Overweight South African allowed to stay in New Zealand

Earlier this year a South African chef by the name of Albert Buitenhuis applied to have his work permit renewed for the 6th year in a row. Albert (50) and his wife Marthie (47) had been living and working in New Zealand since 2007 but what he thought would be a simple documentation renewal landed up becoming a 5 month nightmare when his visa application was denied on the basis that he was overweight!

His story gained worldwide publicity with most saying that the NZ authorities should never have approved his visa application in the first instance if his weight was an issue and many others were commenting on the fact that year after year his application was approved with no issues ever being brought up about his weight.

When the Buitenhuis' arrived in New Zealand in 2007 Alberts weighed a whopping 160kg but at the time of his latest renewal application he was down to 126kg. In an interview in July 2013 Albert said that he understood why a government would want to protect it's taxpayers against high healthcare costs but he said that if they did not want him there he he would have liked to have been told this much sooner.

Albert and Marthie followed the appeal process but without a valid working visa the couple have not been working for 5 months which has obviously resulted in no income. They sold some of their possessions in order to pay for their new application but they could no longer stay in the house they rented. Finally their appeal against the decision was successful and they went to Facebook to break the good news to the world. Their application to stay in NZ had been approved and Albert said he was:

“Relieved, excited, grateful, scared. I can’t describe how many emotions can run through your mind simultaneously.” "I'm not sure where we'll start to pick up the pieces because they're all over the place".