Visa Issues

[kper051]

Hi,

Okay so my cousin use to live in New Zealand when he was a child with his family. However, he was deported back to india with his family about 10 years ago. Last year, he applied for a student visa to come and study in NZ. He was granted a student visa but when he went to the airport, the people there did not let him on the plane. They said he had to go and reapply for a visa again. So when we were told about this, we told one of my friend's dad, who happened to be an immigration officer in NZ if he could help. He said he would take on the case. He sent the case to an visa officer in india who was going to review his case. This was 6 months ago. The visa officer apparently stopped replying to my friends dad's emails. So he decided to email the manager. The manager replied earlier this week that the case has now been reassigned to another visa officer.

I did some research and I believe the reason why my cousin was not allowed on the plane was due to unpaid deportation costs.

I'm wondering how long will it take for my cousin's case to be reviewed because it has now been over 6 months and we have not heard anything from them, except that they were reassigning the case. It is really frustrating because we know what the problem most likely is but we can't do anything until we hear back from them.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[JandM]

I haven't seen anyone post on the forums with a situation similar to your cousin's, so I haven't any knowledge to offer. I hope there may be someone out there who can share some experience.

Just from reading your summary, I'm thinking about the deportation costs issue. How certain are you that this is the issue? Is there some way you can find out the amount that was due for your cousin? And would it be within his means to pay it? I was thinking, the case is probably in a queue waiting for the new official's attention. IF the unpaid money was the hitch originally, and next time the case came to be reviewed, payment had been made, it could help things forward.

[kper051]

I did some research on the web and found that a person may not be allowed back in NZ, until the cost of deportation has been paid. I know that my cousin has not paid any of those costs, so I'm pretty sure that could be the reason, but there might be another reason that I might not be aware of. We can pay the costs, but the thing is we are not sure of how much it is and where and to whom we pay it to. So we pretty much have to wait for the officer to reply, but it has taken them way too long already(more than 6 months).
Also would you know how long it usually takes for a case to be reviewed by the officer?

Thanks

[JandM]

I'm sorry - there is no 'usually' about timing when dealing with INZ. Everything varies, because every case is different and because of unpredictable work-flow.

[swearwolves]

A bit unfair, don't you think? Charging a child with a crime an adult committed? The child, a minor, had no choice but to go wherever his lawless parents took him. He should not be held responsible in any way... regardless of his current age.

[JandM]

If the OP is right that that IS the basis of the problem for his cousin, then yes, I agree with you that it would be unfair. But until there is confirmation from the authorities, nobody can be sure that that is the cause of the hold up.

A further thought. We often see on the forum people getting very angry and upset, arguing that the rule that is causing problems in their case should be different because it's unfair to them.

Fairness, and The Law (in any country), are often very different things, however wrong that is. When faced with INZ, applicants have to accept that they're under the NZ immigration regulations (NZ law), and those are ALL that the officials can go by. An applicant may have a perfect case for getting their visa on the grounds of fairness, but if they don't fit correctly with some set of the regulations, the INZ CO can't pass them - they don't have the discretion to ignore the rules.

[swearwolves]

Fair point, but in this particular case, it seems like INZ are not even involved in the issue. It seems more like an India issue to me. Whether or not a person is allowed to board a flight out of that country is up to that country's authorities. INZ have issued this man a valid visa, which seems to indicate the problem is not on NZ's side, but India's. I don't claim to have a full understanding of deportation law, but in most cases the receiving government pays the deporting government deportation costs and once the national is back in the country, the matter is settled between the country's authorities and the national. In some cases, the national is billed the entire sum and in other cases it is billed to the tax payer. Perhaps the man's parent's failure to pay the deportation costs have led the Indian authorities to ban him from travelling outside of India.

Or it could be also that INZ changed their mind about the visa post-issuance and cancelled it, which showed up on the Indian airport's system (this is highly unlikely) and he was subsequently asked to apply for a new, valid NZ visa.

[JandM]

There are several 'perhaps' moments in what we're saying about this case. We don't know whether the Indian authorities stopped the man from leaving the country, or whether airline staff stopped him boarding because his visa wasn't in order in some way, or because they didn't understand some aspect of it, or because it had been cancelled (and any airline who allows a passenger to take a flight to a country for which they don't have a valid visa is liable for fines, and for the cost of repatriating that passenger).

So there isn't anything useful to add from the basis of guesswork. The person himself is waiting till someone from INZ gives an explanation, and, naturally enough, very much wants it to be soon.

[Tchris]

Fair point, but in this particular case, it seems like INZ are not even involved in the issue. It seems more like an India issue to me. Whether or not a person is allowed to board a flight out of that country is up to that country's authorities. INZ have issued this man a valid visa, which seems to indicate the problem is not on NZ's side, but India's. I don't claim to have a full understanding of deportation law, but in most cases the receiving government pays the deporting government deportation costs and once the national is back in the country, the matter is settled between the country's authorities and the national. In some cases, the national is billed the entire sum and in other cases it is billed to the tax payer. Perhaps the man's parent's failure to pay the deportation costs have led the Indian authorities to ban him from travelling outside of India.

Or it could be also that INZ changed their mind about the visa post-issuance and cancelled it, which showed up on the Indian airport's system (this is highly unlikely) and he was subsequently asked to apply for a new, valid NZ visa.

Just so you know, Even with valid visa, u can not board a plane to NZ without authorization from INZ otherwise the airline will be in trouble. see this: http://dol.govt.nz/News/Media/2012/t...ines-fined.asp

[parpalhou]

This explains a lot about a recent flight I took. We were held up at two airports, one in France and the other in Germany, by airline employees whose English wasn't strong enough to understand the text on our NZ visas (work visas valid for 36 months from time of first entry, but with an expiration date for first entry). It surprised me because we are from a visa waiver country anyway, but I guess they wanted to make sure we hadn't overstayed visa in the past.