Ankur Sabharwal 15 April 2026
Danny’s relationship was genuine. His evidence was strong. And when Immigration New Zealand declined his residence application, they told him he had the right to appeal. That advice was wrong — and identifying that error was the first step in finding the pathway that actually existed.
In 2022, while living in Australia, Danny applied for a resident visa under the Partnership Category on his own, as Sonia’s partner. Immigration New Zealand (INZ) agreed that their relationship was real, their evidence was strong.
Every requirement of the Partnership Category was met except one – Danny’s character.
What he had done
Between 2017 and 2019, Danny made serious mistakes. He was convicted of drink driving in New Zealand in 2017 and again in 2019.
In July 2019, he was convicted of grievous bodily harm in his home country after an incident at a nightclub. He was intoxicated at the time. He had no memory of what happened.
For that conviction, he received a suspended sentence of two years’ imprisonment. He wasn’t required to serve jail time.
In declining his resident visa application on character grounds, INZ noted that the offences were not quite recent, but they were also not old enough to be considered historic.
Danny was then told by INZ that he could appeal against the decline to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal. At this point, Danny engaged me as his immigration adviser.
I identified that INZ’s advice to Danny was wrong. He did not have the right to appeal.
Because Danny had received a suspended sentence of two years’ imprisonment, he fell under section 15 of the Immigration Act 2009. This section defines people who have been sentenced to imprisonment for 12 months or more in the past 10 years as “excluded persons.”
An excluded person has no right of appeal to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal; in fact, Danny had no right to apply for a New Zealand visa in the first place – something else INZ had overlooked.
I raised this with Danny’s resident visa case officer. She confirmed that he had no appeal rights and agreed with me that I could instead request a special direction from the Minister of Immigration.
Explaining to the Minister why Danny would not reoffend
Every single one of Danny’s offences happened while he was drinking. This was not an excuse – but it was a significant fact.
After committing those offences, in July 2019 Danny was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. His doctor told him clearly that drinking alcohol was dangerous for his health. From that point on, he stopped drinking completely.
The probation conditions in his home country also required him to abstain from alcohol and drugs and to provide urine and hair samples for testing.
A hair sample taken in May 2020 confirmed no alcohol consumption in the five months prior. I recommended hair and urine tests in 2023, both of which came back clean.
His GP in Australia provided a letter confirming the medical advice he had been given, and Danny obtained police certificates showing no criminal convictions since 2019.
A wife waiting to go home
Sonia stood by Danny through all of this. She decided not to return to New Zealand without him. But she missed her parents and her siblings. She worried about her sister, who went through a period of severe depression. Sonia’s family in New Zealand wanted her home.
The outcome
These were the facts and the evidence I placed before the Associate Minister of Immigration.
I’m pleased to say that the Minister’s representative agreed with my representations and approved Danny a special direction.
This meant that, every time Danny applied for a visa, the character requirement would be waived, so long as there were no new offences. This cleared the way for him and his wife to return to New Zealand permanently.
In cases such as this one, where clients are effectively banned from returning to New Zealand for character reasons, the law gives the Minister total discretion to approve a special direction.
Danny didn’t ask the Immigration Minister to forget what he did. He asked the Minister to consider what the evidence actually showed, which was that he had changed, and that the reasons he offended no longer existed. The Minister agreed.
Danny and Sonia returned to New Zealand. Sonia’s family, who had paid my professional fees to act for Danny, were grateful and relieved, and I was happy for all of them.
What if you or a family member has a criminal history?
A criminal history does not always mean New Zealand is permanently closed to you. But it does mean you should understand your options before you decide what to do.
The right pathway depends on the nature of the offending, the sentence imposed, when it happened, and whether any discretion is available under immigration law.
In some cases, people assume they have no options when that is not true. In other cases, they apply under the wrong pathway and create bigger problems for themselves. Sometimes, as happened here, they are given advice by INZ that does not reflect the correct legal pathway.
If you or a family member has a criminal history and you’re unsure whether New Zealand is still an option, we’d encourage you to get in touch before making any assumptions — or any applications. Complex cases are what we do. Contact the Visa Matters team for a confidential consultation.
(Ankur Sabharwal is a Licensed Immigration Adviser and founder of Visa Matters, an Auckland-based immigration advisory firm. He provides immigration commentary on TVNZ Breakfast and has been published by Stuff and The Post.)
Note: Names and dates in this article have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved.
