Second chance for family told to leave
‘‘How do you not love the New Zealand people?’’
A lifeline has been thrown to a Lower Hutt family whose residency application has been rejected.
Steve Jensen, wife Nancy and their four children have been living and working in Lower Hutt for the past four years, running Java Point Cafe in High St.
The parents and two youngest children were told in March that they would have to return to America by November.
All packed up and set to leave in a fortnight, they now have a second chance at staying in the country they have grown to love.
Chris Bishop, a list MP based in the Hutt, had made a personal appeal to the minister of immigration’s office.
On Saturday the family learned that their appeal over their residency application had been expedited, and would now be considered this month.
The Lower Hutt community had rallied around the Jensens after they were knocked back on residency in March this year.
Late last year, an informal petition in support of the family gathered about 500 signatures and was sent to Immigration New Zealand. Friends and cafe regulars, including Lower Hutt Mayor Ray Wallace, had also written to local MPs asking them to intervene in the case, Jensen said.
‘‘How do you not love the New Zealand people?’’ he asked.
The family had failed to meet the requirements of their entrepreneur visa.
A business plan for Java Point Cafe submitted when they first arrived in 2013 projected a 40 per cent increase in profit over the next three years.
The Lower Hutt business had made it ‘‘75 per cent’’ of the way there, Jensen said, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy their residency requirements.
‘‘We certainly consider ourselves profitable, we pay our- selves a living wage, we employed five Kiwis.
‘‘But the Immigration Department said it was irrelevant, and they are correct and well within their rights to say so.’’
Jensen said Bishop had been ‘‘working like a pitbull’’ to keep the family in the country.
‘‘We have managed to get the minister to expedite the [residency] decision-making process from October to July,’’ Bishop said.
‘‘It’s unlikely anything can be achieved before they are due to leave New Zealand, so I’m trying to sort things as quickly as we can.’’
The Jensens have already shipped most of their belongings back to the US, sold their house and put the cafe on the market.
Bishop said immigration law was complex, especially with many different visa types available.
‘‘When the strict criteria meets with personal circumstances, there should be flexibility in the system to respond. I think this is an example where that flexibility should apply, and that’s what we are arguing for.’’