Children sway appeal to stay
A Chinese couple with four children have avoided deportation on humanitarian grounds despite lying to Immigration NZ.
In an Immigration and Protection Tribunal decision made in March, it was decided the ‘‘exceptional humanitarian circumstances’’ of the children trumped their parents’ ‘‘fraudulent attempts’’ to obtain residence.
It comes after a decision in February 2016 granted the family a temporary visa so their daughter could finish secondary school and prepare for their return to China. Millionaires Jinqing Hu and wife Guifeng Li arrived in April 2003 with their now 19-yearold daughter, the decision said.
A month later, Hu and Li told Immigration NZ their marriage had broken down and they had both entered into new relationships with New Zealand citizens.
Because of these relationships, they both obtained work visas and lodged residence applications. But both Hu and Li withdrew their applications for residence in January 2007, admitting that the divorce and new marriages were ‘‘contrived’’ in order to become residents, the decision said.
The couple’s attempts for a judicial review of their temporary visa and to have their case heard at the Court of Appeal were declined. The couple lodged an appeal on humanitarian grounds in August 2017.
Their counsel said it was not in their children’s best interest to be deported, the decision said.
‘‘As a result of deportation, their right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, to an adequate standard of living and their right to education would be violated,’’ counsel said. ‘‘The children will face the utmost difficulty integrating into the Chinese educational system as they are all illiterate in Mandarin. All four children of the family are high achievers, they hold aspirations for their future in New Zealand and, if deported, these aspirations would have to be abandoned.’’
The tribunal rejected the couple’s claims of facing poverty in China. ‘‘Counsel’s submissions as to the family’s impoverishment in China are made in the face of the couple owning eight rental properties in Auckland,’’ the decision said.
In March 2016, the couple valued their assets at a net value of more than $3.5 million, something the tribunal said was likely to have increased.
The decision said the tribunal found the family was liable for deportation because they were unlawfully in New Zealand.
‘‘This has been brought about, ultimately by Mr Hu and Ms Li’s dishonest representations to Immigration NZ.’’
In response to a letter from the tribunal, Hu and Li said they came to New Zealand in 2003 to escape the Sars virus epidemic.
They said an immigration consultant, who they paid ‘‘a large sum of money’’, said that a marriage of convenience was the only way to obtain residence, the decision said. In the end, the tribunal said it was in the children’s best interest to stay in New Zealand and allowed the parents to stay too, based on exceptional circumstances of a humanitarian nature.