actually went to see an Immigration Lawyer. He confirmed that it would take ministerial intervention, and we would have to work hard at convincing him (the minister)that my brother would benefit New Zealand.
Thats when I started to get suss!
You see – the policy clearly states that my brother doesn’t have to benefit NZ. If he was a benefit – he would be able to get a work visa, or residency through the skilled migrant category. The family policy is for people who, like my brother, do not have skills or degree level education. WE are the benefit to NZ, which is how we have the right to migrate here. As a thank you, the Family Policy allows us to bring our families in because we have given three (or 5 by this point) years of our lives to the country, while being separated from our families.
He told us that it would take about three months to get anything seen by the minsiter, so we had best act now. He also told us that probably the best thing to do was for my brother to leave a week before the end of his permit, go to Australia for a week, and come back, when he would in all likelihood get another 6 months stamp in his passport.
What the hell can you say to that as a piece of “immigration advice”???
It cost us $450.
It was also complete rubbish as it turned out.
So still wondering what the hell we were going to do, we sent out emails to our friends and colleagues. People we have worked with, done business with, drank coffee with, and asked them to write letters on our behalf. I can tell you – it wasn’t easy. Most of them had offered before at one point or another, but it is quite another thing to have to go round and ask so many people for help.
We also went for a chat with our mentor. And while we filled him in on what we were doing, he suggested that we try to get in front of the Case officer at immigration. That sent me into another cold sweat, as it was basically the refusal of the London Case officer to speak to us that caused the nightmare my parents application turned into. But i thought – well – it can’t get any worse can it?
So I emailed this chap again and asked for an appointment.
And he gave us one the next day.
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So, how exactly did we get residence for my brother so quickly? Part 1.
Filed under: NZIS & Immigration issues, The Family Sponsorship Saga
I’m sorry it has taken me so long to write this. After just over two years of dealing with the family sponsorship process, which is without a doubt much more difficult and stressful than getting residency as a skilled migrant – I’ve been knocked out with a chronic migraine.
I can only assume my mind decided to shut down for a few days.
So first, to recap:
The application went in in July 2009. We expected things to run fairly quickly – because the Adult Sibling applications require a job offer to be included. SO it was with a certain amount of shock and frustration to be told it would take 12 months for a case officer to be assigned. How on earth can you keep a job offer open for 18 months to 2 years.
I asked some questions, and got the usual crap pointless answers back. The kind of answers that mean people like me spend so much time answering peoples questions instead, because we actually give sensible answers.
And then we slapped in an application for an extension to my brothers visitor application. And then hit our next shock when immigration said they had approved it, but the permit came back dated the same day as his original permit expired.
Fortunately, the case office who had cocked this up, fixed it immediately. We went into the Wellington branch to get it sorted in person, and found out that any further extensions would require an “exception to policy” and that the only person who could do that was the Immigration Minister.
And then I started to panic.
I mean – I’ve probably not made myself too popular in the ministry. It’s a bit scary to think that my opinion of Immigration Agents could ruin my family’s chances. We were advised to put in a further application nearer the time it was needed, and with it, give as many reason as we could why my brother should be allowed to stay as a visitor while his residency was being sorted out. It was suggested that a letter to the branch manager was in order at this time.
I still cannot believe that applicants are being forced to do this. It’s nuts. It doesn’t hurt New Zealand in any way to allow long-term visitor visas for family members who are applying for residency. They cannot work; they cannot take benefits, except for ACC accident compensation, which is available to any tourist anyway. All they can do is spend money in New Zealand. Not allowing it causes a huge amount of frustration and stress for the whole family.
Anyway, we had managed to get an extension to the visitor permit, which meant that my brother could stay in New Zealand till June 2010. It also meant that I could take a few months off from panicking about the whole situation till at least the end of January.
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The Last Winterbottom becomes a RESIDENT
Details of how the hell this happened to follow – because you probably won’t believe it.
As soon as I get my head round it myself, and get some sleep.
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How to get your case against INZ heard.
Don’t bother going through all the rigmarole of an official complaint the way we did. You will get treated like crap and ignored anyway. Instead – try what Rhonda Aylward did, and confront the Prime Minister at the Waitangi Day celebrations with your ex-immigration-minister -“Licenced Advisor” who somehow managed to get a license despite running a scam of his own in the past involving $1,000,000,000, a Chinese “business partner” and 10 investor residency applications using the same $1,000,000,000.
Hmmmm.
