With no Vande Bharat Mission and Air NZ flights scheduled as of now, Kiwis – citizens and PRs – stuck in India are looking towards their Government to give them a time-frame by which they will be allowed to board a charter flight and come back home. We highlight their plight.

Anu Varghese

Anu Varghese married Dr John in May 2019. After Dr John applied for his visa last year, the couple was looking forward to starting their lives together soon. After a rejection of his visa in October 2019, Dr John finally received his visa in February 2020, after providing 60 plus supporting documents to prove the genuineness and stability of the relationship.

In an ideal world, that would be the end of Anu’s plight, but that was not the situation in a COVID-19 world. By the time, Dr John could wrap up his life in India and arrive in New Zealand, the borders of both the countries closed down. Being a principal at a reputed boarding school in India, Dr John had few responsibilities before he could apply for a leave without pay and come to New Zealand on a visitor visa. As the couple had faced an ordeal to obtain the visa, they weren’t sure if the work visa, when eligible, would work out smoothly.

As destiny had its plans, Dr John got stuck in Kerala where he went to store their belongings at Anu’s house. Anu very candidly mentioned, “For the last 5-6 years I haven’t been in the best of health. But it had been improving since the last year. But with the stress of my husband not being able to join me here and New Zealand Immigration changing its partnership policies now and then, my health has deteriorated massively. I have been off work since lockdown in New Zealand got over.”

The couple who is in their 40s, want to get together soon so that they can start their family soon. With no signal from immigration and no clear answer on the timeframes, Anu and Dr John are losing hope with every passing day.

Dr John lost his job in India as he couldn’t go back to Nashik, Maharashtra to the school where he was a principal. Both the partners are at their wit’s end and feel that if Immigration NZ gave them a timeframe and a solution, they can hang on to that hope and be each other’s hope.

Right now, they are being pushed to think that Anu, for whom New Zealand has been home for 19 years, might have to leave the country forever to go to India to be with her husband.

Arwinder Singh

Arwinder Singh came to New Zealand as a student in 2010. He is a permanent resident and is looking forward to becoming a citizen in 2021. Arwinder has a business in Putaruru and has worked as a manager at a supermarket.

Arwinder left his job before going to India in March 2020, to bring his wife who received her visa in January 2020. He got married last year. His plan was to settle down in Auckland upon their return and look at finding a job at a supermarket again as he has rich experience in the field.

As Alwinder’s wife couldn’t travel before April 30, 2020 as specified in her visa due to the lockdown and alert level 3 in New Zealand, the permit to enter New Zealand expired. They have to re-apply for a visa for her wife to travel to New Zealand. As the COVID-19 situation hasn’t improved much in India, Alwinder is anxious to come back and start his life in New Zealand with his wife.

Dhananjay Kumar

Every story is unique. Dhananjay, a citizen of New Zealand, had lived in New Zealand from 1998-2007. His son, Ruchir was born in Wellington. Due to a situation in the family, he had to return to India. In 2019, Dhananjay decided to come back to New Zealand. After finalizing a house in Wellington, where he lived earlier also, Dhananjay went to India to bring his wife and son in February. He had tickets booked for March 22, the day India suspended all its flights and closed down borders.

A dejected Dhananjay mentioned, “I haven’t stayed a night in the house to which we were supposed to move in and now a, paying rent and utility bills month after month.” Dhananjay who has earlier worked as a Prison Officer in New Zealand was hopeful that soon after he moves to Wellington, he will find a job, and thus, he left his job in India. That leaves Dhananjay without a job and in lockdown in India.

“Ruchir was scheduled to start his NCEA Year 1 this year. The school had to remove his name from their list of students but have promised that Ruchir can join when he is back in Wellington. “The 16-year-old has been positive and has been studying 5-6 hours every day to stay ahead of New Zealand’s study curriculum,” said a proud father.

Rohit Sharma

Rohit has been living in New Zealand since 2013. He arrived in New Zealand as a student and soon after, he started working here. Rohit is a Permanent Resident of New Zealand and has been looking forward to obtaining citizenship in 2021. He has a business based in Wellington. Rohit went to Pathankot, India on March 6, 2020, for his wedding when the scare of COVID-19 wasn’t at its peak. He tied the knot on March 12, and was to return to New Zealand on March 22- the day when India closed its International borders. The happy occasion turned into an indefinite wait to get back to regular life.

