A woman who stabbed her husband with a paring knife two years ago after discovering his affair with a make-up artist is being deported to China.

The couple have reconciled since the attack, and her husband has argued in an appeal against her deportation that it would unfairly punish him, as he too would have to leave New Zealand.

Qi Xie was sentenced to four years in jail after being convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm for the 2017 attack on her husband.

The couple, New Zealand residents who moved from Auckland to Christchurch in 2015, had set up a South Island wedding photography business which Xie marketed to Asian customers.

In 2017, she stabbed him in the thigh, elbow and back with a paring knife after finding out through photographs on his phone that he was still having an affair with an employee.

She had hidden the 10cm blade under a cushion, saying later she intended to threaten to hurt herself if he refused to leave the house.

After the attack, they sat on a sofa and talked, and she called an ambulance when he began to feel faint.

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In his appeal to the immigration and protection tribunal, Xie said her husband would be revictimised, as he would return to China with her.

He said he had forgiven his wife and felt at fault because of the affair and was committed to reconciliation with her through counselling.

"He will feel a sense of failure and disappointment more keenly by already being the victim of the offending," the tribunal said. "It will feel like a double blow".

"As the victim of the offending, it will be particularly hard for him to suffer the further hardship of abandoning his life and business here."

However, the tribunal declined the couple's appeal.

The ruling acknowledged that victims' opinions had to be taken into account, but said Ms Xie's humanitarian circumstances were not exceptional.