Transcript
Sangeeta Bali swiping through her phone showing me photos of her daughter Shurti.
"She wants to kiss me, she wants to hug me...she knows when we take Selfie. (She likes taking Selfies?) Yeah and she wants to wear new dresses, nice dresses."
This month she and her husband Jay will return to Fiji for the fourth time this year to visit Shurti, a trip they are used to making frequently throughout the year because Shurti has been declined a visitor's visa.
"When I am in Fiji, she will just hold my skirt, pull me. She will never let go, my mum will try and ask her to come, she won't want to come."
Ms Bali initially came to New Zealand in 2010 to study and after graduating and finding employment has been living here eversince.
Her parents took care of Shurti while she studied and over the years applications for visas to bring Shurti to New Zealand were declined.
Ms Bali's mother died suddenly in February and now her father's health is deteriorating, Shurti is currently in the temporary care of a relative in-law.
She says the family is grieving and both her and Shurti now feel hopeless.
"I feel....feel like (whispers) ending my life. I'm so alone. Now I have no support from anyone to look after my daughter."
"She's trying to get used to it but maybe at the same time she must be thinking like 'why is my mum not taking me?' but I'm trying all my best...what I can do?"
In accordance with immigration policy, all visa applicants must have an acceptable standard of health and Shurti has failed to get a medical waiver despite her condition improving over the years.
New regulations introduced last month now prohibit parents from leaving children off initial residence applications and applying on their behalf later.
It further tightens recent restrictions on the Capped Family Residence category which allows for the parents or family members of a New Zealand resident to apply for immigration.
The government recently reduced the cap from 11,000 to 4,000 from 2016-2018 and Pacific Immigration Lawyer Richard Small says the changes are making it progressively difficult for families to be together.
"The family reunion programme which has now been peered back basically to spouse only, partnership and dependent child. That's all that's left. And even those are under pressure. How far will this go? Who knows."
Mr Small says immigration policy is increasingly becoming unfairly balanced.
"There appears to be something of a lack of balance. They have had to choose between an immigration system that is tuned more towards the commercial side of the equation, and the basic existence and values of their families."
Both Mr Small and Ms Bali say no one should be viewed as a low-value citizen.
Last month's changes are aimed at minimising costs on publicly-funded health care and special education services.
Ms Bali says she has appealed to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal stating that they are willing to foot all her daughter's health costs and needs.
"They think that she will be a burden on the New Zealand government, but we support ourselves, we don't depend on the New Zealand government to support us."
"I never went to the government to ask for support. We believe in our hard work and our hard earnings,she said."
Immigration's Operations Support spokesperson, Jock Gilray, says the family's ability to pay for treatment or have care provided outside the public health system can't be considered in the decision-making process.
"The IPT has found that the circumstances of the case did not warrant referral to the Minister of Immigration for the grant of residence as an exception."
"Ms Bali can test her eligibility for a further visa at any stage however given current immigration settings, it is unlikely that a visa would be granted."
Richard Small says the immigration framework has been slowly closing its doors to families trying to pull together.
