Genie ,
Welcome to the forum.
It is very worrying that NZIS won’t even allow the father into NZ on a tourist visa. That is quite unusual, so I would tend to think that something else is going on here. It could be that the wrong information previously given by the sisters has gone against them and NZIS has now ‘closed the doors’ on their application and also from allowing the father to enter NZ under by any other means.
Some background information:
To sponsor a parent for immigration the
centre of gravity needs to be right. This relates to how many children a parent has in NZ compared to how many are in the home country or another country. If the father has 2 daughters in NZ and a son somewhere else, that should have been OK.
This page tells you about the requirements for
sponsoring parents and these are the steps for applying for residency under the
Parent Category .
If there is a problem with NZIS, I think the only way around the problem would be to try to appeal against the decision, especially if the father’s wife has only died recently, since the original application was made. Perhaps NZIS would look more kindly on the situation if the father is now alone.
A couple of years ago there was also a Family Quota run by the NZIS where people who couldn’t get into NZ any other way, could join a kind of lottery. 250 names were pulled out every year. Unfortunately, it isn’t running at the moment because I believe there are so many people trying to get into the country that NZIS don’t need to run the lottery any more.
I think, before the sisters can move forward on this, they need to find out exactly what the problem is that prevents their father entering NZ, then they can start to look at ways around it. Even if the father got into NZ with a Visit Visa, he could only stay for a short time - better than nothing but not very good if they want him with them full time.
Sorry I can't be more help.