We are moving to New Zealand. Need some help...

[umutaydin]

hey guys,

hope everything is ok with you all...

I've got few questions hope someone can help...

Me and my Kiwi g.friend are moving to NZ on September (we're living in Turkey for 10 months.) But first of all we're gonna apply for a tourist visa for me from Turkey for 6 months and change it to partnership visa when we get there. Why i'm gettin a tourist visa is to see NZ first, and see how things are working there and also to meet my g.friends parents and spend the xmas with the family etc. we also working in Turkey so we might come back..

I've talked to the NZ embassy in Turkey. They've told me i can change my visitors visa into partnership visa and i'm gonna get a visitor's visa first from here and when i get there the immigration officers will give me a visitor's permit. so what are the differences between these two visa and permit?

They've also told me: we should come together for a possible interview, and we should get all our documents and paperwork ready. So we're going to fill -INZ 1017 visitor's visa/permit FOR ME - and INZ 1146 Form for partners supporting partnership based temporary entry applications FOR HER - or do we just have to fill visitor's visa/permit?

Also my girlfriends parents will sponsor me during my stay so i reckon they have to fill - INZ sponsorship form for visiting NZ INZ 1025- but the thing is do they have to fill this form and send it through postage or can they fill it from the net and e-mail to us and we print out and add it to the application?

Do i have to get a X-ray medical certificate? we're thinking of staying for at least 6 months but before that we might change our minds and apply for a partnership visa. so which medical documents i should get? ( i wana get these documents from here cuz i consider that its gonna be cheaper here than NZ)

Does all the documents have to be translated from Turkish to English? Do they keep the original files?

Few more questions:

i've listed all the documents that we have for evidence to our relationship:

-More than 800 e-mails (Will be printed)
- More than 70 msn files (Will be printed)
- Tenancy Agreement
- Refrence letters from our bank, our work, friends who has known us more than a year, my parents (We're living with with my parents)
- Photos more than 200 (it'll cost me a fortune to print them out, can i hand over in a DVD)
- Joint bank account details to the same address separate bank details.
- My own bank details for visitor's visa ( such as credit card details, bank statements etc.)

so i reckon these documents will be enough for a visitor's visa.

thank you very much in advanced, i'll be really appreciated if someone could give me some information...

Cheers,
umut

[lindreth]

Hi umut. I think all 800 emails and all 200 photos might be overkill. I used to work for U.S. immigration and never saw anyone submit quite that many. when I immigrated my british husband here we had to show evidence our relationship - we submitted less than 10 photos of us together. My experience with NZ immigration is limited, but based on my u.s. experience, I'd say you'd be safe submitting even just a quarter of your e-mail and photo evidence, being sure to cover the whole time period at issue. Could save you some money too!
that's just my two cents...

[umutaydin]

Hi umut. I think all 800 emails and all 200 photos might be overkill. I used to work for U.S. immigration and never saw anyone submit quite that many. when I immigrated my british husband here we had to show evidence our relationship - we submitted less than 10 photos of us together. My experience with NZ immigration is limited, but based on my u.s. experience, I'd say you'd be safe submitting even just a quarter of your e-mail and photo evidence, being sure to cover the whole time period at issue. Could save you some money too!
that's just my two cents...

thanks for the reply,

i think you're right we should just show few of the pics and e-mails and msn files etc. apart from the other stuff that i wrote above, do we need other documents for evidence that u think might help?

[wilson182]

[James 1077]

I think that 800 emails may be going a bit overboard!

All they want to know is that you have been in a stable relationship for more than a year so just pick a few things which show this. I'm not sure how good emails are though as the headers can be easily faked.

Photos of you on holiday and a few random statements from your joint bank account going back to when it is opened (and now) along with the tenancy agreement should do the trick. I wouldn't go overboard otherwise the good docs will become lost amongst all the others.

In answer to your other questions:

The difference between a visa and a permit is that a visa allows you to travel to a country and a permit allows you to be there. So they stamp a visa in your passport and this is automatically converted into a permit when you arrive.

With respect to the forms I'm pretty sure that you will need to fill in a form for you and for your girlfriend to support you.

On the medical front I don't think that you need one if you aren't going to be in the country for too long (so you will need one when you convert to residency but not for a 6 month visa.

Can I ask why you aren't just going for Permanent Residency through the partnership scheme straight away? It will end up cheaper in the long run and will allow you to work when you get to New Zealand (which the tourist visa won't). When I sponsored my wife the process took about 2 months from collecting the info and medicals to receiving the visa and we could have done it quicker. So you should have time.

[Kea]

I was told that it wasn't the length of the relationship that mattered. I think orginially supplied our wedding cert, one joint bank statement, a mortgage statement and a few other bits. I was told to provide more evidence of currently intertwined finances. So I'd suggetst any joint bills you have, joint council tax that kind of thing rather than emails. You can also include cards, wedding invites to you both, that kind of thing.

Good luck

Julie

[umutaydin]

I was told that it wasn't the length of the relationship that mattered. I think orginially supplied our wedding cert, one joint bank statement, a mortgage statement and a few other bits. I was told to provide more evidence of currently intertwined finances. So I'd suggetst any joint bills you have, joint council tax that kind of thing rather than emails. You can also include cards, wedding invites to you both, that kind of thing.

