Partnership visa application from London

[TimAck]

Hi we're applying for a partnership visa for my fiancee via NZ House in London. Just wondering if anyone has any experience how long it takes and what sort of communication you get from them. A few days after we lodged the application (about a month ago) we got a letter back saying the OH's brith certificate was the wrong one (apparently you can have 'full' birth cerificate and a shorter one). We sent the full birth certificate to NZ house a few days later be have heard nothing since.

[JandM]

It's one of those annoying situations where it takes as long as it takes, so no-one can actually predict for your individual case, I'm afraid. And it's not easy to live through, because there is no inessential communication - they only get in touch if they need to ask for more information about some aspect of your case. Some people have only heard that they've been assigned a CO, and then the eventual answer! Try to regard it as quite positive that you don't hear, as no contact means they haven't found any potential problems.

[lin]

I feel your pain TimAck - we sent off my partnership application about 3 weeks ago & have heard nothing back. I'm hoping thats a good thing. I know its not long but it doesn't stop me stressing about it!

[lin]

oh, can I ask, did you get an acknowledgement letter from them at all?

[TimAck]

We got a letter saying we needed to send a full birth certificate of OH but that was it.

Was hoping to book flights for early Nov...

[lin]

hmm, then I'm sticking with the 'no news is good news' - the website says they will send an acknowledgment letter within 14 days and as I haven't received anything I'm in panic mode, especially as OH left yesterday (he starts his new job next week) and isn't here to calm me down.

Fingers crossed for us both then!

[TimAck]

Yes, good luck to you and fingers crossed!!

[Kitten Witten]

Hello there,

I have very recently had my PR partnership visa approved through the London Office and this was my experience:

Wed 13th May - Dropped off application in person (keen I know)

Tue 26th May - Received acknowlegdement email that my file was with file clerk awaiting assignment to CO, which would be within 4 weeks of the 13th May.

Tue 9th June - Had email; this was just my CO introducing himself, telling me my case looked “mostly in order” and that he had sent off for my OH’s NZ police check which should take 4-5 weeks and he would be in touch with me once he had further news.

Tue 30th June - Received letter giving me permanent residence approval in principle (so only 3 weeks from acknowledgement email!)
Tue 30th June – Evening. Broke out the champers with OH and got hideously tipsy

Thu 3rd July - Sent off passport and migrant levy fee and since then had a bit of a disaster with passport not being passed onto my CO and Royal Mail insisting it was delivered but not being able to tell me who signed for it even though it was sent recorded delivery. So 1 week of not knowing where it was and being told by my very huffy and quite rude CO at INZ that it wasn’t there and being told by Royal Mail that they couldn’t do anything about finding out who signed for it until 22nd July. Finally CO confirmed last week it had been at INZ all along just nobody and bothered to give it to him

When he told me this I had actually been ringing him to get my passport number off him so I could cancel it, get a new one, cancel bank card etc. as I wasn’t prepared to believe Royal Mail as they had put the Aluminium Institute (who share the same building and whom I rang!!!) on one of the 3 receipts they gave me for the package. Been a complete nightmare. But apart from this major last blip and my CO being rather rude when I was being polite to him it’s been really good.

Today – Migrant levy fee taken out of bank account, hoping passport makes it back more safely back to me than it travelled to NZ House!

I would say two things:

Other posters are right if you aren’t hearing much (after knowing your application got there safely) then you are pretty safe to assume they are busy processing stuff and no news is generally good news. They are probably processing your NZ police check and working their way through relationship evidence. From other people on here I think they tend to contact you fairly sharpish if they want more relationship evidence, if there's a prob with the medical or you’ve missed something vital. One final thing is if you book flights for Nov don't forget to try this if you are flying with just AirNZ:

http://www.enz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=26010

so you can get some money off (I wish I had).

And lin I would say give it another week and then contact them to ask if they received it fine, I know it's a pricey call but probably worth it just to check they received it ok. But bear in mind there has been two (several days long) London postal strikes very recently so your acknowledgement letter could very easily just be delayed....and some other people on here just seem to have received their first correspondece from their CO without the general acknowledgement letter at all so try not to worry for another week That way by them you might even have a CO not just an acknowledgement.



Good luck to you both!

[Kitten Witten]

Forgot to say, general guidance on timeframe for partnership through London Office is 1-3 months from the date of allocation to visa officer:

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/branc...ssingtimes.htm

Not sure if you knew that as it sounds like they didn't send you a proper acknowledgement letter.

Hope that helps too

[TimAck]

Thanks KittenWitten, useful stuff. Will hang on another week before chasing them up. Just want to make sure they received the 2nd birth certificate of, was recorded delivery so I know it's been delivered to them but just not heard anything back so slightly worried.