KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — For 16 months, COVID-19 kept them apart.
Now, Nur Amanina Aziz from Kuala Lumpur is finally reunited with her Filipino husband Hariz Nondrey Gomer Lara. The couple was only together for a month after their wedding before Hariz left for the Philippines, where he was stranded until recently.
Bernama highlighted their story in a Sept 15, 2020 report on the effects of border closures and pandemic restrictions on transnational couples.
“This is the moment we have been waiting for, for a long time. We’ve gone through so many things, so many hard times. When I got the approval, the feeling (of joy) was indescribable,” said Amanina. She reported suffering from depression due to the separation.
She added it took her three tries before the government finally approved her application on Dec 5, last year to allow her husband’s entry into Malaysia.
Hariz finally managed to fly in on Feb 10 and, after completing the requisite 10-day quarantine, the couple was reunited three weeks ago.
The couple said their current focus was to get Hariz his spouse visa so that they would not be separated again.
The Filipino-Malaysian couple got married on Sept 23, 2019 and had to separate soon after to observe the cool down period required for switching visas.
When Hariz was about to return to Malaysia to begin the spouse visa application process, Malaysia declared the Movement Control Order (MCO) and closed its borders.
Hariz’s case was further compounded by the government’s decision to ban nationals from 23 countries that reported more than 150,000 COVID-19 cases, which took effect Sept 3, 2020.
On Nov 20, 2020, the government started granting entry to foreigners from these countries who are married to Malaysians.
Sources: BERNAMA