Best of 2020: Whanganui businessman's long wait to show wife and daughter his home

Rajesh Kumar can at last show his daugher Muskan, 14, and wife Indra Devi his Whanganui house and business. Photo / Lewis Gardner

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The owner of Whanganui's Tasty Indian restaurant has finally been able to show his wife and daughter his business and home more than a decade after moving to New Zealand.

Rajesh Kumar has had to fight for more than a year to get his family a visa to visit him.

Their visa was one of many held up by Immigration New Zealand after changes were made to the organisation, closing one of its offices in India.

Immigration New Zealand apologised to Kumar in July.

Indra Devi and daughter Muskan, 14, arrived in New Zealand on December 24.

Kumar and his wife married in 1998, and he came to New Zealand as a chef in 2007. He became a New Zealand citizen in 2016, and now owns a house and the Tasty Indian restaurant in Whanganui.

"I am running a business for eight years, pay my tax, pay everything," he said.

His wife stayed in India, caring for their daughter and her brother, Prem Singh, who farms near Manali, a Himalayan resort town in northern India.

Indra and Muskan now have a nine-month visa to visit New Zealand. But they must return to Manali before February because Muskan had an important exam at her English-speaking private school.

She is hoping Kumar can be in India for her 15th birthday, in July.

He works in his restaurant seven days' a week. But when his manager returns he will take his family to Taupō and Rotorua.

His wife wants to try a bungy jump, and his daughter sends many photographs and videos back to friends in India.

She works hard at school and gets A+ every year, Kumar said. She may eventually want to study in New Zealand and would like to join the Navy, perhaps as a doctor.

"Education-wise, India is one step ahead of New Zealand. It has very good teachers, who are well experienced, and there's lots of pressure," Kumar said.

Muskan has four more years at school, and two more major exams. As well as being a good student she wins competitions in classical Indian kathak dance.

"I always think about how to become best for the future. I work seven days to be proud of our daughter," Kumar said.

Rajesh Kumar waited seven months for visas that would allow his wife and daughter to visit.

His wife is also "key" to his success.

"She has given me everything, by saving my money. She has built a beautiful house in Manali, and done well for my daughter."

The couple keep in contact by three or four video phone calls a day.

Whanganui and Manali are both "like heaven", his wife said. She likes New Zealand's environment and helpful people.

Manali is a town popular with tourists from overseas, and from hotter parts of India. It has skiing, the beautiful river Beas, and colourful Hindu festivals.

It's one of the biggest tourist places in India, Kumar said, with trekking and paragliding as well as skiing, a Winter Carnival with singing, dance and beauty competitions and many hotels and motels.

After waiting a year, he can now enjoy time with his family.