Goverment deems man too fat to live. (In New Zealand.)

[Mr Khan]

binary solo said:
The dumb thing about this decision is that he's been here since 2007 and arrived at a weight of 160kg, according to the article. So he's been here 6 years, and he's lost 30kg. But because he doesn't have permanent residency and only has an annual work permit he has to apply for a new Visa every year.

I bet what's happened is that he's turned 40 or 45 or something to enter a new age/weight risk category for health assessment as part of the Visa appliction. So whereas his age in 2007 + 160kg was not statistically seen as a health risk for an annual work Visa, now his age + 130kg is statistically a higher health risk disqualifying him from gaining an annual work Visa.

Basing immigration decisions on stats is going to throw up these anomalies from time to time, but the decision isn't just some random out of the blue thing. At least I hope it isn't. Provided decisions are made impartially and consistently you've gotta say fair is fair.

This sounds like the right interpretation. The bureaucrats who run this sort of thing usually make allowances for most circumstances, but sometimes people end up slipping into the wrong category.

Surely this is the sort of thing that could be appealed, especially if the man demonstrated his weight loss and, perhaps, plans to continue doing so.