The Indian Weekender, Friday 31 July 2020

8 NEW ZEALAND
Friday, July 31, 2020
The Indian Weekender
Kiwi parents, clueless on how to get their toddler
back into the country, amidst Covid-19 border closure
SANDEEP SINGH
A
desperate Kiwi mum is
pleading Immigration
New Zealand to show
compassion and grant a visitor visa
on humanitarian grounds to one of
her family members to bring their
toddler back home from overseas.
However, she is clueless about
how to put forward a request in a
manner that is not lost in the “faceless
system”, which has seemingly
become Immigration NZ’s newnormal
way of operation.
“It’s very difficult to get your point
across the Immigration system.” said
mum Veena Chaudhury who has
lived in the country for more than
seven years and is married to an NZ
citizen.
“All I am asking is Immigration
NZ to allow a temporary visa for
one of my family members so that
they can bring my child who is an
NZ citizen and obviously cannot
travel by himself,” Veena said
exasperatingly.
“So far we have got my brother -
who was on a student visa and was
temporarily visiting family before
applying for his post-study work visa
- to apply for an exception to enter
NZ, which has been declined three
times,” Veena said.
“However, it is not our intention
to bend the rules unnecessarily for
getting my brother back into the
country,” Veena said.
“I am completely fine if INZ
allows my parents instead to travel
on a visitor visa on humanitarian
grounds and bring my child back
and leave the country as and when
feasible,”
“But I am clueless on how to
navigate with the Immigration system
which has become more faceless and
unresponsive after Covid-19 related
border closure,” Veena said.
The family of four - (Veena
Choudhary – NZ permanent
Resident), father (Bharat Choudhary
– NZ Citizen), Daughter (Myraah
Choudhary, 4 years old – NZ Citizen),
Son (Miraan Choudhary, 17 months
– NZ Citizen) has been left separated
with the sudden border closures in
March this year to prevent the spread
of deadly coronavirus.
Currently, NZ borders are closed
for everyone except citizens and
residents and exceptions allowed
under extremely limited and special
circumstances.
For an exception under
humanitarian the INZ website says,
an immigration officer may make a
humanitarian exception to the travel
ban in extremely limited cases taking
into account the following factors:
• connection to New Zealand,
the applicant’s primary place
of residence and their current
location
• how long they have been away
from New Zealand
• other options available to
the applicant
• the impact of not giving an
exception
Veena had taken a seemingly
innocuous, but completely normal,
decision in a pre-Covid-19 world, of
sending her toddler overseas along
with her mum, to avoid the need of
sending him to a daycare facility just
for two weeks, with plans to join
them in a couple of weeks and bring
him back.
“I was lucky enough to have my
mum beside me to help me through
post-birth care of my second child,
which allowed me to return to work
without the usual anxiety of leaving
him at a daycare facility,” Veena said.
“It was only the timing of my
mum’s scheduled to return to India
(February 23) after completing her
normal stay as per her visa, and
our scheduled visit in mid March
for my brother’s wedding that had
left us confused, about the need for
arranging for care for my second
child,” Veena said.
“We thought that sending our child
to a new daycare facility for just two
weeks before having to stop again for
our planned overseas travel would be
an unnecessary hassle for us and the
child, and we decided to send him
instead with his grandma who was
anyway looking after him for the last
many months.”
"But I am
clueless
on how to
navigate with the
Immigration system
which has become
more faceless and
unresponsive after
Covid-19 related
border closure
“We had a plan in place to travel
back to India in mid-march for a
wedding and bring our child back
before borders were closed,” Veena
said.
“Now we are left in the middle
of nowhere with our child stranded
overseas,” Veena said.
An enquiry has been sent to the
office of the Immigration New
Zealand at the time of the publication
of this story, and a response
is awaited.
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