When Immigration and Family Violence Intersect: What Are Your Options?

For people whose immigration status in New Zealand depends on their relationship with a partner, leaving that relationship can feel legally impossible. If your visa was granted on the basis of your partnership, and your partner is also your abuser, the fear of losing your right to be in New Zealand can become a tool of control.

New Zealand law recognises this dynamic. There are immigration provisions specifically designed to protect people in this situation, but they are not well known, they are not straightforward to access, and the window in which they need to be engaged is often urgent.

You do not have to choose between your safety and your immigration status. Legal protections exist, but accessing them requires specialist advice, and timing matters.

How Immigration Status Becomes a Tool of Control

In relationships where one partner holds New Zealand citizenship or permanent residence, or a visa in their own right as a migrant, and the other does not, the sponsoring partner holds significant power. The dependent partner may have been told that if they leave the relationship, they will be deported, that they have no rights in New Zealand without their partner’s support, or that reporting family violence will result in their visa being cancelled.

These threats are frequently exaggerated or false. But even where they are not, the law provides protections that can allow a person to leave a violent relationship without automatically losing their immigration status. Knowing what those protections are, and engaging them at the right time, is critical.

The Family Violence Immigration Provisions

New Zealand’s immigration instructions include provisions that specifically address the situation of people whose visa is dependent on a relationship that has involved family violence. These provisions allow a person to apply for a visa in their own right, on the basis of the family violence they have experienced, rather than remaining dependent on the relationship. The provisions apply in a range of visa contexts, including partnership-based work visas and residence applications. They require evidence of family violence, which can include protection orders, convictions and statutory declarations, among other things. INZ will then assess the application with the applicant’s specific vulnerability in mind.

The Family Violence Act 2018 operates alongside these immigration provisions, and its protections are relevant to the immigration process as well.

Safety Planning and Legal Planning Together

For people in this situation, safety planning and legal planning need to happen in parallel. Leaving a violent relationship is a high-risk period, and the steps taken to protect immigration status need to be coordinated with the steps taken to ensure physical safety. This is not a process that should be navigated alone.

Specialist family violence services, such as Women’s Refuge and other community organisations, can assist with safety planning. Immigration lawyers with experience in this area can advise on the visa pathway and ensure that the application is made in a way that protects, rather than jeopardises, the person’s position.

It is also worth understanding that where a person has experienced family violence, INZ has discretion to treat their application with additional sensitivity. Applications should be made with that framework in mind, meaning the way the application is constructed and presented matters, not just the evidence provided.

What If Your Visa Has Already Lapsed or Been Cancelled?

People who have left a violent relationship and find themselves without a valid visa – perhaps because their partner cancelled sponsorship or because they did not know their options in time – are not necessarily without recourse. INZ has discretion to consider requests from those who do not have a valid visa in New Zealand, and where family violence has been a factor, that is a relevant and significant consideration. The position of someone who is unlawfully in New Zealand following family violence is different from that of someone who has overstayed a visa for other reasons. Specialist advice is essential to understand what options remain available and what steps are most likely to result in a stable outcome.

Pooja Sundar has specialist expertise in the intersection of immigration law and family violence. If you are in this situation and need confidential legal advice, get in touch.