So – the details we do know about what is going on (sourced from various newspaper articles, videos and a forum post on MovetoNZ by Rhonda herself. Unfortunately, the early newspaper articles are no longer available online):
§ 11.9.07 Press Release from the National Party
o Immigration spokesman Lockwood Smith says the system should show more common sense.
o Points out that Rhonda had a skilled job and was contributing
o Points out that the aged care sector was crying out for caregivers while government took the job off the skilled list.
o The Daily news had publicized Rhonda’s case when her job as a rest home caregiver was no longer accepted as suitable for PR
o Her File ended up with the then Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove
o He overturned a decision by NZIS and granted a 12 month work permit to work as a caregiver
o Willow was granted a 12 month student permit to allow her to go to school.
o The permits were fast racked and the fees waived.
o The NZIS decision would have meant that Rhonda had to leave her Kiwi son Cail behind because his Kiwi father would not let her take him out of the country.
o Rhonda believed that media coverage of the case forced the ministers hand
o Rhonda’s sister Roxanne Nolte was sponsoring her for residency.
o Roxanne had only been resident at this point for 2 ½ years so had another 6 months to go before able to legally sponsor Rhonda.
o In 2004 Rhonda successfully stopped Willow’s father forcing his daughter to be returned to South Africa. Willows father now lives in the UK.
· 14.9.07 Rhonda writes on MovetoNZ
o Rhonda and Willow given 12 month permits
· 8.6.09 Letter from minster says “” I have carefully considered your submissions and I am not prepared to intervene. The previous associate minister advised you to provide certain information to Immigration New Zealand by 24 February 2009, yet you have not done so. I do not believe that an extension is warranted.”
· 16.6.09 on MovetoNZ Rhonda says the extra info was the medical certificate.
o Medical was booked for 15th Feb
o 12th Feb. her mother in Invercargill has heart attack
o Rhonda uses the money saved for the medical to visit her mother
· 16.6.09 on MovetoNZ NZ Rhonda also says:
o NZIS have said she does not meet PR criteria because she split with her husband
o She has to leave on 23
o .10.09 with her SA daughter (7 years)and leave her NZ son (5yrs) behind
o Herself and Willow are the only members of her family who do not have NZ residency
o She would have to sign over custody of her children to her mother to allow Willow to stay
o She was granted a 12 month work permit with a view to getting PR, and has since has a 6 month permit which expires on 2.5.09
o Her grandmother, mother, sister, brother, uncle, aunt cousins and other family all have NZ residency.
o She was currently working as a cleaner at Taranaki hospital, after a work accident left her unable to work as a caregiver.
o NZIS gave her an open work permit for 6 months to allow for the change in occupation while she was applying for PR.
o On the 20th April she contacted her local MP Chester Burrows
o He passed her on to Viv Chapman who said it was highly unlikely she would get pr because:
§ The economic climate meant Kiwis should do the job
§ She couldn’t support herself as evidence by not being able to afford the medical
§ Her work/ financial situation had not improved
o She is in Paid employment and that just because she cannot pay a lump sum of hundreds of dollars this does not mean she cannot support her family.
o It is highly unlikely that she will get an extension past 2.5.09 (this was written on 16.6.09)
o Her sons father (A kiwi citizen) is still adamant that Cail must stay in New Zealand.
o She believes that NZIS have bought her silence for 18 months with the extensions.
· 22.10.09 Video Clip from Taranaki Daily News
o Fight for residency began in June 2007
o Visa was extended 3 months later (9/07) after minister intervened
o In February 2008 she was told she did not meet criteria for residency as she didn’t earn enough
o Appeal to the minister ended with a another reprieve till 23.10.09 which is when her work permit expired
o On 23.10.09 Rhonda had 42 days to leave or appeal – but she intended to do neither of those things.
o Rhonda says that she has now being diagnosed with Bi-Polar Disorder which her psychiatric doctor says is brought on by immigration constantly giving hope and then declines.
o Says that every time she is declined a different reason is given
§ She doesn’t earn enough money
§ Her sponsor (sister) doesn’t earn enough money
§ No proof that Willow can live with her
· Apparently she now has a letter of support from Willows father.
· 8.2.2010 Taranaki Daily News says
o Rhonda at Waitangi on Friday to confront PM
o Organized by licensed advisor (ex minister) Tuariki Delamere
o He is told that case with be looked at by PM
o By Sunday, Rhonda still waiting for confirmation of this.
o Rhonda has been fighting for residency since 2006
o Temporary work permit issued in October will run out on 10.2.10
o She then has 42 days to leave the country or become an overstayer.
o Rhonda says she is not leaving.
