Widow of drowned man to be granted a two-year work visa on instruction from Minister
Thursday, 2 August 2018
Tanvi Bhavsar knows her late husband would be delighted with the reprieve she has been offered by Associate Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi.
On Wednesday the 27-year-old Indian woman was told she could apply for a two-year visa after an appeal made on humanitarian grounds on her behalf by her local MPs.
Bhavsar's husband Hemin Limbachiya, 26, drowned at Waimarama beach, in Hawke's Bay on January 14, just weeks after the pair's wedding in India.
In the moments before he drowned, he tried desperately to keep Bhavsar afloat, before telling rescuers to save her before himself.
**READ MORE:
* Widow refused residency after husband's drowning now faces cultural persecution
* Family of drowning victim plead for body to be returned to India
* 'I was at the point where I was going to let go and fall to the bottom of the ocean'**
Limbachiya had been the couple's principal applicant for residency under the Skilled Migrant Category. His death meant the application was refused and spelled the end of Bhavsar's work visa and future in New Zealand.
Bhavsar said officials had failed to understand her tragic circumstances and how widows were treated in India.
Her cause was taken up by Tukituki (National) MP Lawrence Yule and Napier (Labour) MP Stuart Nash after she made an unsuccessful appeal to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal.
The tribunal said it had no jurisdiction, so the MPs asked Faafoi to consider reviewing the decision on humanitarian grounds.
They told Faafoi that Limbachiya's death was an 'exceptional circumstance completely out of her control' and if she returned to India she would face 'a difficult life of isolation, deprivation and exclusion from society as a widow'.
'In Indian culture the widow of a man who has died tragically is viewed as bad luck, and thus shunned by her community and society in general,' the MPs told Faafoi.
On Wednesday Faafoi wrote to the MPs to say he had decided to grant Bhavsar a two-year open work visa 'as an exception to instructions, subject to her meeting health and character requirements'.
He said Bhavsar should apply for the visa from Immigration NZ within three months from Wednesday and that INZ may take any investigations it deemed necessary to ensure requirements were met.
The couple, who had a civil wedding in Wellington in 2016, had been living here on work visas for about two years – Limbachiya the principal applicant, and Bhavsar on a partnership visa.
While Limbachiya satisfied the resident visa points requirements under the Skilled Migrant category through an accountancy job, Bhavsar's retail job in Napier did not.
A Media Design School graduate, she had been unable to find animation work during their time in Napier.
She told Stuff she was very happy with the decision, and knew Limbachiya would be too.
'That is something I am very sure about,' she said.
'I am really grateful to Lawrence Yule and Stuart Nash. I can't thank them enough. They helped me a lot,' she said.
Bhavsar said the life of a widow in India was very difficult and the MPs were very receptive and understanding of this.
She said she would now go about finding a job.
'The problem is that in my field is that it's very hard to find a permanent job. It's usually on a contractual basis. So that will be tough,' Bhavsar said