Rohit has been anxiously waiting to get back to his business, that is being taken care of by two of his employees. As his computer repair business falls in the essential services category, the employees were of great support to keep it running in Rohit’s absence. Rohit got to know about a private charter company, which told him about 250 Kiwi citizens and PRs like him waiting to fly back to New Zealand. “Through various social media channels, community contacts, and references, I brought 300 people together to be flown back to New Zealand but the New Zealand Government doesn’t have enough isolation capacity to accommodate the number. Now, we don’t have any definite time-frame for the flights to take us back to New Zealand,” mentioned Rohit.

In completely uncertain times, Rohit is still hopeful that he will be able to get back to the country soon and start his newly married life with his partner.

Vinodh Kumar

Vinodh and his family are stuck in India for the last 5 months. He and his son are Kiwi Residents and his wife has a Permanent Residency. As the child is quite young, they don’t want to take the chance of him travelling. It’s only Vinodh who wants to come back to New Zealand. They had gone to visit India for a family function and had no idea that there will be such a huge turn of events.

Vinodh has emailed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade a few times but hasn’t heard anything from them. After living in New Zealand for 12 years, he thought New Zealand would be kind to them during this time of crisis. They are still hoping for things to change and return safely.

Sara Janvekar

Sara moved to New Zealand in 2014 after getting married to her Kiwi citizen, Sagar Janvekar. Her husband has spent almost 15 years in New Zealand. Sara says, “For us, NZ is our home. I can completely understand and see what NZ has been doing during these unprecedented times, to get stranded families back. But there are few restrictions and delays for many to get back to their homes and reunite with their families.”

Sara’s family is based in Rotorua and have other family members in Auckland. Sara’s son was born in New Zealand and majorly for him and his education, she wants to come back as soon as possible. Sara had gone with her son to India so that he could spend some time with his grandparents and they were scheduled to come back in March after his 5th birthday.

Sagar is currently in NZ waiting for his family to join him back and the parents are mainly stressed and worried about their son. Sara was on maternity break but had planned to start working after she got back from India.

The uncertainty, feeling of being stuck, and not being able to plan anything further is making the family very anxious.

Savitha Rao

Savitha has been a Permanent Resident of New Zealand since 2015 and her child is a citizen. As she had no support during maternity, she moved to India for a brief a couple of years. Savitha’s husband is in Australia due to work and she wants to return to New Zealand now. But destiny had other plans.

Since the time she decided to move to New Zealand, COVID-19 enveloped the whole world, and borders of most of the nations have been closed down. Savitha is waiting with her child to take the flight back to New Zealand where she can restart her life. Being a PR, Savitha is hopeful that sooner or later, flights will start and she’ll be back.

Sonia Sharma

Sonia Sharma with her husband and daughter went to Ludhiana, India for a family vacation. Not in the least did Sonia think that the vacation will make her run out of money. March 5, Sonia reached India and was scheduled to be back after a good long break of 5-6 weeks. We all know what happened during that time.

Sonia and her husband have been Permanent Residents of New Zealand since 2016. She lost her job of being a Beauty Therapist at a salon in Auckland after being given a month’s notice. She got only two cycles of her wage subsidy as her employer said the business wasn’t doing well. Sonia’s husband also has been notified by the authorities that his last working day would be August 9.

As everyone is vulnerable in such situations, Sonia and family took flight consultants suggestions and booked flights for June 1, 2020, after being told that they would be able to travel. They lost a lot of money as neither of the borders opened. “With funds already depleting and savings been used, this only added agony to our pain,” said an extremely anxious Sonia.

The mercy flights that ran between the countries were too expensive for the family to travel. All their monthly instalments and bills in New Zealand have to pay from time to time and also, they have to sustain their stay back in India. Sonia is aggressively looking for a light at the end of the tunnel and that New Zealand High Commission (NZHC) will soon have some good news for them.

-Reporting by Shivangi Bose, an independent writer based in Auckland.

The double-page-spread that appeared in this week’s issue of The Indian News at pages 12 and 13.