Appeal to the Minister of Immigration?
There are two different types of appeal that you can make to the Minister of Immigration. The first is called a Section 61 Request, the second is to try to appeal directly for a Ministerial intervention. The difference between the two are that the s61 request sometimes works if you have a good legal basis for it, and the second type almost never works unless there are really strong and worthy circumstances.
Immigration New Zealand make their decisions based on advice from the Minister of Immigration. If people's visas are getting declined much harsher than usual, it is generally because the Minister thinks this is the best direction to take. So to appeal because your visa was declined needs to be based on some material breach of administrative law, not just because you think it is unfair.
Appeals based on s61 of the Act
There is provision to appeal through the proper channels if you are unlawfully in NZ (i.e. your visa has expired) and there is a good legal reason why you should be granetd a visa as an exception. This type of appeal only works if you can strongly prove that there is a reason why you deserve to be granted a visa, and emotional pleas like you see on media articles almost never work. The reasons need to be legally structured and based, and show clearly that you do meet the statutory requirements for the visa you are asking for, that is is fair and just that it be granted and that there were very special circumstances surrounding the reasons why you are now unlawful.
If you currently have a visa, you cannot appeal, you will need to go through the proper processes of application to get a vsia.
If you are in NZ unlawfully, so you now have no visa, then please contact us and we would be glad to help you.
To find out more about s 61 requests, please visit our appeals page here
Appealing to the Minister's good nature directly or through the media?
Recently there has been some cases in the news of families fighting deportation and we also often get people who when their application gets a PPI letter (a letter from the case officer questioning some detail in the application) their impression is a that writing a letter to the minister will help their case.
While writing to the Minister may help in some very special instances, in most cases it has absolutely no effect. When you want to argue that you are right and the immigration officer is wrong, you need to do so from a legal standpoint first. There is a process for appealing to the Minister and you need to have some very special reasons for your case to be considered.
INZ hear so many sad stories of how, "My life will be ruined if I can't stay in NZ", that the chances of them believing yours and changing their minds on a potential decline are very slim without strong evidence and reasons. Many of the cases picked up by the media are of families who are liable for deportation because one of their children are sick or perhaps someone committed a crime or lied on their application, or just simply haven't followed the process seriously enough. However much they beg and plead with INZ or the Minister, it is very unlikely to have any effect.
The application process is all about showing you meet the criteria for the visa you are applying for, and underlying this is showing you meet all the details of the immigration law which defines the criteria. So when you have problems with your application, the only way to address them is to go back to the legal foundation of the problem and show how your situation or documentation fits this.
For example if a client is applying for a work visa and the employer hasn't advertised the position properly, the application will be PPI'd if on shore and probably declined if offshore. The only way to save this application is to provide some clear documentation which shows that advertising was done, or some other very strong evidence that New Zealanders are not available for this work. The response to the PPI must satisfy WK3.10 and WK3.15 that no suitable New Zealanders are available and that the employer has made genuine attempts to recruit New Zealanders first. The whole response needs to be focused around the details of this part of NZ immigration law, a letter to the minister explaining how you really need this employee will not help the situation.
The best way of course is to make an application that already clearly shows you meet all the criteria set out in the law. A strong application will always have a better chance at success than trying to justify why you are right after being given a PPI.