So, for me, there’s an awful lot about this case that does not make sense. In fairness, there’s actually a huge amount of information missing, and it would be highly unlikely to be reported unless it gets to the Residence Review Board, where you can get what amounts to a blow by blow account of the processing of an application.
So – here’s what we don’t get:
§ Why did Rhonda not ask for an extension to do the medicals?
§ Did she ask for an extension and it wasn’t granted?
o You simply cannot put in an application for residency without one, so at the moment she doesn’t actually appear to have applied for residency.
§ Why did her family not help out with the medical costs?
o If you are sponsoring someone you have to agree to support the applicant for 2 years.
o So why can’t the sponsor support her in this?
o And with so many family here, why are they not helping to fund the $300-$400 it costs to get a medical in New Zealand?
§ Why wasn’t an appeal made in October 09 when she was given 42 days to do so.
o Her refusal to do this makes no sense to me. I get that it is highly frustrating to have to go through these processes, but refusing point blank to work through the process does not really get much sympathy.
§ How can New Zealand force a mother to leave one of her children behind, and force a 5 year old kiwi child to live without his mother?
§ Have NIZ actually done as much as they can to help Rhonda, and has Rhonda done everything she can to help herself?
o I know exactly how hard it is to jump through the hoops, but you just have to do it.
o You cannot decide not to put in applications or medicals and then hope that someone takes pity on you.
o That is brutally unfair to the rest of us who also have to fight for years to get our families into the country.
§ Has this even gone to the residence review board?
o The RRB has the authority to overturn NZIS decisions f there are special circumstances.
o As far as I am aware, they can instruct INZ to take into account these circumstances (such as having a child that you would be forced to leave behind) if you do not meet the normal criteria.
§ What does the boy’s father think of all this?
o Does he support Rhonda in staying here?
o I can’t help but wonder why no one is focusing on the fact that if she left and took his son – he would lose all access to his son too and Cail would never see his father.
I’m mixed on this. On the one hand – I cannot see how any civilized country can force a mother to leave her child behind. In New Zealand child pornographers can have their identities hidden forever to “protect the child” and yet – this mother is not allowed to stay in New Zealand, even if she doesn’t fit the bill as a suitable migrant – to protect her child. There is something very wrong with that.
On the other hand, if the reports are correct (and I stress IF – because there’s a lot missing here), Rhonda doesn’t actually seem to have done that much to help her own situation, other than play on the fact that she would lose her son. I do not understand why applications and medicals are not getting done, and appeals are not being lodged through the RRB when you have the right to do so.
I can’t help but feel a little out of sorts with this – and I feel awful for feeling that way. But we too have had to fight our way through the nightmare processes, and we have had to do so by jumping through every hoop NZIS have forced us to jump. Every step of the way we have worked with the process, and I sometimes wonder if we would have been better off just going to the papers too and embarrassing the country into letting my family in, without all the expense of dozens of unnecessary medical tests (at UK Prices), repeat Applications fees, and being treated like garbage by the establishment.
It’s certainly something to think about.
I wish Rhonda and her children the best of luck. This is a horrid situation to be in, and I hope she manages to get it resolved, and I do hope she gets to stay with her Children, in New Zealand, so that Cail will be able to know his father as well.
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Fascinating numbers
Filed under: For the numpties amongst us, Getting to New Zealand, Hubby's Views, NZIS & Immigration issues
Well, okay, perhaps not for a lot of people. However, I’m one of those sick puppies (meow) who finds spreadsheets and numbers quite fascinating when they tell you something interesting.
So much to my surprise, we found at the weekend that Immigration now have a statistics page on their website. Seems to have been there for a while too. So kudos to INZ for releasing the information as part of open Govt.
So what can these numbers tell us?
Well for starters download the Excel files, since you can play with the numbers. Thankfully someone at INZ knows how to use Excel and has created lots of pivot tables – yippee. Although they’ve not created enough graphs I think. Graphics, pictures, we need to see more coloured lines.
So, if you really want to find out how many parents, originally resident in the UK made an application for NZ residency, via the London branch in a random month anytime in the last 14 years – you can! Download R6 – Residence applications accepted for processing.
Want to know how many of those people applying got approved or declined? – Download R2 Residence decisions by month.
Of course, it may have been too simple to put all those numbers into a single spreadsheet. Still, the info is there.
