Auckland woman with disability wins years-long immigration battle

Friday, 11 September 2020

Aucklander Juliana Carvalho has spent eight years fighting for residency. Now, she finally has it (video first published in September 2020).

A disabled Auckland woman who has spent eight years fighting to obtain residency in New Zealand says finally receiving it is a partial victory.

Now, she is focusing on trying to change an immigration policy she believes is discriminatory to those with health issues.

Juliana Carvalho, a paraplegic with the auto-immune disease lupus, first came to New Zealand in 2012 to visit family.

Juliana Carvalho has finally won an almost eight-year fight for residency.

She fell in love with the country and returned later the same year on a student visa, getting a job at the Health and Disability Commission.

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The now 38-year-old, who lives in east Auckland, continued trying to apply for work visas and in 2014, applied for residency under the skilled migrant category.

Over the years, Carvalho has had two attempts at obtaining residency denied because of her disability.

Immigration policy states people with a condition likely to cost the health system more than $41,000 will not be granted a visa.

After exhausting all efforts, Carvalho wrote to former immigration minister Iain Lees-Galloway, pleading her case.

As she is also on immunosuppressant drugs, Carvalho said being sent back to Brazil – where coronavirus is rife – would be a death sentence for her.

In July, Carvalho learned the former minister had granted her visa. A letter confirming it said the decision was an exception to the rules and her health would not be assessed as part of her residency application.

Speaking after her visa finally came through this week, Carvalho said she was feeling relieved, saying: “I can carry on with my life now.”

But she said her victory is a partial one.

Juliana Carvalho says she wants to change the immigration policy, which sees potential migrants with high health needs screened out.

“It’s just an exception to the rule. My goal is to keep collecting signatures to ultimately change the policy. It's not just about me.”

Carvalho’s health battle began when she started to feel unwell aged 19.

A week later, she walked into hospital for checks – 48 hours on, she was paralysed.

Doctors discovered she had lupus, which had caused a massive inflammation of her spinal cord.

“I can’t move or feel or walk,” she said.

During her fight for residency, Carvalho started an online petition with the goal to “end discrimination”. It has more than 34,000 signatures.

Siân Roguski, the immigration policy manager for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, said immigration decision-making is “inherently discriminatory as it involves differing treatment of individuals based on personal characteristics”.

Potential migrants need to meet an “acceptable standard of health” so they don’t impose “significant costs or demands” on New Zealand’s publicly funded health system, Roguski said.

The threshold of $41,000 means only migrants likely to impose “the most significant cost” to the system are affected, and those with minor or routine medical conditions aren’t impacted, she said.

“MBIE considers these settings are appropriate under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities because of the need to manage costs to and demand on the public health system.

“In some cases the overriding issue of concern may not be the cost of services required or the ability of an applicant to undertake the purposes of their visa, but the need for services and resources which are already currently under pressure.”

Carvalho is currently writing a book about her experience, titled Unlawful.

An autobiography she has written – In my chair or in yours? – is available here.