11th-hour residency permit for battler

Charlaine Hodgson's faith in the New Zealand justice system has been restored. Photo / Natalie Slade

A 26-year-old woman brought to New Zealand as a child has been saved from deportation at the eleventh hour by Associate Immigration Minister Kate Wilkinson.

Charlaine Hodgson has been granted residency, her lawyer, Evgeny Orlov, told TVNZ.

He said Ms Hodgson's faith in the NZ justice system had been restored.

Through the lawyer, Ms Hodgson said: "I am now certain that we are in a country which eventually follows legal processes and I'm grateful to the minister."

Ms Hodgson's biological father, a man she has never met, could not be traced to sign a residency application when she came to New Zealand in 1998 with her family.

The rest of her family gained residency but the then teenager did not.

The late save through Ms Wilkinson's intervention is not the first time for Ms Hodgson - Immigration NZ tried to deport her when she was 15, two years after she arrived.

But the then Immigration Minister, Winston Peters, got involved and Ms Hodgson was given a visitor's permit.

Ms Hodgson was about to start work as a bar manager in Hamilton when she went to police to report a brawl. But she was instead arrested as an overstayer.

A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman said documents on the case had been sent to Mr Orlov and he would not be commenting further.

- NZPA