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Wellingtonian Mark Smith admits he was “incredulous”, after hearing that Immigration New Zealand (INZ) is ready to resume processing association visas, regardless of your country of origin, starting Wednesday.
Smith submitted a visa application for his wife Sechelle and stepdaughter Chelsy in mid-February, but his plans to settle here from the Philippines were thwarted by the pandemic.
“It has been more than 300 days since I last saw my family … there has been a lot of psychological damage to my family and myself during these 300 days.
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Wellingtonian Mark Smith has spent more than 300 days separated from his wife, Sechelle, and his young stepdaughter Chelsy, who are in the Philippines.
“I tried to communicate… what it is like to see your wife fall apart on video 8000 kilometers away and be totally powerless to provide a sense of relief or comfort, or even words of hope.
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Wellington resident Mark Smith says that hearing that his wife and stepdaughter would not benefit from last week’s immigration announcement drove him to a low point during the months of separation.
“We just haven’t had the hope of being able to hold on, and so the trauma of that – it’s the worst feeling imaginable. And I don’t think our elected officials realized that until last week, ”Smith said.
It refers to an announcement by the Minister of Immigration, Kris Faafoi, that partners and children of New Zealanders will have their association visa applications processed beginning in early October, provided they come from a visa-exempt country.
The Philippines is not on the list of 61 countries, leaving Smith and many others questioning a policy they believed was “discriminatory.”
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Mark Smith believes that “the backlash” to last week’s announcement, which left partners and children from countries without visa waivers in the cold, may have been behind the recent government policy shift.
“There was a huge uproar against what we consider to be a discriminatory policy coming from INZ. Why should our members be treated differently, simply because they were born in a different country? “
Being left out of last week’s announcement led Smith to what he believed was “his lowest point in 300 days.”
But in a surprising development on Monday, Faafoi revealed that the policy would be extended to all countries, astonishing Smith, despite the fact that INZ stated that it was “considering options” for those from countries without visa exemption a few days earlier.
RNZ
Immigration New Zealand has relaxed border regulations for resident visa holders who are stuck abroad.
“I am totally relieved, but I am only cautiously optimistic. For the past six months, they have left us hope, carrots hanging along the way.
“It seems like here we have a big juicy carrot hanging right in front of us… I have high hopes, but do you know what it’s like to have hopes and then your hopes don’t come true? It is devastating.
“I really hope the government will go ahead and do it quickly,” Smith said.
As of August 14, there were 2,258 temporary visa applications and 2,238 relationship-based residency applications waiting to be processed abroad.
Justin Group / unsplash
Couples divided by Covid-19 border restrictions will be able to process their association visa applications starting Wednesday, regardless of where they are.
An INZ spokeswoman said the policy change came about because people on relationship-based visas were exempt from the country’s border restrictions.
Malcolm Pacific Immigration CEO David Cooper said the policy change “has been a long time coming.”
“There have been many people who have been harmed by these delays, and I think everyone will be breathing in relief that they can finally start looking forward to meeting their partners,” Cooper said.
Faafoi described Monday’s announcement as “good news” during an interview with The Indian weekend.
“While we were able to make that announcement for the visa-free countries, I think, by the end of last week, I know there would be a lot of people sitting there asking ‘what about the non-visa-free countries? , ”Faafoi said.
Processing times will vary depending on the complexity of the application, whether it is “ready to make decisions” or more information is required; however, INZ said applications “will be processed in order of date.”
