Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion

[arsenelupiga]

making dramas out of nothing

if you really feel nedd to stay in NZ or AUS, here is a little trick:

You will have to enroll as foreign student in some kind of uni. Foreign students get priority treatment so should you. Bit of new hairdressing skills will not harm you.

[Tillsbury]

Student visas are a possibility, but you will have to show that you've paid for and have a place at an approved facility, and that you have sufficient funds to support yourself for the length of the course. It's not a gimme. Neither is it a good plan if you don't actually intend to do the studying part, as you will have the visa removed and have to leave and won't be welcome back.

Foreign students don't get "priority treatment"

[Freedom45]

We feel very welcome here.
There are over 400k visitor visa’s that have been extended to late September.
The cruisers are a very small percentage of that.
There is no way they will be able to process that many extension requests, so another blanket extension is forecast.
As for cruisers, At that time will be bumping into cyclone season, NZ will not make us leave.

[arsenelupiga]

Originally Posted by Tillsbury

Student visas are a possibility, but you will have to show that you've paid for and have a place at an approved facility, and that you have sufficient funds to support yourself for the length of the course. It's not a gimme. Neither is it a good plan if you don't actually intend to do the studying part, as you will have the visa removed and have to leave and won't be welcome back.

Foreign students don't get "priority treatment"

sorry not up to date for NZ but in AUS foreign students are the biggest export sector, more than gold and iron ore combined and treated as such - with priority.

just to keep in mind as plan C.

[Tillsbury]

Originally Posted by Freedom45

We feel very welcome here.
There are over 400k visitor visa’s that have been extended to late September.
The cruisers are a very small percentage of that.
There is no way they will be able to process that many extension requests, so another blanket extension is forecast.
As for cruisers, At that time will be bumping into cyclone season, NZ will not make us leave.

Yes, lots of visas were extended, but thousands are going home every day as they would expect to do before their visas run out. Immigration policy doesn't expect everyone to get to the end of their visa and panic. If you don't have a flight booked to leave before the middle of September you need to have your extension application in by now, otherwise you will be in no position to complain when the day comes (and you know when that is)

Visa extensions were granted during lockdown, when the offices that deal with extensions were shut down. But everything's been running normally for months now and there's no reason why someone who wants to stay after September shouldn't already have their application lodged.

[Montanan]

FYI:

If you were in New Zealand on 2 April and your visa expired before 9 July

Holders of a work, student, visitor, limited or interim visa with an expiry date of 2 April to 9 July 2020 inclusive who were in New Zealand on 2 April 2020 will have had their visas extended to 25 September 2020. This was under the original Epidemic Management Notice. A confirmation of this was emailed to all visa holders.

Visa extensions for visas expiring between 2 April to 9 July
If your visa was extended until 25 September 2020 , you should have received a confirmation email from Immigration New Zealand. We used the most recent email address that you provided to us.

If you did not receive an email it may be because we do not have your current email address. Please check all your email inboxes in case it is there.

You can confirm your visa expiry date by checking the Visa Verification Service on our website.


If your visa expires after 9 July and you are in New Zealand

If you hold a open work visa, student, visitor, limited or interim visa with an expiry date after 9 July, your visa was NOT extended by the Epidemic Management Notice or the change announce on 7 July 2020. Your current visa expiry remains the same. You need to:

leave the country before your visa expires,
make an application for a new visa

ALERT
This includes partners or dependent children who hold a visa based on the relationship with an employer-assisted work visa.

Information on making a new visa application can be found here on this website.
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/abou...e-inz-response


If you are in New Zealand and your visa has expired

If you do not have a current visa or are unable to apply for a visa before your current one expires, you will be unlawful in New Zealand. This includes people whose visa expired before the 1 April 2020.

You cannot apply for another visa in New Zealand while you are unlawful. You can either:

leave the country immediately if possible, or
make a request for a special temporary or resident visa under Section 61 of the Immigration Act.

If you do not leave New Zealand before your visa expires
You are not allowed to stay after your visa expires. Find out how to avoid being unlawfully in New Zealand and what you can do if you are.

When your visa expires
You can find the date your visa expires in your passport or the eVisa letter you received when we granted your visa. You must leave New Zealand on or before this date.

If you stay after your visa expires
You are breaking the law if you stay after your visa expires. You:

cannot work or study, and will have to pay for your health care
may not be able to come back to New Zealand again if you are here without a visa for 42 days or longer
risk being detained or deported.

