Instead of celebrating Christmas together, an Auckland woman and her Indian husband say they are fighting immigration officials so they can be a family again.
Passport stamp visa for travel concept background, New Zealand. Photo: 123RF
Aroha Raharuhi, 40, is planning a month-long trip to India - and having to leave her five children behind - to try to prove to Immigration New Zealand that her marriage is genuine.
She said they spent their first wedding anniversary apart after her husband, Pankaj Badyal, 22, followed advice from Immigration's helpline that he should return to India last July and reapply from there.
They later found he could not appeal against visitor-visa refusals from outside the country.
The couple married in October 2016 after they met in her hometown of Ōpōtiki.
Ms Raharuhi said they felt badly treated by Immigration New Zealand, with conflicting and wrong advice which had led to several costly visa applications and filing duplicate documents.
They have now appealed to Associate Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi.
Mrs Raharuhi said Christmas was going to be hard.
"We really do love each other and this is causing us so much stress," she said.
"As long as we're apart it's not nice or easy.
"As soon as he wakes up he's communicating with me and as soon as I wake up I communicate with him.
"She [the case officer] just declined us, didn't even call us in for questioning.
"All my kids like him and want him back. He's been a great support to me and my family. We're not dealing with the rejections from Immigration very well. We get real high hopes then when we get rejected it's like a stab in the heart."
She said professional immigration advice was too expensive, but they would fight on.
"We have heaps of memories in our life, which makes us cry because we are apart now," Mr Badyal.
"We can't do anything without each other. We both want to spend our whole life with each other forever. We have nothing in our life without each other."
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) area manager Marcelle Foley said it considered partnership applications very carefully and needed to be satisfied that the relationship was genuine, stable and likely to endure.
"Every application is assessed very robustly to maintain the integrity of the immigration system," she said.
"INZ can confirm that Pankaj's application for a visitor visa under partnership was declined on 4 December.
"Insufficient corroborating evidence was provided to satisfy INZ that this couple were in a genuine and stable relationship, so as to meet immigration instructions.
"In addition, INZ notes that Pankaj was found to have breached his student visa conditions by working more than 20 hours per week."
It said the appeal to the Associate Minister had been delegated to a senior INZ official, and it was not possible to say how long the decision would take.