Woman Stranded in Cook Islands as NZ and Australia Decline Transit Visa

Cook Islands immigration officials confirmed the woman, a 49-year-old South Asian national, arrived in the country on 8 November 2023 and has been unable to leave since. She also holds no visa permitting her to remain in the Cook Islands, leaving her in legal limbo while she waits for a way out.

According to RNZ, neither New Zealand nor Australia has granted her a transit visa, even though transiting through Auckland would not require her to leave the airport. She wants to return to her home country and, per her account, the only remaining obstacle is a transit visa through one of the two countries.

Cook Islands principal immigration officer Chere Arthur wrote to Immigration New Zealand on 11 April 2025, offering to have someone escort the woman to Auckland Airport until she boarded a connecting flight to Singapore. Nothing came of that approach, RNZ reported.

Arthur told Cook Islands News that the woman remains in the country not because departure options have not been explored, but because of difficulties obtaining transit visas for countries she must pass through. She said transit visa decisions rest with those countries and are outside the Cook Islands government's control, adding that authorities continue to handle the matter in line with the law and will not comment further to protect the woman's privacy.

Immigration New Zealand said it would only respond once a privacy waiver authorised the newspaper to seek answers on the woman's behalf. A waiver was provided on Friday, but no reply had arrived yet because of time differences. New Zealand High Commissioner to the Cook Islands Catherine Graham said she had contacted the relevant team in Wellington and expected a response no earlier than Sunday, while questions sent to the Australian High Commission remained unanswered.

The woman left her home country after her husband was killed, then worked in Hong Kong for almost a year before being granted a New Zealand work visa in March 2023, according to the report. While working, she applied for an asylum visa and claims the lawyer assisting her told her she needed to leave New Zealand and return later while the application was processed. She says her family is helping her and that she wants to go home.