New Year reunion for family who missed Christmas
‘Absolute angel’ hailed as Immigration NZ struggles
Amigrant family who missed out on a Christmas reunion in New Zealand because of immigration visa delays will likely be getting a New Year reunion instead.
Roy Chowdhury, 42, of West Auckland, has been planning the reunion of four family members from America, Canada and India. But one did not get his visa on time despite having lodged his application months ago.
Immigration New Zealand, which is struggling to cope with a visa application surge over the holiday season, is granting a limited purpose visa for the last family member to visit here, Chowdhury said.
“We were ecstatic with this news and it’s the best gift we could get this Christmas.”
Subho Bose, a teacher in India, and the partner of Chowdhury's sister, lodged his application in October but received a call from an INZ official in India on Friday — the day the story appeared in the Herald.
Despite responding to questions and sending additional supporting documents, he received a letter declining his visitor visa application.
Chowdhury wrote a strongly worded letter objecting to the decision, and offered to post a $30,000 bond.
On Christmas Eve, Chowdhury was contacted by INZ assistant general manager Jeannie Melville.
“She was an absolute angel and I cannot even find words to express our gratitude for taking ownership to resolve this very stressful situation for us,” he said. “She worked on her holiday and spoke to the INZ officer in India to work out a solution to this issue.”
They received confirmation later that day that a limited purpose visa had been granted and Bose could join the family for a reunion and a planned South Island trip. Bose will arrive in Auckland on Friday.
Melville confirmed that Bose had accepted the offer of a limited visa and that expires on January 31.
INZ is experiencing a spike in temporary visa applications, with 45,000 being processed.
There has also been a surge in the number of calls and emails to the agency, hitting 174,985 last month — a 44 per cent increase from the same time last year.
Immigration manager Michael Carley said INZ had processed 850,000 visa applications involving 1.1 million people in the 2017/18 year.
He said 75 per cent of visitor visas were approved within 18 days, but those which required additional information or verification took longer.