Honeymooners have been trapped in Fiji far longer than planned after a diplomatic snafu that has rendered them unable to return to New Zealand.
Abdulla Mohsin and Catherine David are British nationals. Moshin was recruited by the government of New Zealand the two moved to from Derbyshire to Auckland in 2019 on a “work to residence” visa. That form of visa offers permanent residence after 24 months of work in New Zealand.
Mohsin works for Kainga Ora, a government housing agency.
On March 7th, the couple celebrated their marriage by traveling to Fiji to honeymoon. At the time, no travel restrictions were in place. But on March 19th, borders were closed and the couple first attempted to get home.
They were denied. Again, again, and again. Four flights. Four denials. The reason given? Their visas were not in order…only permanent residents and citizens were allowed to return. Mohsin told the BBC:
“We’ve had four opportunities to fly. We’ve been turned away at baggage check-in each time.
“We’re stuck in Fiji, with a suitcase of holiday clothes, I still have to pay rent in New Zealand, for a house I can’t currently live in.
“I’m still paying bills, I’m still paying taxes on my income, but I’m not allowed to enter the country.
“Our biggest fears are that if the pandemic gets worse, they may not have the healthcare facilities to take care of us.”
Mohsin leveled particularly harsh charges against the government of New Zealand, stating:
“The New Zealand government recruited me, and they’ve severely failed in their duty of care to provide us with the correct visas to return to the country.”
CONCLUSION
I held off on writing this hoping the problem would be resolved today, but it seems the couple is still in limbo. This seems like a clear error and I have trouble understanding how they could have possibly been stranded over a month.
Even if they waited longer than they should have to return, hopefully their papers are quickly resolved.
I can see this happening with some countries. But New Zealand? And they were in relatively close by Fiji? I have a hard time understanding how a few phone calls on the first day would not have taken care of this. I’m suspicious that there may be more to this story. It’s New Zealand, not North Korea. Seems odd.
that’s not NZ’s fault. You go on repatriation flights of your passport not your visa. As ultra inconvenient and long-routing as that sounds. Their only option is Fiji to UK, then find their own way back to NZ.
If that is how it work it is just wrong. I live in Denmark and I am a resident. I don’t matter that I have a different countries passport I can come and go as I wish as it is my legal residency. All of my life is here even if I am not a citizen.
Going to the UK and then trying to get back to NZ can lead to major hardship. As there visa is more or less dependent on working this can lead to being fired and then booted out of the country as you no longer meet the requirement of the “work to residency” visa. As well as cost of keeping everything in NZ and repatriating to UK then to turn around and buy a one-way ticket to NZ neither of which is cheap even in good times.
You really have no clue what you’re talking about. The guy lives in NZ, works in NZ, in fact works for the NZ government, pays taxes in NZ, it’s for NZ to sort it out. Now.
Not sure why they kept going to the airport. Shouldn’t they have gone to the NZ embassy in Fiji after the first denial?
This isn’t an error, it’s simply the fact that nonresident work visa holders were excluded from the list of individuals permitted to return to NZ with the border restrictions in place. The only exception is if one of the spouses is still in NZ, then the other spouse can be granted an exception.
I’m the same bucket as him, working in NZ on a 30 month work-to-residence Visa, and unfortunately, if I were to leave NZ I wouldn’t be let back in. When the restrictions were put in place, it was due to non-residents being the primary offenders in flouting the lockdown/quarantine restrictions, however I don’t think that would extend to work-visa holders who for the most part live much like the Kiwis do.
I hope the border restrictions are lifted soon enough, or at least that work-visa holders are given the same travel rights as residents.
Joseph, it *is* an error, because NZ is treating work visa holders as non-residents who are no different from tourists. That defies logic. Even if you’re not a resident for other purposes (such as claiming benefits, or time spent towards obtaining citizenship), you do reside in the country. You can’t work in NZ without (legally) living there. To leave out this category of non-residents is either a massive oversight or gross negligence by the NZ government.
It’s not an error, it was intentional. I would suggest rereading Joseph’s post. And for Abdulla and Catherine, enjoy Fiji! Can’t imagine a better place to get “stuck” on your honeymoon. We are all very jealous of you right now.
They are not NZ citizens or residents, borders are closed to everyone else, do you expect NZ to let in everyone with a NZ work visa in the current environment? NZ citizens can’t even leave their home town let alone their country. It’s not an error, it may be an unfortunate consequence but at least they are getting paid by the NZ government so perhaps they should be thankful rather than complaining. They can always try and make their way back to the UK.
Henry LAX. The problem is there are too many people, officalals, bureaucrats amd politicians that think like you. Common sense is these people should be allowed back into NZ and its the NZ Govt responsibility to make it happen. If we are relying on people with the same mindset to get us out of C19 depression then heaven help us.
As Joseph said that’s exactly what’s happened here.
Joseph is right, there are actually other stories of expats residing in other countries with work Visas who could not be repatriated to the country they live in because they are not considered a citizen of that country.
“Moshin was recruited by the government of New Zealand the two moved to from Derbyshire to Auckland in 2019 on a “work to residence” visa. ”
Derbyshire U.K. ?…… If they are citizens/residents of the U.K. why don’t they just deal with the British consulate and go back there ?… and for those who think it’s so wonderful to be stuck in Fiji sitting on a tropical beach, how is that when your whole life (job, money, bills) is somewhere else.
They have New Zealand Embassy in Fiji. You have go to the Embassy get the damn thing taken care off. How naive you can be, not knowing just a simple procedure and telling that she is working for the GOVERNMENT. This is very very strange