He earned a business diploma and joined a specialist air freight company, starting as a storeman and moving up the ranks to become warehouse manager.
In 2019, he was arrested and charged for drink driving, with 903 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath, more than double the legal limit.
Janagam was disqualified from driving for 28 days, fined $900, and made to use an alcohol interlock device for one year - a relatively light sentence given the maximum three months jail and $4,500 fine for the offences, his lawyer said.
Friends and colleagues said his offending was out of character. He had an unblemished record both in New Zealand and India up till then, volunteered and went to temple regularly, played cricket and was a "well-behaved" working member of the community.
The conviction was "a huge lesson" for Janagam, who was a changed person and unlikely to reoffend, his lawyer had told INZ.
Still, his drink-drive offence would show its true cost two years later, when Janagam tried to renew his essential skills work visa that was expiring in August 2021.
Immigration New Zealand said he did not meet the character requirements because of his drink-drive conviction, and rejected his request for a character waiver twice.
His visa expired, and so did his wife's as the partner of a work visa holder.
The couple had dreams of building a life in New Zealand but in February, she had to leave the country and return to India, three months pregnant with twins.
Janagam appealed against his deportation but the Immigration and Protection Tribunal declined it, saying he did not have exceptional circumstances of a humanitarian nature.
It also found that he would not have met the requirements for the 2021 Resident Visa because he was not holding an eligible visa on September 29, 2021, a key criterion for the one-off residency visa.
Tribunal member M Avia said returning to India will be "disappointing and distressing" for Janagam and his family after eight years living and working in New Zealand, but was a relatively common consequence for people facing deportation.
His failed work visa application was due to a single incident and he has shown genuine remorse, having served his sentence and completed an alcohol and drug treatment programme.
But there was a high threshold for what constitutes exceptional circumstances of a humanitarian nature, Avia said in her decision.
This was a stringent statutory test that "cannot be equated with 'compassionate factors', circumstances that are more than simply 'routine', or 'genuinely concerning circumstances'", she said.
Janagam's return will be a financial setback for his family in India, who have invested in his migration.
The decision also noted the Covid-19 situation in his hometown of Telangana was significantly better than New Zealand at the time, Janagam was fully vaccinated and did not have notable health conditions.
The Tribunal ordered a four-month work visa for Janagam to allow him time to organise flights back to India.
