Around 450 Individuals Will Be Reunited With Their Immigrant Worker Family Members In New Zealand

When the pandemic started to cause chaos all around the globe, one of the very first things that countries did was to place lockdowns and ban all non-essential travel. The reason behind this was that the novel coronavirus that causes the disease known as COVID-19 is actually spread via person-to-person contact. So staying indoors was definitely the best thing to do to avoid getting the virus. New Zealand is one of the top countries that rushed to make sure that the disease does not spread in its territory.

 

Because of this, many people were stranded wherever they were. With the lockdowns placed immediately, not many were able to plan well. In New Zealand alone, many immigrant workers had to deal with not being able to go home to their families. There were also people outside the country who were unable to go back home to New Zealand because of the new rules. However, with the tides turning and New Zealand’s great response and handling of the situation, it is now slowly opening up its borders and has strict health protocols in place.

 

Reuniting families

 

One of the recent plans that officials of New Zealand has currently announced is that it is now starting to help families of immigrant workers be reunited. The officials have stated that they are estimating that the first batch would be around 450 individuals who are the children and partners of immigrant workers in New Zealand. They would be the very first to be reunited in the country.

 

Though the borders are still closed, there are now exceptions, as stated by Kris Faafoi, the Immigration Minister of the country. The aim behind this is so that critical immigrant workers would not have to long for their families since they can be reunited in New Zealand. This new rule would be taking effect by April 30th. This would be when Immigration NZ, the official agency of the country that deals with immigration and such, would go back to working on processing any visa applications that were sent in by family members of critical immigrant workers in the country. They would also be processing visa applications of family members of skilled immigrants and visa holders who are temporary immigrants.

 

A long way to go still

 

Faafoi did not really disclose the exact number of how many immigrants in New Zealand are still separated from their families because of this pandemic but he mentioned that the number is still in the thousands. The country still has a long way to go with its aim of bringing families together in the country but this is definitely a great start already. It would also mean that immigrant workers would not have to worry about their families back home and can focus better on the jobs that they hold in NZ.

 

 

 

Best programs on moving to New Zealand are available right here at Global Visa Support: http://globalvisasupport.com/nz.html.

 

Guaranteed to help you move successfully to NZ, Global Visa Support has a team of experts to help you do just that: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/contacts.html.