Good luck

Julie

Thanks for the reply Julie,

the thing is we're not married, and we don't have credit cards and bills in our names, but we've got bank statements in to same addresses, a joint account which we put a certain amount of money every month and spend together with separate cards and the most important we have a tenancy agreement. We've got a couple of invitations and my girlfriends family's xmas letters and presents etc.. i reckon that will do..

cheers,
Umut

I think that 800 emails may be going a bit overboard!

All they want to know is that you have been in a stable relationship for more than a year so just pick a few things which show this. I'm not sure how good emails are though as the headers can be easily faked.

Photos of you on holiday and a few random statements from your joint bank account going back to when it is opened (and now) along with the tenancy agreement should do the trick. I wouldn't go overboard otherwise the good docs will become lost amongst all the others.

In answer to your other questions:

The difference between a visa and a permit is that a visa allows you to travel to a country and a permit allows you to be there. So they stamp a visa in your passport and this is automatically converted into a permit when you arrive.

With respect to the forms I'm pretty sure that you will need to fill in a form for you and for your girlfriend to support you.

On the medical front I don't think that you need one if you aren't going to be in the country for too long (so you will need one when you convert to residency but not for a 6 month visa.

Can I ask why you aren't just going for Permanent Residency through the partnership scheme straight away? It will end up cheaper in the long run and will allow you to work when you get to New Zealand (which the tourist visa won't). When I sponsored my wife the process took about 2 months from collecting the info and medicals to receiving the visa and we could have done it quicker. So you should have time.

Thanks for the reply James,

Yeah 800 e-mails and 200 msn files might kill the application ok what i'll do is to submit just few e-mails and msn files with dates and stuff... and reference letters, tenancy agreement, joint bank statements, photos together. i reckon that'll do...

And for the Medical certificates i'll call the Embassy today and ask if i need one for my application, but in any case i wana get it from here cuz it might be really expensive to get a medical documnet from NZ ( Turkey is a cheap country u know )

for your question:

We wanted to apply for a Permanent Residency but in here Military service is compulsory so it might be a problem to get a permanent visa and to declare in here to the immigration. so the officer in here might say " you haven't done ur military service and u're a student but u've got a permanent visa in ur pasport, so NZ is gonna be your final destination"
I've got few friends they've also in the same situation with me and they've applied for a tourist visa first...
and the other reason is i wana see what is NZ like and to meet my girlfriends
family. If we change our mind and decide to stay I'll change my tourist visa and apply for a Permanent one.

cheers,
Umut

ps: they've told me there could be an interview, when we apply for a tourist visa for me and my girlfriend. what kind of questions do u think they might ask?

[umutaydin]

does anyone have any other ideas? it'll be really helpful, cuz i'm really confused now...

cheers

[umutaydin]

hey guys,

i know i'm really being annoying but i really need your help in this stage cuz we're in the most difficult part: FILLING THE FORMS!!

as i've discussed with my Kiwi Partner i'll be applying for a Visitor's visa first and than changing it into Resident Permit under Partnership basis.

So i've got few questions about the visitor's and Residence form. I'll be really thankful if you guys help about the forms...

VISITOR's FORM:

What we've done so far?

- My partner has filled the form -INZ 1146 Partners supporting partnership based temp. applications- In the form theres a section that asking a copy of her passport. Does it has to be certified by the notary?

- In the form that i'm filling right now (INZ 1017) in section C11 there's this a weird question " is your partner included in this application?" are we suppose to say YES or NO ? ps: my partner is a Kiwi

- I'm planning to apply for a 6 months tourist visa, do i still have to submit anyt medical certificates?

- Same in the form that i'm filling ( INZ 1017) section F1: " are you applying for a visa or permit?" Well i'm applying for a single visitors visa and a permit i reckon but it says there fill both the sections if you're applying for a multiple visa and permit...

- Again in visitor's visa form in section J5 "if youyr partner is a NZ citizen do you intend to apply for a residence under Partnership policy? This is a really tricky question cuz we don't still know yet if we're gonna change or mind or not? what if we say no and change our mind in NZ and decide to stay does it cause any problem for my application later? sorry i know this sounds stupid but i have to consider every possibilty.

i reckon that's all for visitor's visa


RESIDENCE IN NEW ZEALAND FORM

- in the form that i'm filling in Family Details Section i'm writing my family details and it says " Partnership status" for example my mums name date of birth Partnership status and Country of residence what am i suppose to write in PARTNERSHIP STATUS? same as my partners family's details...

- in the form page 16 question C10 it's about my dependent children which i have none. but both statements doesn't apply to me? i have no children or is it not included in partnership section?

that's all for now, thank you soo much in advance!

Cheers
Umut

[Asli&Mark]

Hello Umut (merhaba)

It is still confusing to choose the language to write the reply.

Well I believe you got most of the answers you've been looking for. You have to have all the documents translated and I think you should have all other documents you might need to provide for residency permit, translated as well as it would cost a lot less and take no more time than it needs to

Keep us updated

Asli