So you can indeed see how many people applied from each coutry, broken down by month, and which stream, whether they were primary or secondary applicants, and whether they got accepted or not. There’s loads more statistical info buried in them thar’ numbers, so I may start coming out with interesting factoids. Personally, I’m interested to see if anyone from a ‘first world’ country managed to get into NZ via the ‘humanitarian’ stream – normally reserved for refugee’s of the non-economic variety.
Of course more really interesting stuff is buried in R8 – Residence applications on hand. INZ talk a lot about having a large workload, lots of decisions to make etc. Which they do. How much of a workload is this? Well take a look at R8, these are all the applications that people have made to come to NZ. Whether or not INZ have even started working on the application or not. One of the few graphis provided in the three noted sheets is below, ranging from July 2000 on the left through to January 2010 on the right. {you can click on the image to load it full size}
Uncapped family sponsorship (non-Kiwi family of Kiwi citizens) has grown steadly since 2000 from approx 3,000 to almost 7,000 per year.
Parent & Adult sibling capped family sponsorship applications have gone from ~4,500 to ~10,500 – with no change in the number of places made available. And anyone wonders why there’s a queue?
For a big wow!, the Business/Skilled migrant stream peaked at a queue of ~51,500 applications at the end of 2002.. Dunno what happened there, but I’m sure gonna go find out.
Stay tuned for more (possibly useless) interesting factoids.
Family Sponsorship: The 2 year wait Update.
Finally we got around to sitting down with an excel spreadsheet, calculator, enormous amounts of coffee and a chocolate bar or two and crunched some numbers on Family Sponsorship.
The problem is that people are being told there is an 18 months to 2-year wait before a case officer is assigned. INZ have even put a news item up on their website about it.
Timeframes for Family Capped Applications
Thursday, 26 November 2009
New Zealand carefully plans allocation of permanent residence places.
The Government’s annual residence programme gives priority to skilled and business migrants and the partners of returning New Zealanders. The family capped stream (which comprises parent, adult child and sibling residence cases) is currently allocated 4,950 – 5500 places per year. Demand for these places currently exceeds supply.
There is a current waiting time of 18 -24 months for a place to become available within the cap. In practice this means that an application will usually take from 18-24 months from the time of lodgement to be allocated to a case officer for assessment.
On top of the three years you have to wait before you are eligible to sponsor your parents (and then even longer if like us you have a sibling you want to sponsor) it is becoming incredibly traumatic for people.
So – we have tried to see what is going on by looking at the fortnightly stats that come out with the Skilled Migrant EOI selections. Although this has nothing to do with Family Sponsorship – at the bottom of each PDF file is a little box which gives the numbers of applications currently being looked at. The numbers cumulate over the year, and reset in July – the end of the year for Immigration purposes.
This is total and utter bollocks. The queue is simply because the staff at INZ have been told to hold back applications until they get to the head of a “queue” in applications. It has absolutely nothing to do with the number of spaces available. The number of spaces is renewed each year. Are INZ suggesting that we should go and kill a couple of NZers to free us some space for our families.???
I think I may have been wrong!
I think what I actually should have said is thati t is a piss-poor attempt at an explanation because it make no sense whatsoever. But having actually looked at the numbers – I think I know what they were trying to say – but failed miserably.
So – what do the numbers really tell us?
1. By the end of January, 2454 of the maximum 5500 spaces have been allocated.
2. This leaves 3046 spaces that can be filled by the end of June (55% of the allocation is free with 5 months to go.)
3. INZ are processing on average 224 people each fortnight. (Starting with 12.8.09 -declines + acceptances)
4. Even with this being done – the number of people in the queue is increasing by an average of 75 people every fortnight.
5. Basically this means that there are about 300 people applying, and 224 decisions being made.
6. Only one fortnight have INZ actually managed to process more applications than came in.
7. Most depressingly – despite the huge overdemand for spaces – INZ let in just 41 people over its minimum allowance for this policy last year.
8. They could have allowed an extra 509 people to join thier families last year – those spaces are gone – they do not get rolled over into the next year allocation.
Now – how can you work out when you family should (very roughly speaking) get processed and get a decision?
See the highlighted line above? My Brother is one of those 131 people that entered the queue.
1. You need to know how many people were in the queue ahead of your family. (9897)
2. Take away how many applications people have been processed since then. (People declined + people accepted = 2459)
3. Which leaves 7438 people that need to be processed before my brother.
4. Work out how many fortnights that should take if they process an average of 224 people a fortnight (33 fortnights)
5. Get a strong drink.
Basically this means that from now – all else going well – we can expect to get a decision on my brothers application in 66 weeks, or about 15 months time. And he has already been in the queue for 6 months – giving a total of 21 months for the process.