Your actions can also affect other people. For example, if family members or other people help you to stay in New Zealand they:

commit an offence under the Immigration Act, and
may put their own immigration status at risk.

The longer you stay after your visa expires, the greater the risk you run of being deported and of not being able to return to New Zealand in the future.

Actions you can take after your visa expires
You can:

leave the country immediately, or
make a request for a special temporary or resident visa under Section 61 of the Immigration Act, but only if you believe you have a special case.

Making a Section 61 request
Requests under Section 61 are only granted in some cases. If you have already received a deportation order we cannot grant you a visa under Section 61.

How to make a request
Make your request in writing. Explain your circumstances as fully as possible and provide any appropriate evidence to support your request.

The information you need to provide includes:

your personal details — your name, date of birth and Immigration New Zealand (INZ) client number
your contact details — email address, phone number and postal address
an explanation of why you are still in New Zealand after your visa has expired — for example, tell us why you could not return to your home country or go to another country to apply for a new New Zealand visa
details of your personal circumstances, such as your family or work, that support your reasons for wanting to stay in New Zealand
how staying in New Zealand could contribute to our country, particularly if you would like to stay here for a long time
what type of visa you would like — for example a visitor or study visa — and how long you would like to stay.

Supporting documents
Include a copy of the personal details page in your passport. There are no other documents you must provide. You do not need to send us your original passport.


Visa processing information
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has increased its visa processing capacity as our staff have been able to access immigration offices onshore as New Zealand has moved through lower alert levels. Our offshore offices in Beijing, Manila, Mumbai and the Pacific remain closed.

13 MAY 2020
Pragmatic changes to Immigration Act to respond to COVID-19 passed
Hon Iain Lees-Galloway
Immigration

Parliament has today passed legislation to ensure that the Government can respond quickly, appropriately and efficiently to immigration issues arising from the COVID-19 outbreak.

“The Immigration (COVID-19 Response) Amendment Bill 2020 allows us to amend the Act so we have the necessary flexibility and efficiency to address the unprecedented challenge of managing large numbers of migrants who are practically unable to leave New Zealand due to the COVID-19 pandemic, or who live in New Zealand but are offshore and are facing difficulty returning,” says Minister of Immigration Iain Lees-Galloway.

“I am pleased that submitters on the Bill overwhelmingly supported its policy intent.”

“We have made it clearer that we won’t be revoking visas or suspending onshore applications. Any special direction made under the amended Act will not disadvantage visa holders. Further, we have worked hard to ensure that the Act has the appropriate safeguards in place and that it is fit for purpose,” says Iain Lees-Galloway.

The changes to the Act enable the government to amend visa conditions for groups of people and extend visas for groups of people for varying periods of time, for example so that processing of any subsequent visa applications, should people need or want to stay longer, can be staggered. They will also allow for one or more of the prescribed requirements to apply for a visa to be waived for groups of people, while stopping groups of people overseas from making visa applications when it would not be possible for them to use the visa to travel to New Zealand in any event due to border restrictions. These powers are time-limited and will be available for 12 months.

Notes

The Bill introduces eight time-limited powers (12 months):

to impose, vary or cancel conditions for classes of temporary entry class visa holders
vary or cancel conditions for classes of resident class visa holders
extend the expiry dates of visas for classes of people
grant visas to individuals or classes of people in the absence of an application
waive any regulatory requirements for certain classes of application (that is, waive any prescribed requirements that people need to fulfil to have their application accepted by INZ for assessment).
waive the requirement to obtain a transit visa
suspend the ability to make applications for visas or submit Expressions of Interest in applying for visas by classes of people who are offshore
revoke the entry permission of people who are deemed to have been granted entry permission.
The Epidemic Response Committee received 11 written submissions and 8 oral submissions. Submitters overwhelmingly supported the policy intent of the Bill.

Changes were made to the Bill to address concerns, including strengthening safeguards so that its powers cannot be used to materially disadvantage visa holders (except where conditions may be imposed to require temporary entry class visa holders to comply with health measures), tightening the connection required to COVID-19, and limiting the power to suspend applications so it can only be used to suspend applications from persons offshore.

Currently, [as of mid May], there are [read were]approximately 350,000 temporary visa holders onshore.

