Alice is originally from the UK and was in New Zealand on a Temporary Work Visa. While in New Zealand, she got into a relationship with John, who is a New Zealand citizen. John is a passionate sailor and lives on a boat. So, Alice too moved in with John on his boat, and they happily started living together.
Alice then lodged her visa application for partnership-based Residence Visa on the basis of her partnership with John in Nov 2018 and started waiting for an outcome on the application that she had lodged.
While waiting for a decision on a partnership-based Residence Visa, her temporary Work Visa expired, and she inadvertently became unlawful in New Zealand. This happened because Alice somehow assumed that that since her Residence Visa application was under process, her status remained lawful. It was only when she enquired about her visa application that Immigration New Zealand informed her that she had turned unlawful the day her Work Visa had expired.
Alice, on getting to know about her unlawful status panicked, and realizing that she needed professional help, started looking for a Licensed Immigration Adviser who could help her. That’s when she came across Vandana Rai’s profile and found it quite impressive because of the excellent reviews and the years of experience that she had in the industry.
Alice was stressed at this point in time and didn’t want her careless mistake to have an adverse impact on the outcome of her visa application, as well as her future. She fully realized that in a worst-case scenario, her family would be torn apart, and Alice would have to live away from her few months old baby. Alice decided to fix a meeting with Vandana, and was pleasantly surprised, and was relieved after discussing her case with Vandana, and happily put her case in her hands.
Alice soon sent Vandana all the documents that were requested from her, which assisted Vandana in drafting a persuasive advocacy letter (Section 61 Request) in support of her circumstances that supported Alice’s request for being made lawful again.
Alice’s advocacy proved to be extra challenging because the couple had been living on a boat and hence had minimal evidence of living together. The couple also had very little evidence of public recognition of the relationship, and financial interdependence between them. However, Vandana represented the case and advocated that Alice and John had been in a steady, committed, and genuine relationship, and highlighted the fact that they had just had a baby together a few months back.
In the absence of conventional evidence, Vandana worked hard and put forward letters from the couple detailing the chronology of their relationship. The content of the letters outlined the couple’s relationship, views, and plan to spend lives together. Other evidence included a birth certificate of their child, photos, and evidence of their travels together along with letters supporting their relationship from family and friends.
Vandana also underlined the exceptional circumstances that needed to be considered for Section 61 Request, these were related to the fact that the couple had recently been blessed with a baby (who is a New Zealand citizen), and wanted to live and bring up their child together. The child needed the love and care of both the parents and that separation of the family would not have been in the best interest of the child. The child would have been denied the human right to parental love and care. Another point that was mentioned in support of Alice’s application was that she had no intention of breaching any visa condition or staying unlawfully in the country. Her overall record and unblemished conduct confirmed that it was a genuine mistake.
After the Section 61 Request was submitted, Alice was nervously waiting to hear from Immigration New Zealand. She got the good news of her Section 61 Request being approved in three weeks.
Alice is now happily living in New Zealand on Johns’s boat and is bringing up her baby with her partner, John. We wish them all the luck.
Disclaimer: Names of our clients have been changed to protect their privacy.