Deported American mother Luna Putzulu and her daughter are fighting to return to New Zealand. Immigration NZ says it did not know this was a domestic violence case. Photo / Supplied
Deported American mother Luna Putzulu and her daughter are fighting to return to New Zealand. Immigration NZ says it did not know this was a domestic violence case. Photo / Supplied
An American mother - who gave up everything to follow her love to New Zealand - ended up being abused and deported back to America with her daughter.
Immigration New Zealand said it was not informed that the case involved domestic violence, and is now asking the woman to apply under the Victims of Domestic Violence policy if she wanted to return.
The mother and daughter are fighting to return to New Zealand, but are being told they can't because they had previously overstayed their visas.
Luna Putzulu, 42, met her New Zealand partner in a hotel bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when they were both travelling for work in February 2011.
"After a whirlwind relationship, we started officially dating exclusively after about two weeks," Putzulu said.
"In May, he proposed to me in front of my daughter with an engagement ring ... he told me he needed to return to NZ for an extended amount of time, but wanted to put a ring on my finger so men would know I was taken."
Two months later, she found out he was married when his wife hacked into his Skype account and contacted her.
She confronted the man, but was told that their relationship had been over a long time ago.
"He said she cheated on him ... and that he was in love with me," Putzulu said.
"I believed him and forgave him."
Luna Putzulu says she and her daughter arrived back in America via emergency landing due to her health after they were deported, and were taken off the plane by paramedics. Photo / Supplied
The man returned to the United States in November 2011, and they lived together between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Dallas, Texas until July 2014.
On one occasion in 2013, Putzulu claimed he assaulted her then 12-year-old daughter and was arrested in 2013 in Houston Texas.
"He hit her because she wouldn't change the TV channel," she said.
In Dec 2014, Putzulu agreed to move with the man to New Zealand with her daughter because he promised he would change.
"He told us being back in his own country he wouldn't have an anger problem anymore, I believed him," she said.
"But when we arrived, the abuse got worse. We were controlled, I was not allowed to drive or have keys to the house ... and he monitored us via video cameras.
"He has strangled me to the point of blacking out."
While in New Zealand, Putzulu ran a business and they purchased a house together - which was put under his name.
But she said the three and a half years that they lived in Auckland's Mt Roskill was a living hell.
Luna Putzulu says she had run a business in New Zealand and had purchased a house together with her partner - which had been put under his name. Photo / Supplied
"Many people asked 'why didn't you just leave?'. I loved him. I thought we could be fixed. It wasn't always bad," Putzulu said.
Then her application for a partnership work visa was declined, and both Putzulu and her daughter overstayed their visas.
Then in July, INZ ordered them to leave New Zealand within 24 hours.
"It was a traumatic exit ... to be ripped away from our beds, friends, work, pet cat Dough and told to leave," Putzulu said.
"We arrived in America via emergency landing due to my health, and was taken off the plane by paramedics.
"My daughter became suicidal a few weeks after we arrived, and had a breakdown just four days before her 18th birthday."
Putzulu said they were now homeless and staying with strangers who responded to their plea on Facebook.
INZ operations support manager Michael Carley said he had no objections to Putzulu and her daughter applying for a different visa to re-enter New Zealand.
"We appreciate that uncertainty is difficult for applicants and their families when applying for a visa," Carley said.
"The applicant mentions domestic violence, but has not applied under the Victims of Domestic Violence policy."
Carley said the application for a work visa was declined because it failed to meet immigration instructions, in particular that the relationship was genuine and stable and likely to endure.
