Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your attention.

This is from UniJustice, a group of applicants who was directly hurt by the retroactive items of the new immigration bills approved early July this year.

We do not doubt if a new immigration rule is good or necessary for New Zealand, this is an internal business of New Zealand and we fully respect this as a right of an independent nation.

The only thing shock us is the retroactive power of the new bills.

We believe our applications were lodged strictly under the New Zealand Immigration Act of the time and by that act our applications should get a positive result, or we would not even have a try at that time.

We believe our every step and every spend is depend on the requires and directions of the NZIS including both what must been done and where to get them, like medical check, IELTS, NZQA qualification assessment etc.

We believe if there is a rule would apply to us, New Zealand should let us know that BEFORE we trying to follow instead of lead us nowhere and then hurt us later.

We believe if any trend appeared that there would be more immigrants than New Zealand can take, the pass mark and/or rules should be adjusted flexibly and frequently to stop people before they lodge their applications during the post two years.

But now we've gotten a signal.

We've received a message from New Zealand government and Parliament that we are going to be punished, that we are guilty because we trusted the New Zealand law and even tried to follow it, that we are not going to be compensated, that we don't have right to appeal, that we don't have human rights or maybe we were already judged as not being human just because our choice is New Zealand.

It was somehow possible that this message could be a good one for someone or even New Zealand right this moment because the so-called white elephant, the incoming flow of 10 thousand skilled and well educated applicants is over, who cares it was coming under the requires of the Immigration Service? But we don't believe it will be a positive signal to any trade partner of New Zealand, or any New Zealander or ones who intend to be.

If New Zealand is really ready to tell people that no matter how hard you trying to follow the New Zealand current laws and no matter how legal your benefits come under the current laws, you can not feel safe, because New Zealand may and have willing to take it over from your hand at any time via a simply retroactive bill?

We do not believe this but the question exists and we are right here waiting for an answer.

Please tell us how you feel about this issue on the forum at www.UniJustice.net , or write to the Parliament or government.

Thank you very much,

UniJustice Team

Finally a post with some substance in this forum....well I'm off to boost some big air now.

Tell me about it!

WAT DA FUC ! :shock:

Sorry to interrupt you. And thx for your kindness.

Sadam can't kite:
I lodged my immigration applications to NZ strictly under the New Zealand Act of the time in 2002. But unfortunately, my applications was lapsed under new immigration legislation which took effect on 2 July 2003. The retroactive items of the new immigration legislation is unfair to me and the others who have the same experieces as me.
We have been hurt not only physically but also mentally

Sorry to interrupt you. And thx for your kindness. :?

Sadam can't kite:
I lodged my immigration applications to NZ strictly under the New Zealand Act of the time in 2002. But unfortunately, my applications was lapsed under new immigration legislation which took effect on 2 July 2003. The retroactive items of the new immigration legislation is unfair to me and the others who have the same experieces as me.
We have been hurt not only physically but also mentally. :o

Keya Ora

Yes its topic of great substance. Please lodge a formal complaint with the complaints authority. Then when I am off the water having nailed some super high kiteloops I;ll get to it.

Love Aunty Helen

You cant loop Helen, you cant even plane....

Meet you at Shakespear in 20 minutes and we'll see who can put their kite where their mouth is...

I can't find the complaints authority to lodge a formal complaint .

Helen - they're having a laugh. This is clearly not the place to pursue your agenda.

Personally, I don't think you should have an agenda at all - I'm actually with the government on this one - you are right, they do have the right to change their entry criteria whenever they feel like it. What would you prefer - that they date their legislative change from tomorrow so that all the people in the process of applying get in under the old criteria? Have a think about how many people that includes. Have a think about the size of this group as a percentage of the NZ population. What you are suggesting is the equivalent of this: Imagine that everytime the government wants to implement a new rule, they can only apply it to those who are not born yet. Everyone else gets the to live under the rules they were born under until they die. I have lived in this country almost all my life and they have changed the rules on me so many times I can't keep track.

And as for the "government is punishing us" business - you have supplied no evidence of this on your website, and have not mentioned it again. Using emotive language to support baseless claims is not the way to get support for your cause - but then you don't really seem to have one.

I have to go work on my 'punishment' student loan (that I obtained under scheme under a rule change I didn't like)

Good luck to you,

PS, the previous message poster is the chair of the complaints authority. Helen Clark, Winston Peters and Don Brash are all avid kiteboarders. (even if they do tend to ride overpowered)

Changing the the rules afterwards in this case was pretty harsh I reckon. The whole process made it clear that the criteria that would apply was based on the day that the application was made. The criteria changed quite a few times in the last couple of years and this fact always stood up.

If they made smoking in bars illegal - i wouldn't expect to be fined for smoking the day before the ban came in place - if i went to a shop to buy a product - i wouldn't expect that the advertised price had gone up cos - 'they were so popular' - or even to be refused them point blank - despite having previously ordered and paid for them. Yep - they could refuse; however, any reputation for professionalism or honesty would be lost as it has been.

it was going to be one of biggest changes in these peoples lives who chose nz - maybe look at it as if you had a disire your whole life to go somwhere that you thought was a better place to love for your lifestyle (eg the loads of kiwis that crave the london lifestyle - and apply to become uk residents- and for that matter kiwis in ozzy- one or 2 huh) and then had it thrown back in your face "you cant go -the rules have changed! - even though you planned the whole thing and are already in the country (you sold your house back home also, and left your job ) and of course met the criteria"

not a good look I reckon

you sort things out before a situation arises - not afterwards and in this case that would have been real easy if there was any common sense around -and then none of these people would think that New Zealand(the first world country)/the government/immigration/whoever -sucks and many people would not be really pissed off right now.. reputations do get around the world

Thank you for your observation Fiona, I do not advocate riding overpowered although I admit that indeed I have offended in this manner on occassion.

As far as the immigration thing goes, yup its a pretty sucky tactic but then thats what governments do and they've done some doozies here over the past few years...

I don't pretend to know anything about immigration policy to NZ. All I am saying to this woman is I agree she has been hard done by, by a change in the rules, but that this happens all the time, because policy has to adapt to changing circumstances. If she had been approved for immigration and then later told that she was denied (shades of the dawn raids) that would be seriously dodgy. But from the information provided by her, it seems that her status (along with everyone elses) has gone from likely to unlikely - that is people who used to come in under 'general skills' now have to get someone to sponsor them with a job before they get here or apply.

Yes it's bad news if you want to come and live here, it makes it harder to get in. But that's what the government has decided on. To all those people who are slagging me off for being hard hearted, maybe they should direct their attention to the fact that New Zealand only takes enough refugees to scrape under the UN mantle - this really is pretty outrageous. They get jobs too - but after seeing their families blown up.

And I am sticking to my guns about the way helen's message is presented. It still pisses me off. Until I require someone to tell me how to think about about an issue, she can leave the spin at home.

That's all I have to say about that. I'm going out kiteboarding. Y'all should try it sometime.