Breach of Student Visa Work Rights: A Case Study by IANZ

Bikash came to New Zealand on a First Time Student Visa from offshore (Nepal) to pursue a Hospitality Management course. However, when he applied for a further visa, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) declined his application on the reasons for unsatisfactory academic progress.

INZ was not satisfied with his academic progress during his study, which was corroborated by poor academic scores and low attendance. This was despite being given ample opportunities to re-sit and improve his scores. Although Bikash submitted the reasons for his unsatisfactory academic progress to immigration, the case officer remained unsatisfied. The decline letter’s noteworthy aspect was that the assessing officer did not provide a reason for their dissatisfaction.

After the decline, Bikash was extremely stressed, anxious, and seemed fearful of his future in New Zealand.

Vandana Rai and her team examined the decline letter in detail and identified that the visa officer had not provided the rationale for his dissatisfaction. Bikash was then explained of this technical flaw in the decline letter, which pointed to a procedural failure in the INZ visa officer’s assessment process.

Bikash was then requested to provide documentary evidence to counter it. We gave time to Bikash and dug deep into his everyday routine. We obtained information about his painstaking efforts for each subject and the reason for his low attendance and thereby enumerated a list of possible evidence, which could be provided by him to confirm that he indeed worked hard to clear each subject.

His specific efforts to clear each subject were demonstrated to INZ visa officer with admissible pieces of evidence. Moreover, when Vandana Rai and her team scrutinised Bikash’s bank statement, they found multiple transactions that could be picked up by the visa officer and an explanation asked around the source of funds. There were many deposits from unknown sources. Vandana Rai and her team did a lot of hard work to extract each potential issue that could raise an alert and alleviated it with conclusive supporting evidence. All the complexities around sources of his funds were reconciled with the support of expert advocacy and provision of admissible evidence to remove any potential doubt.

After a detailed exercise vis-à-vis identifying and gathering evidence, scrutinising it, and preparing our cover letter explaining each evidence’s relevance to INZ pointwise, we submitted the reconsideration request.

INZ approved Bikash’s reconsideration request, and Bikash got a well-deserved second chance. Vandana Rai and team at Immigration Advisers New Zealand wish him all the best for a great future.

Disclaimer: Names of the client has been changed to protect their privacy.