Migrant entrepreneurs who set up businesses here hoping for residency are about to be kicked out due to a minor change they were never told about.

Migrants who uprooted their lives and families to set up businesses in New Zealand are about to be kicked out, despite investing hundreds of thousands of dollars here.

Three migrants' residency applications were denied by Immigration New Zealand because they did not meet a provision added to the approval process by the former National government. 

In late 2013, long-term business visas (LTBV) were abolished. Many migrants used LTBV visas to relocate to New Zealand in the hope of being granted residency under its entrepreneur category.   

Migrant entrepreneurs from left, Magreet and Jan Kruit, Frederick and Maria Lundqvist, and Xi Chen are all about to be kicked out of New Zealand despite bringing money into the country.

Under the LTBV, migrants had to have a business plan approved by Immigration before they relocated. To be granted residency they had to operate that business profitably within two years. The migrants denied residency all met that target. 
 
In March 2014, the then-government replaced LTBV with an entrepreneur work visa. The change required LTBV holders wanting residency to prove they had met sales forecasted in their approved business plan, as well as post a profit.

Migrant entrepreneur Xi Chen has been separated from her daughter in her fight for New Zealand residency for her and her son.

The LTBV migrants denied residency were never notified of that change. 

Jan Kruit  was granted a LTBV in 2013. He and his wife Margreet  sold their home in the Netherlands and sent all of their belongings here to start a lawnmowing business. They left their adopted son behind. 

After posting a $103,000 profit in 2015 they both applied for residency. Their applications were denied. 
Aged 70, they will be deported when their temporary work visas run out in September.

Margreet said she felt "cheated" by the New Zealand Government. 

"All the problems in Europe, with the bombs, it is scaring me. My life is here and not in the Netherlands anymore. Please do not send us back. All my money is here, our investment is here, my life is here and my friends. My heart is here." 

The Kruits were not alone. 

\Xi Chen, called Susan by her Kiwi friends, migrated here from China with her two children, then aged five and 10. 

Her export business turned a $300,000 profit in its first year and another $400,000 in its second year.

Chen's elder daughter returned to China because she could not handle the workload of running a business and parenting two children simultaneously.

"It is very hard for me and her, I do not want to separate from her but I have no choice."

Immigration denied her applications for residency for her and her now 10-year-old son, saying her business was an illegitimate exporter. 

"[Immigration] makes me feel like, 'I just want your money but I do not want you'. After you invest money here, you can go away." 

She had been granted a temporary visa in the interim but under its conditions if she left New Zealand to visit her daughter, she could not re-enter.

"At the beginning I think this is a very fair country. But, now I think it is unfair. Every morning I wake up, I just feel helpless."

Swedish business owner Maria Lundqvist was shocked to meet migrants in the same situation.

She gained a LTBV to bring her education business to New Zealand. Her family sold everything they owned and migrated here.

She, too,' posted a profit within two years but was denied residency because she did not meet the sales target provision National introduced. Her and her husbands visas expire in August.

Had she known they would not be granted residency, they would not have migrated here, she said. 

Immigration adviser Tuariki Delamere said the added requirement was an "immoral" "escape clause". 

He compared it to human trafficking. "It encouraged people to migrate to New Zealand under false pretences.

"[These migrants] kept their side of the bargain. They honoured and complied with what the Government required of them. However, the previous government did not keep their side of the bargain."

As former immigration minister in 1999, Delamere introduced the LTBV visa.

Migrants granted LTBV visas prior to the sales provision addition in 2014, should not be subject to it, he said. 

In an email sent to Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway and Commerce Minister Kris Faafoi on Monday night, Delamere requested the migrants' residency applications be reassessed.

Lees-Galloway would not say whether the migrants' residence would be reconsidered, or if the sales provision would be altered to not include LTBV migrants.

However, he promised the Government "will take action". Concerns over the entrepreneur work visa had been raised, he said. 

"This is but one example of the mess in immigration left by the previous government that we're determined to put right."

Former immigration minister Michael Woodhouse said the National-led government "recognised the value of migrants".

He said he did not have the details to comment on the LTBV migrants' situation.

(Source: Stuff, Madeison Reidy)

CommentsTNC: Continuously shifting the goal posts for immigrants already in New Zealand is just unfair! Whatever has been advised to INZ in the past appears to have been ignored and or left without any action. In this way New Zealand Immigration shoots itself continuously in the foot. Long term thinking AND long term planning from the Government is required, and not short term to obtain the populist votes!