Widow gets visa, spared life of ‘isolation, deprivation’
Tanvi Bhavsar knows her late husband would be delighted with the reprieve she has been offered by Associate Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi.
On Wednesday, the 27-year-old Indian woman was told she could apply for a two-year visa after an appeal made on humanitarian grounds on her behalf by her local MPs.
Bhavsar’s husband, Hemin Limbachiya, 26, drowned at Waimarama Beach, in Hawke’s Bay on January 14 – just weeks after the pair wed in India.
In the moments before Limbachiya drowned, he tried desperately to keep Bhavsar afloat – even telling rescuers to save her before himself.
Limbachiya had been the couple’s principal applicant for residency, under the skilled migrant category.
His death meant the application was refused and spelled the end of Bhavsar’s work visa and future in New Zealand.
Her cause was taken up by Tukituki (National) MP Lawrence Yule and Napier (Labour) MP Stuart Nash after she made an unsuccessful appeal to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal.
The tribunal said it had no jurisdiction, so the politicians asked Faafoi to consider reviewing the decision on humanitarian grounds.
They told him that Limbachiya’s death was an ‘‘exceptional circumstance completely out of her control’’.
If she returned to India, she would face ‘‘a difficult life of isolation, deprivation and exclusion from society as a widow’’.
On Wednesday, Faafoi wrote to the MPs to say he had decided to grant Bhavsar a two-year open work visa ‘‘as an exception to instructions, subject to her meeting health and character requirements’’.
Bhavsar told Stuff that she was very happy with the decision, and knew Limbachiya would be too. ‘‘That is something I am very sure about.’’
She said she would now go about finding a job here.