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Braden Fastier / Stuff
The Jayoma family, father Rommel, Lesly, 10, and mother Cris received the news that Lesley’s special needs student visa was approved after he faced deportation.
The family of a 10-year-old girl facing deportation has been told that she can stay in New Zealand this Christmas and beyond.
For the past two years, Lesly Jayoma has lived in Nelson, where she attended Nelson Central School.
Her parents Rommel and Cris arrived in New Zealand in 2018 and both have work permits valid until 2022.
Lesly’s student visa was rejected earlier this year after she was diagnosed with autism spectrum and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders that required up to two hours of additional support each day at school.
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Despite her parents offering to pay for help with her special school needs, the reconsideration was rejected in early September and the girl’s interim student visa expired on September 25, making her liable for deportation. since then.
Nelson-based National List MP Nick Smith had been lobbying the government to review the decision since he was approached by the family and Nelson Central director Pip Wells earlier in the year.
On Tuesday, Smith informed the Jayomas that Associate Minister of Immigration Phil Twyford had granted Lesly a student visa until December 2022, under section 61 of the Immigration Act.
It had also “set aside concerns related to Lesly’s health status that resulted in the original application and reconsideration being rejected.”
It is understood that the approval of the special needs visa also means that the costs of your additional education will be covered, around $ 120 per week.
Lesly’s father, Rommel, said that despite the circumstances his family had endured, he was confident that the matter would have a positive resolution.
“As a family, we came here together and if something happened we would go through it together.”
Lesly’s mother, Cris, thanked Smith for “fighting to the end” on behalf of Lesly, as well as the many New Zealanders who had shown their support in recent weeks.
“This is really a friendly country.”
The family had previously indicated that Lesly would return to the Philippines to live with her grandparents if they were unable to reach an extension for their daughter.
Instead, the good news meant the family could now prepare for a Christmas vacation in Queenstown.
“It was something that we already had planned, but now it is a double celebration.”
Smith said he was pleased that a successful outcome had been achieved for the family.
However, he said that Immigration New Zealand needed to review its policies on how it deals with children and take a more compassionate approach to people with disabilities and special needs.
“They are a lovely family and Nelson is very lucky to have them; I am sorry that you have had this terrible uncertainty all year ”.