And it’s just going to get worse.
The fact is that INZ are right in saying that more people are applying than there are spaces. They just utterly screwed up the explanation and have left people dazed and scared. There are “spaces”. There’s 3046 left this year! But there are 10,000 people waiting for them, and more lining up every week. Even if no one put in an application for the next 12 months, and INZ accepted everyone in the queue – that still accounts for 2 full years worth of spaces sitting in the pile right now.
You are not actually waiting for a space to become available as such – but you do have to wait in line till INZ have decided on all the cases that went in before you. In some ways I think what INZ have done in forcing the applications to be handled in turn is making the situation fairer -it’s not then a lottery about which branch you use or which case officer works faster. I just think they need to be more honest and clear about what is happening and why. (They can pay me to write their news items for a start!).
Please note: we have no way of knowing if this is the true reflection of what is happening. Please feel free to have a go at working through the numbers – and tell me if you get a different answer. The only way to know for definite what is going on would be to have an inside track at INZ – and we don’t. Working through the publicly available info probably won’t tell us everything – but hopefully it will help some of you to see WHY the wait is so long.
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Passing the Medical Assesment
I’ve just received an email from the head of the Family Residence unit in Wellington in response to some questions. It took about 2 hours for him to reply – so things are looking up in the service department.
Back at the start of November I blogged about having to get further medical tests for my brother’s residency application.
Today, the Family Residency Manager has told us that my brother has “an acceptable standard of health”.
So we are through one major hurdle.
Unfortunatley we still have no idea how long the applciation will take before a case officer is assigned, but it does confirm that they are indeed getting the background work done prior to the CO been given the case to help timeframes along.
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Immigration reports x2
Filed under: Getting to New Zealand, Hubby's Views, Life in New Zealand, NZIS & Immigration issues
The Dept of Labor have actually come out with two reports on migration, as a contribution to some OECD studies.
It’s possibly sad that I’m working my way through both of them at the moment. At 62 & 125 pages I should at least get some sleep, even if it takes longer to finish reading them.
My first question will be what’s the difference between;
International Migration Outlook
&
Migration Trends & Outlook
‘cos I sure can’t tell the difference first off. Still, why publish one paper using a set of research when you can publish two? It’s at least efficient if the reports have completely different purposes.
So I shall work my way through the reports. There’s some fascinating info buried in the tables and numbers already.
Still, it’s an excuse to swan off to the beach and read the paperwork in some sun 
Herald series on Migration Trends
Filed under: Getting to New Zealand, The Family Sponsorship Saga
Lincoln Tan at the NZ Herald is running a three part series on migration trends in New Zealand. His first one interestingly looks at parent sponsorship, and shows some interesting figures.
China has now overtaken the UK as the top source of family sponsorship migration to New Zealand. One of the things that make this possible is that it’s much easier for Chinese migrants to meet the “Centre of Gravity” requirements because of the one child policy. This part of the policy has caused a huge amount of anguish for many people who have stepfamilies. It’s a bit of a blunt tool, and INZ tend to be highly inflexible over its implementation. Mind you – flexibility and INZ just don’t really go hand in hand anyway.
“The growth in Chinese immigrant numbers overall reflects the fact that increasing numbers of Chinese nationals are choosing to study here, gain recognised qualifications and then compete for and obtain skilled employment in New Zealand,” said Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman. Dr Coleman said New Zealand’s immigration policy was designed “to attract the type of migrants we want”.
(Ah yes – international students – such a lucrative source of money for New Zealand that you don’t have to be licensed to give them advice – because they might stop coming. Protecting migrants isn’t half as important as protecting the money they bring in.)
The article also shows that the UK is still the source of most of skilled migrants – with many of the Chinese migrants being younger – in their twenties, as opposed to the Brits being in their thirties and forties. This is seen as a bad thing as they are thought not to be able to provide for their aging parents. This does however ignore 2 things about the Family Sponsorship program. First you have to have a certain level of income before you can sponsor them. It’s stupidly low in my opinion – but that’s the policy. Secondly – you actually only have to be able to support them for two years – and as soon as your “aged” parents become residents -they have access to public healthcare.
We are going to be looking into the Family Sponsorship statistics ourselves over the next few weeks. I know that makes us sound like we really have no lives – but we want to try and understand just why INZ are holding back applications for 2 years.
In the mean time – I’ll be interested in what else Lincoln shows up.
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