An Australian woman says her attempt to get an exemption to the New Zealand travel ban so she could visit her dying mother has left her feeling distraught and disrespected.
The Sydney resident applied for the exemption on humanitarian grounds on 1 April, but it wasn't approved until 16 April by which time her mother had died.
RNZ reporter Robin Martin reports.
The General Manager of Border and Visa Operations, Nicola Hogg, says Immigration New Zealand is unable to comment on the specific circumstances of this case without the woman's details, as well as a privacy waiver which was not provided to RNZ at the request of the woman.
Hogg says, however, that if the situation is as described by the woman, this has been a truly terrible experience for the individual and INZ apologises for that.
She says the woman's request appears to have been lodged on the first day of the border exemptions process being put in place and that may have been a factor in the delay.
In the first week of the exemptions process being in place, INZ received 2,093 requests.
On average, the processing of requests received on April 1 took three working days.
