{"id":374345,"date":"2026-04-11T09:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T09:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/374345\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T09:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T09:22:14","slug":"irishman-wins-fight-for-residence-after-finding-love-with-a-kiwi-woman-who-later-died-of-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/374345\/","title":{"rendered":"Irishman wins fight for residence after finding love with a Kiwi woman who later died of cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the woman was diagnosed with terminal cancer<\/a>, the man stood by her, caring for her through her final days.<\/p>\n

His earlier application for partnership residence<\/a> was also being processed at the time.<\/p>\n

After her death, Immigration New Zealand<\/a> declined his application because it was no longer supported by an \u201celigible New Zealand citizen partner\u201d.<\/p>\n

He appealed to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal against the decision, claiming his circumstances are special and warrant an exception to Immigration\u2018s decision.<\/p>\n

He argued that his life and the dreams he and his partner had remain rooted in New Zealand, and asking him to leave his home and community would be \u201cunfair and unjust\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe and his partner had a genuine and stable relationship that was tested but strengthened by the partner\u2019s illness,\u201d a decision by the tribunal stated, referring to his submissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad it not been for her untimely death, his application would have been approved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love and tragedy<\/p>\n

According to the recent decision, the 35-year-old Irish citizen, whose name has been redacted, moved to New Zealand with a working holiday visa in January 2019.<\/p>\n

He lived in a small community, working in hospitality, and met his partner within a month of arriving. However, the two did not begin a relationship until mid-2021.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Immigration and Protection Tribunal has heard the man’s plea to remain in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

A year later, he moved into his partner\u2019s home and at the end of 2022, she was diagnosed with cancer.<\/p>\n

The decision detailed how she underwent treatment for four months, during which the man was her primary caregiver.<\/p>\n

After she had been declared well, the couple adopted a puppy in February 2023 and travelled overseas, including a visit to Ireland for her to meet the man\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

But in February 2024, the woman\u2019s cancer was detected again.<\/p>\n

The man applied for residence in July of that year. The decision stated that while he was eligible to apply a year earlier, the couple were focused on the woman\u2019s illness at the time.<\/p>\n

After the woman\u2019s cancer returned she had treatment, and, the tribunal was told, the man gave her his full support.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Letters of support] speak to him remaining by her side, attending to her medical needs where possible, and doing what he could to make her comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December 2024, the woman died. Her will left a significant portion of her estate to the man, and her ashes were scattered at a beach special to the couple, according to the decision.<\/p>\n

It said the couple had many plans for their future within their community, and the man remained dedicated to fulfilling those alone, such as opening a coffee shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe appellant and his support network consider his grieving process to be deeply tied to his community which he had shared with his partner,\u201d the decision stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe considers that, other than his parents, he has no connections or ties to anywhere other than to his community in which he has now been living for almost seven years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe says his meaningful adult roots are here, and he cannot comprehend living elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

A strong support network<\/p>\n

Among the many documents the man provided to support his appeal were photos of him with his partner and their dog, almost 30 letters from family and friends attesting to the strength of their relationship and his commitment to his community, and a petition signed by 180 people in support of him staying in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

The letters of support spoke of his \u201cunwavering commitment\u201d to his partner and described them as \u201csoulmates\u201d. Medical professionals detailed the impact of watching the couple go through their medical journey together.<\/p>\n

Letters also expressed concern about the man potentially being removed from his support system while grieving, and how devastating it would be if he could not fulfil his partner\u2019s wishes.<\/p>\n

The man\u2019s appeal also had support from his employer, who described him as being highly valued in his hospitality role and spoke of his volunteer work within the community.<\/p>\n

While the man met the health requirements for residence, the character requirements were brought into question by a conviction he obtained in 2021 for driving under the influence of alcohol.<\/p>\n

The tribunal stated that if the Minister of Immigration granted the man residence, his conviction would make him liable for deportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would be for the appellant to address in due course,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Special circumstances<\/p>\n

However, on his special circumstances appeal, the tribunal was satisfied that the man and his partner were in a genuine and stable relationship, and he \u201cwould likely have obtained residence under the Family (Partnership) category, but for his partner\u2019s untimely death\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe appellant has made New Zealand his home, it being the only country he has settled in since leaving his country of citizenship at the age of 18 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a contributing and highly valued member of his community. His work in hospitality is fundamental to his community, which relies primarily on tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tribunal confirmed that Immigration New Zealand\u2019s decision to decline his initial application was correct, but found his circumstances were special and warranted the Minister of Immigration to consider an exception.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the decision was updated to reflect the outcome of that process.<\/p>\n

It stated that on February 12, the minister decided to grant the man residence as an exception to Immigration\u2019s instructions.<\/p>\n

However, Immigration NZ, which was unable to comment on the individual case, told NZME that Immigration Minister Erica Stanford has delegated the responsibility of considering such referrals to the Associate Minister.<\/p>\n

Tara Shaskey is an assistant editor and reporter for the Open Justice team. She joined NZME in 2022 and has worked as a journalist since 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the woman was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the man stood by her, caring for her through her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,41571,2534,8615,159312,6179,15124,2949,2082,1874,42,195325,194,9933,424,2882,43,1118,32035,1361,40,38,41,39,1299,6202,102,10119,1354,6730,1530,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-374345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-arriving","10":"tag-cancer","11":"tag-come","12":"tag-define","13":"tag-died","14":"tag-fight","15":"tag-finding","16":"tag-for","17":"tag-found","18":"tag-headlines","19":"tag-irishman","20":"tag-kiwi","21":"tag-later","22":"tag-life","23":"tag-love","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-of","26":"tag-residence","27":"tag-that","28":"tag-top-news","29":"tag-top-stories","30":"tag-topnews","31":"tag-topstories","32":"tag-who","33":"tag-wins","34":"tag-with","35":"tag-within","36":"tag-woman","37":"tag-would","38":"tag-years","39":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}