A Tongan family who have been unlawfully in New Zealand for about 20 years have escaped deportation.
Vaea Tangitau Veatupu arrived in New Zealand in November 2002.
His wife Seini Veatupu was already here before him since August 1997.
They have four children and the eldest held New Zealand citizenship while the couple and their three other children overstayed their visa.
The family attempted through various immigration consultancies to get the Immigration Minister approved their permanent resident visa application but to no avail.
They finally approached Koli Vanisi of Pacific Immigration Consultancy before the Immigration Minister decided to approve their applications.
Vaea said they were extremely relieved by the approval of their residence visas.
In approving their applications, the Minister wrote to Vanisi and said: “I have carefully considered your representations. I have decided to grant resident visa to Mr and Ms Veatupu and their children, Douglas, Margaret and Sharon under section 61 of the Immigration Act 2009, subject to them meeting health and character requirement for resident.
“Mr Veatupu should submit a residence application to Immigration New Zealand (INZ) within three months of the date of this letter. A copy of this letter must be included with the request Medical and police certificates must be provided”.
