How 'Living Together' mess can be fixed...
The ACT and Green parties will support the dumping of the ‘living together’ requirement for partnership visas, National wants to redraft Culturally Arranged Marriage Visa, while Labour has pushed the proposed review of partnership visa settings to next year, as migrants continue to struggle to bring their overseas partners onshore.
Following Indian Weekender’s persistent probing and advocacy for the members of the Kiwi-Indian community and the broader South Asian migrant communities who are forced to remain separated from their overseas partners as NZ’s immigration rules remain oblivious to their culture and hence not being allowed valid visas, different political parties have clarified their stand on this important issue.
Indian Weekender approached all parties with a pointed question if there was a need to change the law in the parliament or the Minister of Immigration had enough powers on hand to fix the issue and what their future or current government would do so that migrants do not face any discrimination.
Green Party supports scrapping of ‘living together’ requirement
Green Party’s Immigration Spokesperson Ricardo Menendez March said the party would support scrapping of “living together” requirement for a partnership visa.
“The Green Party supports scrapping the living together requirement for the purposes of relationship-based work visas. Our immigration system should be culturally competent and acknowledge the diverse backgrounds migrants come from. The current approach to assessing partnership-based visas discriminates against people from non-visa waiver countries by requiring people to be currently cohabitating. Most of these countries are from the Global South, whereas visa waiver countries are predominantly from Europe and North America.
“For many people, it is simply not possible to cohabitate. It could be that it’s not culturally appropriate for couples to live together before marriage or prove unsafe because it may be an interfaith or queer relationship. By actively discriminating towards countries from non-visa waiver countries we are effectively perpetuating a white immigration system,” March said.
Criticising the coalition partner Labour Party on dillydallying on this important issue, March said, “The Labour Party campaigned on overhauling partnership-based visas to make them culturally competent. The ability to fulfil this election promise lies with the Minister of Immigration. Minister Faafoi has powers available to him to change the visa settings and stop discriminating against people from non-visa waiver countries. It is a matter of political will, not resources. Migrant families have been generous with politicians, sharing their stories of separation and the policy settings that keep them apart from their loved ones. We urge the minister to urgently review these settings to put an end to the discrimination and suffering split migrant families are currently undergoing.”
ACT Party says a simple instruction from the Minister of Immigration can fix the issue
Immigration spokesperson of the Act Party Dr James McDowall, when asked if his party would support a law change to fix the long-standing issue of the ‘living together’ requirement under partnership visa, said that there was no need for a law change and a simple ministerial instruction would fix the issue.
“Yes, this is quite a long-standing issue, made worse by border closures.
“This doesn’t require a law change, however, just a policy change [by the minister] – a bill doesn’t need to be introduced to Parliament. We would be happy to see the living together requirement dumped entirely, with the many other available forms of evidence being used as proof instead,” McDowall said.
National wants re-drafting of Culturally Arranged Marriage visa to fix the issue
Sidestepping the question if there was any need to change the law, National’s Immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford said, “The culturally arranged marriage visa was the government’s attempt to solve the issue of couples not being able to show they have lived together. It never worked because it was poorly drafted and didn’t reflect modern-day culturally arranged marriages.
“I have said publicly that the issuing of a general visitor visa to those partners who can’t show living together but who can otherwise satisfy the criteria of a genuine and stable relationship has worked in the past and should continue,” Stanford said.
Stanford was pointing toward the General Visitor Visa (GVV) based on relationship issued by Immigration NZ to allow individuals to join their NZ-based partners.
Notably, earlier when Immigration officers once satisfied that the individuals were in stable and genuine relationships but did not meet the ‘living together’ requirement for partnership visas, were issuing a General Visitor Visa (GVV) based on relationship to allow people to travel NZ and live with their partners and fulfill conditions of partnership visas.
Emphasising further on the need for redrafting the Culturally Arranged Marriage Visas Stanford said, “If we are to have a culturally arranged marriage visa it should be updated to reflect modern Culturally Arranged Marriages (CAM). I would like to undertake work to see how we can make the living together requirement more flexible to reflect modern relationships. This, combined with the issuing of general visitor visas and a more fit-for-purpose CAM visa would be work that I would undertake as minister.”
Labour says CAM visa working fine and pushes review of partnership visas to next year
Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi defended the government’s response on this long persisting issue around partnership visas applications and the perceived discrimination meted out to those in relationships based on Indian marriages.
“Visas granted under the culturally arranged marriage pathway are available now for the offshore partners of NZ citizens and residents. People who are granted a CAM visa are eligible for a border exception under the government’s current border settings,” Faafoi said.
The minister also pointed out that enough community consultation was going around what constituted culturally arranged marriages.
“The Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment is discussing the operation of the CAM visa with various community groups to understand how to improve communication and understand cultural traditions and how to recognise them,” Faafoi said.
This assertion is contested by most industry experts and immigration lawyers who concur that the current success rate of the CAM visas would be about 20 percent of all the applications they put in for their clients.
The Minister of Immigration further said, “The main issue identified around CAM with the current border restrictions is that the General Visitor Visa, which is used by people in a relationship who do not meet the criteria for a partnership or CAM visa, is currently suspended so these people cannot get a visa or a border exception at present.
“Under the government’s Reconnecting Strategy visitors from visa waiver countries can enter NZ from July, or possibly earlier depending on the Covid conditions, and visitor visa processing will resume in October, or earlier if conditions allow.”
The government has also signalled it will review partnership settings in the future to ensure they are appropriate. “That work is likely to begin next year,” Faafoi said.
