Health improves, treatment gets cheaper — so can Stiffany stay?

A Filipina woman's dream of making New Zealand home is looking unlikely because of the cost her healthcare may impose on the country — despite what she says is her improved health overall.

Stiffany Adanza, 47, has been on a student visa since 2022, and now wants to transition to a post-study work visa but has been told the fact she's being treated for Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia means she doesn't fit the visa's health requirements.

Unless the mother-of-one can prove she does have an acceptable standard of health, or that she warrants an exemption, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) says she'll be deemed ineligible for the visa and have to leave.

But she can't understand why, given she'd earlier been granted a student visa in 2022, despite her cancer diagnosis, to complete her Master of Contemporary International Studies at the Institute of the Pacific United in Palmerston North.

That opportunity gave Adanza hope that her family had a chance for a future in Aotearoa.

"I want to try and live in a country where my daughter can be can grow up safe in a healthy environment and where there's work-life balance for me," Adanza says. "When they gave me the chance, when they opened the door to that student visa, I made sure that the visa officer will have no regrets."

Adanza graduated late last year with First Class Honours, was employed as a support advisor for MP Ricardo Menéndez March, and has also done volunteer work for several organisations in Palmerston North.

She's also responded well to her cancer treatment and her cancer has been undetected for the last seven months. If she continued to progress well, her doctor anticipated she could be off her medication all together by the end of next year.

Despite that good news, Adanza says it was hard for her to be happy about the future, as her immigration status looked uncertain. She was told in March she "may not meet the acceptable standard of health" because of her cancer and the oral chemotherapy drug she's on, Dasatinib, which has a "significantly high" cost.

INZ didn't elaborate in its letter on what it estimated those exact costs to be. But Adanza has asked if that decision was made on the current version of the drug being funded, rather than the price of cheaper generics, that are currently available from overseas and would soon be publicly funded.

From October 1, Sprycel that held the patent for Dasatinib would be available as a new generic from Teva. The website showed the current price ranges from $3774.06 to $7692.58 compared to between $132.88 to $415.75 it would be once the switch is made.

INZ hasn't stated a dollar figure for what the significant cost is for a student or work visa, but the higher category of residency has been put at $81,000 — more than what Adanza estimates her health could cost the system.

She appealed their decision by providing a cost analysis on the best public available information to estimate her medical costs at $24,603 over three years — provided her health continued to progress as it had. In comparison, as a full-time worker she'd contribute some $50,000 in taxes across the same time period.

Her application was also supported by her haematologist who said her prognosis was good and on the medication she was likely to have "normal life expectancy without medical complications". The doctor added as long as her cancer remains undetected she could come off the medication, and 50% of those who did so were able to stay off it long term.

1News asked an immigration lawyer — not already involved in the case — to look at her file to see whether it warranted a second look.

Immigration lawyer and partner at Lane Neave Mark Williams said, based on the information Adanza provided, there could be room for discretion.

He said it was often harder when someone was transitioning out of an initial temporary visa to a longer stay. But he said if there was an issue with her medical status or pre-existing condition officials, could make it clearer as to their realistic chances of an even longer stay.

He said it was unfair that the same rules applied on her entry to be applied against her now when neither the policy nor her health position have materially changed.

Williams said the future change in cost of her medication could also be something the assessor took a closer look at.

"When considering high-cost treatment, they are required to review it over the term of the visa requested. Obviously from October 1, the medication normally available will be significantly reduced in cost".

INZ's director of visas for students, Celia Coombes, said the medical assessor agreed that Adanza didn't have an acceptable standard of health for her initial student visa application. But, because the drug she was taking now was different to the one she was taking when she arrived, and because she was applying for a visa with a longer duration of the work visa, the same assessment wasn't made.

"With the new post-study work visa application, Ms Adanza is applying for a longer stay in New Zealand and the medical assessor has noted a change in treatment plan which has affected her ability to meet the acceptable standard of health requirement."

However, she noted a final decision had not been made.

"We would encourage her to submit any and all information to the case officer before the due date, so that everything she wants to be considered can be."

Adanza planned to further challenge Immigration New Zealand's decision — but was also steeled to the reality of what it meant if she had to return to the Philippines.

"If we choose to go home, I will use the education that I got from New Zealand and the experience that I got to find a job and to continue my work."