My name is Qi, I welcomed a little daughter with my husband this year in February. To make my first-time mum's journey easier, my parents came over to help me look after her pre-COVID19, we have had a wonderful time together. Now I am worried every time I read about the second wave of COVID19 in the rest of the world, and the fact that their visa is expiring at the end of September. In being forced to return home during these trying times, the burden of extremely expensive flight tickets and isolation costs will be theirs to bear. They will have to make two international stop-overs, each stop-over requires 14 days of isolation by the local government, not to mention, each stop-over will put them at increasing risk of getting infected. A happy family gathering in New Zealand is becoming an unaffordable and risky experience for them. Unfortunately, Qi’s experience is not unique, there are tens of thousands of people on temporary visas expiring in 25/09/2020 in New Zealand. Every single one of them is facing unbearable costs to go home due to limited flight tickets, and facing great risk of getting infected during the trip, or upon return to their home countries. People who came to New Zealand to visit family or on holiday should not be punished for something that is beyond their control, instead, they should have the option to leave in a safer and more affordable way. There are numerous benefits for providing a visa extension: 1. Continuing the protection of individuals who have had safe harbor in NZ, rather than condemning them to face great health risk. 2. Prevention of potential further spread of virus internationally. 3. Their expenditure in New Zealand will help stimulate NZ’s economy. 4. Offload the pressure from the airports and flight capacity, in the coming rush for people forced to leave in numbers that cannot be supported. 5. Prevent the risk of many individuals being forced into a situation where they breach their visas as “overstayers” when they have no control over how soon they can leave. Everyone deserves to be safe and avoid unnecessary trips during this pandemic. This is why I am calling attention from New Zealand immigration to consider extending temporary visas for an additional 6 months. Please sign and share this petition to generate awareness for people in this situation. During crisis, we unite together.
