Urgent advice re Wellington Immigration!

[denisesykes]

Urgent advice please

I am really at my wits end with the Wellington Immigration Service. I will try to explain, briefly!
We lodged our residency application on 7th Feb and heard nothing until 16th July when we were informed that further information was needed regarding our medical records. We were also told that a decision on our residency application would be made on 18th August even if they had not received the required information by then!

I duly made an appointment to see our GP and she advised me to have a further X-ray so the radiographer could compare the 1st and 2nd pictures and then report to Immigration accordingly. My daughter also has to see a specialist and he needs to report on the findings of her last x ray.
So we obviously need back from Immigration the original X rays sent to Immigration in Feb?
My daughter has managed to get a cancellation appointment to see the specialist which is this Friday, the 3rd August otherwise he was booked up until September which would of course be too late!
I have been telephoning and emailing Immigration every day since (2 weeks) but get no response from the email and the telephone line constantly tells me (no matter what time I ring!) ‘You have rung at our most busy time, please call later!.
Then on Friday I did get a response to my emails saying ‘Lillian Howe’ (our immigration officer) no longer works at Immigration New Zealand!’ Please call the Call Centre for further information!’
Aaahhhhh!
The only number I have for Wellington branch is 0508 558 855. Does anyone have a different number? Any advice as to what I am expected to do? I am completely amazed at the inefficiency of the Immigration Department and am out of ideas so please help!

[barryp]

My advice (since you did ask for advice!) is that you visit in person. The office is open every day and the front counter people have access to the same systems your case officer did. So with the appropriate documentation in hand, you should be able to sort matters out relatively quickly, compared to endless phone chatting. (Plan for the queue - might be 5 minutes but might be an hour.)

[IanW99]

Sorry you are still having so much trouble.

My advice is the same as barryp is to go to the Wellington branch of NZIS it may take some time but they should be able to help. You may be able to pick up those x-rays you need as well.

Would just have to say that we also had Lillian Howe as a CO and never got any response from her on anything really - so it's probably a good thing that she has left?

If it helps, when we needed our PR quickly we decided to go to Wellington to find out why it was taking so long and if they could do anything to process it sooner, and we got it the very next day.

Ian

[Helsandfamily]

Hi,

Very sorry that you are having this trouble. I think that the advice to go in person is good one. We had a very similar situation with the London Office, our application was put on hold while we got transcripts of my degree, and then when we emailed the info we got a reply that the CO no longer worked there. It is very frustrating. We emailed the skilled migrents administrator and he/she put us in touch with someone else who has dealt with it. Once this was done things have started to progress again. Don't give up - good luck

hels

[barryp]

The office is at 142-146 Wakefield St; there's plenty of garage parking nearby. I found the counter staff to be very helpful. Though they are NOT case officers and will not make such decisions, they do try to make the system work better for you.

(I mistyped, though - they are open every WEEKDAY except public holidays.)

Good luck....

[victoria]

Just to add on ... they open at 8:30 till 3:30 M-F & I would strongly advise you get there as close to opening if not before.We have done this twice & the staff are very helpful. LOL

[denisesykes]

Thanks everyone for your very practical advice.However, I finally got through on the phone (my daughter had a tummy bug , so I was off work!) and spoke to our new case officier , who was very helpful and he has agreed to extend the deadline for us to get our reports until such time as we have got everything together!
He has also given us his direct line and direct email so we can contact him easily.
What a relief!
His name is Sean Smith and he sounds an absolute sweetheart!
Thanks again!
Denise