New Zealand visa for pregnant tourist

June 09 2009 by Bryan Palmer

New Zealand immigration allows Jurga Skiauteris to stay for pregnancy

NZ visa for Jurga Skiauteris

A heavily pregnant Lithuanian woman has been given a New Zealand visa that will allow her and her family to continue to live in New Zealand until she and her baby are fit to return to Lithuania.

The news follows some controversy surrounding the New Zealand immigration department's statement that if a tourist or immigrant living in New Zealand on a student visa becomes pregnant, they would not be permitted to have their baby in the country.

However, in this latest case, the pregnant woman was granted a visa to remain in the New Zealand to have the baby due to health reasons.

Jurga Skiauteris arrived with her husband and six-year-old son, on a three-month tourist visa in January. She applied for an extention to stay in New Zealand to have her baby because doctors warned that travelling could harm her unborn baby.

This appeal was initially rejected, but later she and her family were granted limited purpose permits to allow them to live in New Zealand until they are able to return home. Her birth costs will be covered, not by the New Zealand tax-payer, but by her own insurance.

Jonathan Coleman, the New Zealand immigration minister says, ''I am pleased that common sense has prevailed and that the woman has now been issued a permit allowing her to stay in New Zealand.''

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