Migrants avoid getting vital health support for fear of jeopardising residency applications

Wednesday, 29 September 2021

Immigration officials have told a migrant mother not to ask for mental health support as it would affect her family's visa application.

Cathy Le Gourvenec was in tears, pleading with an immigration staffer at the end of the phone line to allow her to be reunited with the father of her two young daughters.

Eleonore, 9, and Lucie, 3, had not hugged their dad for 10 months. Yannic Le Gourvenec had left for work in Qatar in early 2020, thinking he would come back every six weeks to be with his family.

But the pandemic hit and the country shut its borders to people on temporary visas.

Cathy Le Gourvenec was crumbling under the pressure of her physiotherapy studies, a work placement and solo parenting her daughters who cried every day for their dad.

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Cathy Le Gourvenec and daughters Eleonore and Lucie were separated from their dad Yannic for 551 days after the borders closed in March last year.

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But the Immigration NZ staff member showed no sympathy.

Lucie Le Gourvenec was in tears every day because she wanted to hug her dad and did not understand why he was not allowed to come home.

He simply advised Cathy against seeking mental health support for herself and her daughters as it could jeopardise the family's residency application, Le Gourvenec said.

Two years of Covid-19, lockdowns, visa delays and being separated from loved ones overseas have sparked numerous conversations on social media between migrants who are battling to cope with the increasing pressures of living in an unfamiliar country during a global pandemic.

Many are too afraid to reach out for any kind of health support because it would negatively impact their residency application.

A post in a migrants’ Facebook group on the topic garnered hundreds of responses.

One woman said she had suffered terrible gallstones, feeling like her “tummy was on fire”. She did not go to the doctor because she thought she would be declined residency as a result and just relied on over-the-counter medication for months to cope with the pain.

Another person was putting off a doctor visit for fear of getting a cancer diagnosis.

Many believed, and some had even been told by immigration experts, that immigration staff had access to their health records, which is not the case.

Immigration NZ visa and border operations general manager Nicola Hogg said staff only had access to the information applicants submitted as part of their medical examination.

People applying for a visa or residency “must have an acceptable standard of health so as not to impose undue costs or demands on New Zealand’s public health system”.

Quynh McLeay's family back in Vietnam attended her wedding in New Zealand via Zoom.

Applicants must provide information about their medical history, undergo a physical examination, blood and urine tests, and a chest X-ray. “There is not a threshold or list of conditions or medications that would exclude an applicant for temporary entry visas,” Hogg said.

However, for residency applications there is a list of conditions that are deemed to impose significant costs to the health system.

Any applicants with a condition likely to require health services costing more than $41,000 would not be seen as having “an acceptable standard of health”. Medical waivers could be granted in some cases, Hogg said.

Catherine and Yannic Le Gourvenec and their daughters Eleonore, 9, and Lucie, 3, are calling it quits on New Zealand after five years over the emotional stress they say Immigration NZ has caused them.

Immigration NZ would never discourage people from seeking out appropriate care and support, she said.

But migrants’ fears of being penalised for any physical or mental health ailments remain.

Quynh McLeay moved to New Zealand from Vietnam in 2017 to study. She met a local during her last semester at university and they decided to get married in July 2020.

National Party MP and immigration spokeswoman Erica Stanford says Immigration NZ is a shambles.

The borders shut in March, shattering McLeay’s hopes to have her family by her side for the wedding. They attended via Zoom.

McLeay has had a hard time saving for a new house with her husband, finding a job and dealing with racist comments, all without the close support of her family back in Vietnam.

She wanted to reach out to a doctor for mental health support, including medication, but did not do so for fear it would compromise her residency application.

McLeay remained on edge until she obtained her residency earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Yannic Le Gourvenec was finally able to hug his wife and daughters in July, after 551 days apart.

The family had to submit multiple visa applications and spend thousands of dollars on an immigration adviser, immigration fees, travelling costs and MIQ (managed isolation and quarantine) to be reunited.

He will have to return to his job overseas in October because the family cannot survive on his wife’s physiotherapist salary alone. He is 24,000th on the current list to obtain a spot in MIQ later this year.

The family is so angry about the arduous process that they are calling it quits and going back to France at the end of the year. This means giving up on their dream to build a permanent home on a piece of land they bought in New Plymouth.

During their five years here, the Le Gourvenecs had to apply for visas 17 times and prove multiple times that they were a real couple.

“The deep contempt and lack of respect we have faced means we do not feel welcome here any more,” they said.

National Party MP and immigration spokeswoman Erica Stanford said an increasing number of migrants were giving up on New Zealand over its “broken immigration system”.

Delays and inconsistencies had caused migrants a “huge amount of anxiety and stress”.

“They live visa to visa, aware they could be made to leave at any moment.”

It was unfair for migrants’ applications to be negatively impacted by the mental health problems caused by Immigration NZ’s failures, she said.

The solution was for the Government to fast-track the residency process for families already in the country and clear the huge backlog of applications, she said.

Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi declined to comment.