Partnership work visa delays

[MagicPizza]

Hi lovelife95,

I applied for my first partnership visa on April the 1st so a couple of weeks before you. My work visa before this was just an essential skills one and that ran out in mid may, so I haven’t been able to work for over 5 months now. I left it a little late to apply but I was told I would get it within 6 weeks when I eventually went for it and now it’s been nearly 7 months. I have an immigration adviser doing it on my behalf but I’ve found I’ve had more information by ringing immigration direct. On the 30th of August my visa apparently was given to a CO and it’s now under processing apparently. But the CO has had it over 6 weeks now and I’ve still not heard anything despite ringing immigration atleast twice a week and uploading more documents so they get the notified.

Immigration are really not following their time scales at all, and every time I speak to them over the phone they have a different time scale, some say can take up to 8 months, some say 7 months, some are saying still 5 months yet when I tell them over the phone I’ve been waiting nearly 7 they can’t give an answer for this. I would suggest ringing them up regularly as it shows on the system that you’ve called regularly checking on it.

It’s been really tough living off just one wage for all this time and I just wish immigration would hurry up as its getting harder and harder not knowing if I can stay here with my partner.

I hope you hear something really soon and I thought I’d just let you know my situation.

Thank You

Craig

This seems really crazy. I'm from the UK too and I applied for my first partnership work visa in March this year, and it was approved four days later... my partnership residency was approved two months after in May. Seven months just seems insanely long. How long did you have your essential skills visa? Did they not give you an interim visa you can work on?

[CraigSFC]

This seems really crazy. I'm from the UK too and I applied for my first partnership work visa in March this year, and it was approved four days later... my partnership residency was approved two months after in May. Seven months just seems insanely long. How long did you have your essential skills visa? Did they not give you an interim visa you can work on?

That’s really quick! Didn’t even know they processed visas that quickly! I originally came on a working holiday visa in June 2017, then in may 2018 I got my essential skills works visa. In April 2019 I applied for my partnership work visa, after being living with my partner for a year. I’ve been given an interim visa but as it’s the first time I’ve gone for a partnership visa I’m not allowed to work on it as it’s a different visa to the previous ones. So hence why I’m not allowed to work

[MagicPizza]

That’s really quick! Didn’t even know they processed visas that quickly! I originally came on a working holiday visa in June 2017, then in may 2018 I got my essential skills works visa. In April 2019 I applied for my partnership work visa, after being living with my partner for a year. I’ve been given an interim visa but as it’s the first time I’ve gone for a partnership visa I’m not allowed to work on it as it’s a different visa to the previous ones. So hence why I’m not allowed to work

Your timelines in NZ are not that different to mine. I came here one year before you on a WHV and had been living with my partner for a year and a half when I applied for residency and 1st partnership visa. Just seems so weird that our timelines could be so wildly different. I would be putting complaints in left, right and center! I hope your LIA finds out what's going on and you get an approval asap.

[CraigSFC]

Your timelines in NZ are not that different to mine. I came here one year before you on a WHV and had been living with my partner for a year and a half when I applied for residency and 1st partnership visa. Just seems so weird that our timelines could be so wildly different. I would be putting complaints in left, right and center! I hope your LIA finds out what's going on and you get an approval asap.

I have been thinking about it but after hearing it other people’s waiting times also I didn’t think I was the only one waiting all this time. But nearly 7 months is pretty ridiculous to be honest, I spoke to immigration yet again on the phone earlier and they are processing June applications now apparently, and the lady could not tell me why mine was delayed for all this time. I have emailed my CO direct on Friday, hopefully get a response on Monday and take it form there.

[lovelife95]

If they are processing June applications im wondering why ours has not been assigned at all. Strange. debating whether I should call them today

[CraigSFC]

If they are processing June applications im wondering why ours has not been assigned at all. Strange. debating whether I should call them today

Yep I definitely would, just tell them the website is stating 5 months, and yours has been longer and it’s not fair on you having to wait that long. I’m pretty sure you will have been given a CO already I’d imagine but probably don’t know about it. My immigration adviser didn’t know I had been given a CO, I found out by ringing them myself!

[lovelife95]

I just rang them and they told me the application is still in the queue to be allocated. I was hoping to hear something different. I asked whether something is wrong with the application hence why it is taking long and she said nothing is wrong with it its just the delays at the branch.

She kept saying the timeframe is 7 months although it says 5 months. Apparently its 7 months for the remaining 10% of applications. She also said the 5 months are for applications completed in the last 3 months which I questioned her on because our application has been submitted way beyond 3 months ago and back then the timeline was shorter. I have a feeling we weren't being given the correct info by the phone operator.

Anyways she did suggest we upload a letter to the online application requesting for urgency. I think we have grounds to do that now as it will be 6 months since applying now. How would we go about writing a letter as such?

[CraigSFC]

I just rang them and they told me the application is still in the queue to be allocated. I was hoping to hear something different. I asked whether something is wrong with the application hence why it is taking long and she said nothing is wrong with it its just the delays at the branch.

She kept saying the timeframe is 7 months although it says 5 months. Apparently its 7 months for the remaining 10% of applications. She also said the 5 months are for applications completed in the last 3 months which I questioned her on because our application has been submitted way beyond 3 months ago and back then the timeline was shorter. I have a feeling we weren't being given the correct info by the phone operator.

Anyways she did suggest we upload a letter to the online application requesting for urgency. I think we have grounds to do that now as it will be 6 months since applying now. How would we go about writing a letter as such?

I would keep ringing honestly I got different answers every time, it took me about 3 calls to find out it had been allocated. The first couple of times it was still waiting to be processed but when I did find out it had been allocated it had been nearly 4 weeks since a CO had it. So I don’t think the immigration call centre have too much info, but I do think they can look into it a lot further if you ask them too and tell them your concerns about the wait. Every phone call you give them shows on the system and will obviously show them you are getting fed up of all the wait and might give it the little boost it needs for it to be processed quicker.

I would just say, it says on the website 5 months, and it’s been longer than this, I don’t think it’s fair to advertise this when peoples lives are on hold because of the time frames not being matched. Say you can’t make any plans for the future cause you don’t know if you can stay here etc. Just make it sound like you really need a decision to be made urgently for you and your partners sake. I wrote a letter last week saying I had just been offered a job and I need to give them an answer ASAP but right now I can’t take it because of all the wait. I would really like to take the job and I stated this so that was my kind of letter of urgency.

Hope this helps and good luck ��

[lda]

My LIA said I can't call INZ directly unless I terminate contract with him, since INZ can only speak to one party.

[lovelife95]

I used to contact them myself even when I had an LIA in the past. did you know about that when you signed their contract? Sounds unreasonable