 Anyway, listen to something else. Question is, is it a pile on or is it dodgy? The story about Ricardo Menendez March's trip to Mexico and back has made headlines this week. Now, Ricardo says he went there to care for his sick parents over the Christmas break and then brought back his Mexican partner who'd just been given a visa. Questions have been asked about whether the trip was an excuse to get his boyfriend back into the country. So Ricardo is still in MIQ. Hi, Ricardo. Kia ora, Heather. How are you? I'm well, thank you. Ricardo, did you fly to Mexico with the intention of picking up your partner? No, I went there in the extremely difficult situation where I had to look after sick parents. And at the same time, I have had many attempts throughout the year and luckily a successful one of putting and getting an expression of interest to apply for a visitor visa for a visa waiver country for my partner of Mexican descent. And he would be able to, because it's a visa waiver country, he'd actually be able to travel to New Zealand without you, right? That's right. And it was a matter of providing sufficient evidence that we have left together prior to the application, which we had. And so this is a change of rule that happened late last year. And in many ways, I do feel a lot of empathy for people from non-visa waiver countries who have very limited routes to be reunited with their partners in the middle of the pandemic. But for people from visa waiver countries like the US, many parts of Europe and Latin America, if you provide sufficient information to immigration, you feel an envy that you have a genuine and stable relationship. It doesn't require you to go and grab your partner in order for them to travel back to New Zealand. Okay. Now, let's just understand a little bit about this. So how did he qualify for a visa? Is it based solely on the fact that he is your partner? Yeah, it is. And so these visas have existed for many, many decades. And the pandemic, though, they were restructured basically to add the term critical purpose, because it's related to family and partnership. And the visas that are being granted at the moment for partners are predominantly visitor visa, which don't give you the right to work in the field. Right. And you spoke before about having to provide evidence of a genuine and stable relationship. Have you lived together before? We had lived together before the pandemic. That's right. And so we provided that's right. Yeah. But you reside in New Zealand? I do. But I mean, throughout my time in New Zealand, I have lived in Mexico when I visited family. And as it is in our culture, in fact, living together in an intergenerational household with your partner, it's a very common thing. And in many ways, I'm really, really lucky that we have had the chance to be in a relationship before the pandemic hit. And it's a shame that the pandemic has meant that obviously our plans to live together have been postponed for so long. Yeah. Look, I'm sorry, because I know this is personal, but there have been questions that have been coming through. I'm sure many media are fielding them about how genuine this relationship could be if you are living in New Zealand, he's living in Mexico and you go over once a year for reasonably short period of time. So I was really lucky that my previous workplace enabled me to visit more than once a year particularly to visit family. So we have had that contact and relationships are complicated in many ways. Of course, the intention for us is not to have a permanent long-distance relationship. I think that's not a workable arrangement in the long-term future. And this is why, like many people, there's the streams of these to apply. And I tell myself incredibly privileged that my partner is from a piece of work, a country that enabled me to do this application. For him to potentially have come separately. And I do feel for people from countries who are from non-disabled countries who are actually left with few options to be reunited with their partners. Would you feel comfortable, Ricardo, telling us how much time in the last few years you two have lived together? Several months. Several months across several years? Yeah. How many years? It's been two years relationship. Two years. Yeah. And how much of that two years have you spent living together? Quite a few. I mean, for the person of my partner, obviously, I'm not going to go into minute details. But I mean, several months and sufficient to provide to Immigration New Zealand that we have obviously been deserving of getting an expression of interest without me actually being in the same country with him. And I think this is the sort of conditions that are being put for visa waiver countries. How many times had he applied beforehand for a visa and been declined? So we attempted to apply for an expression of interest or to obtain one before the rules were changed to enable visa waiver countries. And that was unsuccessful because there was basically a blanket ban. But since the government changed the rules that enabled visa waiver countries, then we were successful. And so it would have been about three different attempts. And then we were successful in our last attempt when the rules have changed. Three no's and then a yes. The yes came after you were an MP. Yes, it did. And that was, I mean... You know what I'm going to ask you, right? And the question is going to be, Ricardo, do you think that it's your status as an MP that changed the answer that you got? No, it was a change of rules. And that was a reality for many couples that were separated that come from visa waiver countries. But actually, until the rules were changed that enabled visa waiver countries to be able to come, there had been no avenues for them to basically apply while they were in different countries. So while I'm grateful that the rules were changed to give some flexibility for people from visa waiver countries, I do know and acknowledge that more work needs to be done to ensure that there is equity for people from non-visa waiver countries. There's countless of stories of people from countries like in India who, you know, despite the current changes of rules from last year, they haven't had an option. But many couples from places like the US and other countries from visa waiver countries have now been successful in putting the application through the government, relax the rules for visa waiver countries. All right, Ricardo, thank you very much for talking to us. I appreciate it. Ricardo Menendez-Marche, Green Party MP.