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Heartbroken Hungarians given 42 days to leave NZ

Bess Manson

After one day there were 11,000 signatures on the petition.

By yesterday afternoon, the tidal wave of support for Ivett Kerekes and her family in their bid to remain in New Zealand had swelled to more than 35,000.

Kerekes along with her husband, Andras Laszlo, and their three sons can’t quite believe the outpouring of love and support that followed the news their application for residency had been rejected by Immigration New Zealand.

It took six years and several caseworkers to get to this point, says Kerekes, who came from Hungary on an entrepreneurial residence visa with her family in April 2017.

The rejection came in the form of an email on November 28.

Immigration NZ says Kerekes and her family did not meet all business requirements of the entrepreneur residence visa.

The case has drawn parallels with French-born cafe owner Julien Debord, who gave up trying to run his Napier business after 18 months of trying to convince officials that his family were worthy residents.

For Kerekes, speaking through tears at the family’s catering and event business, Anzil, in Paraparaumu on the Kāpiti Coast, the decision took her breath away.

‘‘I thought it must have been sent to the wrong person. I had to get someone else to come and read it to make sure I was not mistaken.

‘‘When my 7-year-old son said to me, ‘Mum, do you think these people think we are not good enough – is that why we have to go?’ I told him maybe they did not look at our paperwork well enough. Maybe they do not know us well enough.

‘‘I think we are just a piece of paper in front of them.’’

‘Catastrophic’ for sons

It has been a long road for the family, who arrived in April 2017 from the city of Kecskemét, south of Hungary’s capital, Budapest.

Their initial plan was to export cheese and meat to the European market, but this was thwarted when New Zealand’s open trade policy with China started a few months after they arrived.

They adapted their business plan by opening Anzil, a Hungarian restaurant, in 2018 and a successful catering business, PartyPerfect, the following year. Locals know them also from their

stall selling dried meats at markets in the Kāpiti area.

After three years completing the business plan, they embarked on their application for residency.

‘‘We had at least seven officers over six years always with the same set of questions. We kept repeating the same answers,’’ Kerekes says.

She says it was endlessly frustrating because they felt they were continually starting at the beginning. ‘‘A successful business has to be flexible enough to make changes. They [Immigration NZ] can’t be flexible; they can’t consider any changes. This is a very badly constructed visa.’’

The process had been ‘‘catastrophic’’ mentally and emotionally for her two older sons, Andor, 25, and Szilard, 23, who are unable to work for a wage, or study past secondary school unless they enrolled as international students at exorbitant costs, she says.

‘‘There’s nothing we can do. We can’t ask help from anybody because who’s going to listen to me? I just want [Immigration NZ] to listen to me and consider the situation we are in.

‘‘Just give them the student visa. Give them something, so they can live and not hibernate.’’

Szilard says he and his older brother help at the family business, but they can’t earn a wage.

He has plans for his life but feels he can’t act on them.

‘‘I want to study building science, but I can’t afford to be an international student.

‘‘I can’t work for anybody else. I cannot earn a salary. I am in limbo – a prison.

‘‘This is the age when you build up your future, but we have not been given a chance ... But I do have faith in humanity, that common sense will overrule.’’

A successful business

Kerekes says while their export plans have not worked out, they have made a success of their business, paid tax and contributed to their community.

Even when Covid hit, they adapted, making and delivering more than 4000 frozen meals to locals over five weeks of lockdown.

The family have donated their time and food at a number of charitable events.

Kerekes says the family ‘‘activated the volcano’’ when they started the Change.org petition on Tuesday. More than 35,000 people have signed it.

‘‘We know the people who we are serving in the community is not small,’’ she said.

‘‘We know they like us, but we never dared to even imagine the speed and number of people emailing and texting and calling saying, ‘We are there for you’.’’

Among those offering support is Kāpiti Coast mayor Janet Holborow, who says she has asked for their case to be reviewed ‘‘as a matter of urgency’’.

‘‘This family is well known in the community, running a successful restaurant as well as catering large functions.

‘‘Their loss would be keenly felt in the Kāpiti community.’’

Forty-two days to appeal

Nicola Hogg, Immigration NZ’s general manager of border and visa operations, says the family’s cafe is not an exporter, as detailed in their business plan.

‘‘They did not meet the revenue forecasts, capital investment amount, or the points scale which is calculated as part of the assessment.’’

Immigration NZ wrote to the family’s immigration adviser in July, highlighting a number of concerns with the application and offering the opportunity for it to potentially be approved despite not meeting all of the requirements.

‘‘The response INZ received ... did not sufficiently alleviate the concerns that the business did not meet the necessary requirements.’’

Kerekes’ application has been assessed by five case officers, Hogg says. ‘‘People move to different teams or take on new roles. When an immigration officer changes,

the applicant is informed and contacted by the new immigration officer to establish that relationship at the earliest opportunity.’’

The assessment of an application did not start over with each new immigration officer, she says, and there was continuity of management, technical advisers and head of operations across these applications.

The family can appeal to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal within 42 days of notification.

Meanwhile, the business continues to run. With up to 1500 to cater for a week, the family is under the pump. Laszlo swears his beef brisket is the best there is.

Their plea to Immigration NZ is simple – be flexible.

‘‘Let us do what we have set out to do. Let us work here. Let us be part of people’s celebrations with our business,’’ Kerekes says.

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2022-12-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281556589850480

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