The ACT and Green parties will support the dumping of the ‘living together’ requirement for partnership visas, National wants to redraft Culturally Arranged Marriage Visa, while Labour has pushed the proposed review of partnership visa settings to next year, as migrants continue to struggle to...
The ACT and Green parties will support the dumping of the ‘living together’ requirement for partnership visas, National wants to redraft Culturally Arranged Marriage Visa, while Labour has pushed the proposed review of partnership visa settings to next year, as migrants continue to struggle to bring their overseas partners onshore.
Following Indian Weekender’s persistent probing and advocacy for the members of the Kiwi-Indian community and the broader South Asian migrant communities who are forced to remain separated from their overseas partners as NZ’s immigration rules remain oblivious to their culture and hence not being allowed valid visas, different political parties have clarified their stand on this important issue.
Indian Weekender approached all parties with a pointed question if there was a need to change the law in the parliament or the Minister of Immigration had enough powers on hand to fix the issue and what their future or current government would do so that migrants do not face any discrimination.
Green Party supports scrapping of ‘living together’ requirement
Green Party’s Immigration Spokesperson Ricardo Menendez March said the party would support scrapping of “living together” requirement for a partnership visa.
“The Green Party supports scrapping the living together requirement for the purposes of relationship-based work visas. Our immigration system should be culturally competent and acknowledge the diverse backgrounds migrants come from. The current approach to assessing partnership-based visas discriminates against people from non-visa waiver countries by requiring people to be currently cohabitating. Most of these countries are from the Global South, whereas visa waiver countries are predominantly from Europe and North America.
“For many people, it is simply not possible to cohabitate. It could be that it’s not culturally appropriate for couples to live together before marriage or prove unsafe because it may be an interfaith or queer relationship. By actively discriminating towards countries from non-visa waiver countries we are effectively perpetuating a white immigration system,” March said.
Criticising the coalition partner Labour Party on dillydallying on this important issue, March said, “The Labour Party campaigned on overhauling partnership-based visas to make them culturally competent. The ability to fulfil this election promise lies with the Minister of Immigration. Minister Faafoi has powers available to him to change the visa settings and stop discriminating against people from non-visa waiver countries. It is a matter of political will, not resources. Migrant families have been generous with politicians, sharing their stories of separation and the policy settings that keep them apart from their loved ones. We urge the minister to urgently review these settings to put an end to the discrimination and suffering split migrant families are currently undergoing.”
ACT Party says a simple instruction from the Minister of Immigration can fix the issue
Immigration spokesperson of the Act Party Dr James McDowall, when asked if his party would support a law change to fix the long-standing issue of the ‘living together’ requirement under partnership visa, said that there was no need for a law change and a simple ministerial instruction would fix the issue.
“Yes, this is quite a long-standing issue, made worse by border closures.
“This doesn’t require a law change, however, just a policy change [by the minister] – a bill doesn’t need to be introduced to Parliament. We would be happy to see the living together requirement dumped entirely, with the many other available forms of evidence being used as proof instead,” McDowall said.
National wants re-drafting of Culturally Arranged Marriage visa to fix the issue
Sidestepping the question if there was any need to change the law, National’s Immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford said, “The culturally arranged marriage visa was the government’s attempt to solve the issue of couples not being able to show they have lived together. It never worked because it was poorly drafted and didn’t reflect modern-day culturally arranged marriages.
“I have said publicly that the issuing of a general visitor visa to those partners who can’t show living together but who can otherwise satisfy the criteria of a genuine and stable relationship has worked in the past and should continue,” Stanford said.
Stanford was pointing toward the General Visitor Visa (GVV) based on relationship issued by Immigration NZ to allow individuals to join their NZ-based partners.
Notably, earlier when Immigration officers once satisfied that the individuals were in stable and genuine relationships but did not meet the ‘living together’ requirement for partnership visas, were issuing a General Visitor Visa (GVV) based on relationship to allow people to travel NZ and live with their partners and fulfill conditions of partnership visas.
Emphasising further on the need for redrafting the Culturally Arranged Marriage Visas Stanford said, “If we are to have a culturally arranged marriage visa it should be updated to reflect modern Culturally Arranged Marriages (CAM). I would like to undertake work to see how we can make the living together requirement more flexible to reflect modern relationships. This, combined with the issuing of general visitor visas and a more fit-for-purpose CAM visa would be work that I would undertake as minister.”
Labour says CAM visa working fine and pushes review of partnership visas to next year
Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi defended the government’s response on this long persisting issue around partnership visas applications and the perceived discrimination meted out to those in relationships based on Indian marriages.
“Visas granted under the culturally arranged marriage pathway are available now for the offshore partners of NZ citizens and residents. People who are granted a CAM visa are eligible for a border exception under the government’s current border settings,” Faafoi said.
The minister also pointed out that enough community consultation was going around what constituted culturally arranged marriages.
“The Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment is discussing the operation of the CAM visa with various community groups to understand how to improve communication and understand cultural traditions and how to recognise them,” Faafoi said.
This assertion is contested by most industry experts and immigration lawyers who concur that the current success rate of the CAM visas would be about 20 percent of all the applications they put in for their clients.
The Minister of Immigration further said, “The main issue identified around CAM with the current border restrictions is that the General Visitor Visa, which is used by people in a relationship who do not meet the criteria for a partnership or CAM visa, is currently suspended so these people cannot get a visa or a border exception at present.
“Under the government’s Reconnecting Strategy visitors from visa waiver countries can enter NZ from July, or possibly earlier depending on the Covid conditions, and visitor visa processing will resume in October, or earlier if conditions allow.”
The government has also signalled it will review partnership settings in the future to ensure they are appropriate. “That work is likely to begin next year,” Faafoi said.
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