Over 200,000 have work visas whose visa conditions may need to be varied as we respond to the effects of COVID-19.
Over 70,000 are student visa holders whose visa conditions may need to be relaxed, to enable them to change their course or work extra hours until education providers are able to reopen.
Over 56,000 are on visitor visas, who may need to have their expiry date extended if flights out of New Zealand continue to be unavailable.
Over 20,000 skilled migrant resident visa holders are onshore (where their residence start date was on or after 27 April 2018).
Between 3 February (when border restrictions started) and 20 April 2020, Immigration New Zealand received over 63,000 offshore applications for temporary visas. Roughly half of those applications were for visitor visas.

[RaymondR]

The solution is fairly simple.

You designate one fairly large, all weather anchorage, inform yachts which need to voyage to NZ to get out of the cyclone zone that they must only enter and anchor in it. Hang a night vision closed circuit TV camera with transmit and record facilities from every tree and lamp post. Inform the crews that if they set one toe off their boat for the quarantine period they'll be accompanied out of national waters by an armed patrol boat. It should not be beyond the imagination of both the yatchties and the Kiwi's to organize resupply without breaking quarantine.

Short of African bushman tribes in the Kalahari desert there's probably no other groups as aware of risks and self sufficient as the ocean crossing cruising sailors.

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by arsenelupiga

sorry not up to date for NZ but in AUS foreign students are the biggest export sector, more than gold and iron ore combined and treated as such - with priority.

just to keep in mind as plan C.

Wow, just wow, where did you get this information from? Would love to see the source.

[Tillsbury]

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

Wow, just wow, where did you get this information from? Would love to see the source.

Those kinds of claims are common in nz too. Not always true, and a lot of the sector is fake institutions claiming to be "English language schools" that are actually just fleecing their fellow countrymen and doing nothing of any benefit to anyone. Better off without it for the most part.

[David B]

Originally Posted by NaClyDog

But I heard cruisers say it's too cold there, it's boring because there is nothing to do and they just need to get out of there. /s

It was good that they left - very good!

[Fore and Aft]

Jim you failed to mention Grotty is often put in front of the word Yachtie. My wife has one of those T-shirts below as a night shirt and often the last thing I fall asleep to is the words "Grotty Yachtie"!
I once went to a boat launching that was "Grotty Yachtie" themed and I am sure a fair few of the people did'nt need to dress down for the occasion.
Raymond R I think you are being very optimistic about offshore sailors being risk aware. I have surveyed plenty of yachts were the skipper and the boat were not up to any sort of standard and yet some how they made it to our shores.
Cheers
https://grottyyachty.com.au/

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by Fore and Aft

Jim you failed to mention Grotty is often put in front of the word Yachtie. My wife has one of those T-shirts below as a night shirt and often the last thing I fall asleep to is the words "Grotty Yachtie"!
I once went to a boat launching that was "Grotty Yachtie" themed and I am sure a fair few of the people did'nt need to dress down for the occasion.
Raymond R I think you are being very optimistic about offshore sailors being risk aware. I have surveyed plenty of yachts were the skipper and the boat were not up to any sort of standard and yet some how they made it to our shores.
Cheers
https://grottyyachty.com.au/

The Thor Hyadahl bloke made it across the Pacific on a few logs tied together with vines which I tend to feel was an exceptional piece of risk evaluation.

The thing about many of those folks who take off across oceans on flimsy craft is that they live almost permanently on the edge of disaster and are consequently much more familiar with risk and consequently better able to assess and manage it.

Standards are for the wealthy, scroungers tend to ignore even their existence.

One of the problems with our modern politicians is that they come from a very narrow range of experiential backgrounds, far to many of them are lawyers or political operatives and they have no real life experience of risk.

I'm throwing out a challenge here.

Does anyone know of a politician in either NZ or Australia who is, or has been, a cruising yachtsman (Yeah OK, or yachtswoman)

[arsenelupiga]

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

Wow, just wow, where did you get this information from? Would love to see the source.

just read MSM. Real estate sections are the best. You will get enlightened.

To be honest, it is probably all about airbnb salvage sitting now empty and potential to cause debt defaults avalanche that will rock the whole establishment.

[Noisykate]

Looks like it may have been sorted?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/422799/yachties-on-visitor-visa-can-apply-for-extension-immigration-says

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by arsenelupiga

just read MSM. Real estate sections are the best. You will get enlightened.

To be honest, it is probably all about airbnb salvage sitting now empty and potential to cause debt defaults avalanche that will rock the whole establishment.

Really, this is your source? Perhaps you should stick to something you know, like how good your cat is and how it surpasses performance cats regularly.