Family separated over Immigration NZ 'instability' concerns

Sunday, 27 August 2017

Steve Razos has visited fiancee Krystel Galos and son Kieran in the Philippines but Galos has been denied a visa to return to New Zealand.

Steve Razos has spent two years 'on a knife-edge', battling to unite his family after immigration officials refused his Filipino fiancee a visa to bring the couple's young son to New Zealand.

Immigration NZ says it is concerned about a 'history of instability' in the couple's relationship but Razos, a Hawke's Bay businessman, says the family simply want to settle down together.

Razos, 45, and fiancee Krystel Galos, 26, met four years ago and previously lived together in New Zealand when she held a work visa.

But since she returned to The Philippines in 2015, INZ has refused her applications to re-enter, saying the couple belatedly admitted they separated that year, with Galos remaining on her own here for several months in breach of her visa conditions.

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INZ also said it was concerned about the 'risk of domestic violence' in the relationship and 'potential negative effects' on the couple's 20-month-old son Kieran because of a history of police being called to domestic disputes between the pair when they were last in the country together.

But Razos said the couple were committed to building a life together, and 'family should come first regardless of insignificant incidents in the past'.

Galos was applying for a visitor's permit, not residency, and last week Associate Immigration Minister Scott Simpson told her he would not intervene in INZ's decision to decline the application.

'We are not perfect and, in hindsight, we have made some minor mistakes,' Razos said.

'We were open and honest with our submissions to INZ and the minister's office, but we have been stuffed around by everyone concerned and absolutely nobody has really helped us to achieve what we set out to achieve – to be a family.'

While Galos made domestic violence complaints against Razos to police in 2015, she said the complaints, and the couple's brief break-up, were the result of hormone issues related to her pregnancy.

'Stephen and I are still very much in love with each other, this has not changed since we meet,' she said.

They wanted 'another opportunity and second chance' to build a life together in new Zealand.

'There is no doubt in our minds things are very different now and we will get things right this time.'

In its June decision declining her visitor visa application, INZ said it had considered the best interests of the couple's son and also took into account that Razos could travel to The Philippines to be with Kieran and Galos.

'[B]ased on the evidence we have on hand, the risks identified, and Mr Razos' access to the child's country of residence outweigh the matter of family welfare or separation.'

Razos said the couple had been exasperated by 'constant delays' in processing Galos' applications.

A INZ spokesman said 'process failures' had been identified with Galos' original visitor visa application but a review had found no failures with the final decision.

A spokesman for Simpson said the minister did not to comment on individual immigration cases.