Immigration & Marriage – Balwinder Singh & Glyn Kessell (NZ).

Two topics had Twitter exercised latterly last week: Labour’s mooting of a women quota for its MP’s, and whether the below May/December marriage is legitimate, as prescribed - presumably - and decided by state immigration officials:

A couple's age gap of nearly 40 years is being cited as one of the reasons Immigration New Zealand declined an Indian man's visa application - a move he says is "ageist".

Balwinder Singh, 22, met New Zealander Glyn Kessell, 59, at a hair salon in Glenfield last year.

The relationship started with texts, progressed to "intimacy" within three weeks and then marriage two months later.

Mr Singh said he was "madly, passionately in love" with his wife and the relationship had "hit off right from the start".

But officials do not believe the partnership is genuine and stable.

Mr Singh, who came here as an international student, applied for a work visa under the partnership category after his marriage, but this was declined.

If I heard the radio correctly late Friday, 59 year old Glyn Kessell, despite being a New Zealand citizen all her life, and a taxpayer, may have to move to India if she wants to live with Balwinder.

How barbaric: both that Glyn is put into such a position - including this no doubt uncomfortable public exposure - by the officials who supposedly represent her; and that a government official gets to decide the nature of a human relationship. The scuttlebutt around the wedding of Mrs H and I was, at the time, to quote a ‘friend’ I overheard at the pub reception afterward: ‘they might last a month if they’re lucky’. That was twenty two years ago, and I’m still a happy man – (I wouldn’t dare speak for Mrs H). The lesson being we are all so different, no one, not a friend, and certainly not a third party bureaucrat, is in a position to determine the feelings one human has for another, and it’s bloody offensive a government tries to do so. If such divination were possible, there would be no art, certainly no literature, and Mills and Boon could be classified as creative non-fiction.  

So long as Balwinder is prepared to sign a contract he will not live off any state benefit, so he will be no cost to the New Zealand taxpayer, then he is welcome to stay here, and this applies to immigration, period. The only item of possible interest is whether any immigrant poses a security risk, but that is a quite different proposition to the state intrusion and meddling Glyn and Balwinder have had to contend with. Good luck to the both of them. Here’s holding a glass up to their happiness, which is entirely their affair, or at least would be, in a free society.