Photo: Supplied
An immigration lawyer says authorities need to crack down on unscrupulous 'ghost' agents - not victimise migrants who were defrauded by them.
New Zealander Gorka Zozaya, 52, and his Chinese wife Weili Fu, 46, are leaving for Europe four days after Christmas, to comply with INZ rules.
His 21-year-old son Enzo will stay as he in his second year of a computer science degree at Waikato University.
Photo: Supplied
Fu's second visa application was rejected after INZ discovered her documents were different to the ones submitted by an agent in China, when she first visited New Zealand as a tourist.
The agency refused to give her a character waiver to allow her to stay with her husband, and told RNZ that applicants should be on the lookout for fraudulent agents.
Zozaya, a senior solution architect with a technology company, said his wife had always dreamed of travelling to New Zealand, and made the 'fatal' decision to apply through an agent recommended on Chinese social media site WeChat, sending him her documents and photos.
"And this Chinese agent just said, 'okay, just leave it with me, don't worry about anything, you don't need to do anything else'," said Zozaya. "And In a month's time, this Chinese agent came back to her with an email, saying, yes, we've got your visa and it's all ready to go. So she only received the visa, only the outcome of the application.
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