Technical issues cloud Christmas reunions as the clock ticks down

As the last 12 days until Christmas loom, some families are despairing over visitor visa delays which mean they will not see parents and grandparents until next year.

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) said its staff had been working hard and acknowledged the impact of delays on migrants and whānau.

Read more: Thousands of family visitor visa applications went untouched for months

Raymond and Merencia Cornelissen were due to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary with their three children and seven grandchildren on Friday.

Quinn Cupido with a photo of his grandparents Raymond and Merencia Cornelissen, who helped raise him
Photo: Supplied

The couple have not met their youngest grandchild and are desperate to be there for Christmas, but also for their grandson Quinn Cupido’s 15th birthday on 21 December.

“INZ has indicated there is nothing outstanding on the visa applications for either parent,” said daughter Celeste Cupido.

“The application status still states ‘gathering Information’, despite there having been no requests for information.”

The family went to Aotea Square in Auckland to raise awareness of their plight, decorated T-shirts spelling out how much the children want to see their grandparents, who love in Paarl, a city near Capetown in South Africa.

Caleb Cornelissen and the other children helped decorate their T-shirts, and visited Aotea Square in Auckland, to send the message they want their grandparents to be able to visit this Christmas
Photo: Supplied

“I just want to see my parents, I feel like it’s a basic human right for our family to be together. And especially like this when we’re all here and they’re there,” Celeste Cupido said.

“It feels so wrong.”

It would be the fourth Christmas the children would spend apart from their grandparents.

“It’s very hard, they don’t know what it’s like to have grandparents. The two younger ones can’t remember ever seeing them, only on the screen. And it’s hard for us, my sister had to give birth without my daughter being there.”

About 34,000 visitor visa applications were still waiting to be processed three weeks ago; almost 80,000 had been completed since August.

INZ said it acknowledged some applicants had experienced delays and it had prioritised processing of applications received in August and September.

“Raymond and Merencia Cornelissen’s application was recently identified as having experienced a technical issue that didn’t allow it to progress as expected. This has now been resolved, and their application has been referred to an immigration officer to make a decision.

Raymond and Merencia Cornelissen are waiting on a delayed visa to visit whānau in New Zealand; from left, their grandchildren Sage Cupido, 3, Ethan Cornelissen, 4, Jesse Cupido, 5, Caleb Cornelissen, 11, and Quinn Cupido, 14.
Photo: Supplied

“INZ has been working through very high demand, while our new system beds in and staff, including many newer recruits, have been pivoted from delivering bespoke Covid-19 activities back to processing high volumes of visa applications.

“It’s not been easy to resolve everything quickly, and we acknowledge the real impact it is having on migrants, employers and whānau, as we are working to bring our processing times up to the speed they should expect.”