The Government has backflipped on culturally arranged marriage visa rule changes.
Earlier this year, Immigration New Zealand adopted a tougher policy on the partnership visa category. To be eligible, couples must have lived together, making it hard for those with arranged marriages to bring their spouses to New Zealand.
But the guidance sparked anger in the Indian community, which said the current partnership visa rules disadvantage those who come from cultures that practise arranged marriages.
This lead to an outburst from New Zealand First MP Shane Jones, who said he is "worked up" over the "elevated sense of entitlement from a lot of immigrant leaders".
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Now, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway has announced a u-turn.
"There were issues with the process Immigration New Zealand used to issue visas for culturally arranged marriages. It was inconsistently applied," he says.
"The Government is now ensuring that people in a culturally arranged marriage can visit their spouses here subject to usual risk management processes.
Under the new system:
- Those who have a culturally arranged marriage to a New Zealand resident or citizen can apply for a culturally arranged visitor's visa
- The visitor's visa will have strict assessment criteria attached to it to ensure only legitimate arranged marriages are approved and to stop so called mail order brides and other potential rorts
- Once the partner has been living in New Zealand with their spouse they can begin the process to apply for a partnership visa while proving the legitimate nature of their nuptials.
"Once they are here, the visitor period will help demonstrate the genuine and stable nature of their relationship in order to get a partnership visa," Lees-Galloway says.
"Immigration New Zealand officials will also need to check the marriage followed an identified cultural tradition, including the facilitation of the selection of the persons to be married being done by people who are not parties to the marriage. This is to stop so-called mail order brides or other attempts to rort the system."
Last week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Immigration NZ's decision "never came to Cabinet", and described it as a change "made arbitrarily by officials and we're seeking for that to return to the status quo".
However Cabinet Minister Shane Jones defended Immigration NZ's change.
"You have no legitimate expectations in my view to bring your whole village to New Zealand, and if you don't like it and you're threatening to go home, then catch the next flight home," he told RNZ last month.
Mandeep Singh Bela, coordinator of the Union Network of Migrants and the Indian Workers Association, told Newshub he was fearful the rhetoric could stoke hate crimes against the Indian community.
"To 'take the next flight home' is quite racist and discriminatory towards the Indian community. The last thing we want to see is what happened in Christchurch."
Jones stirred further controversy after he dismissed concerns within the Indian community that his comments could lead to discrimination and racist sentiment.
Jones said this was a "Bollywood overreaction", and was adamant he's been speaking on behalf of New Zealanders who want more control on immigration.
Newshub.
