Temporary Partnership Work Visa - Declined

[Womble10]

Hi everyone,

I have had a good look through existing threads, but I am struggling to find a similar situation to mine.

I have been declined a Temporary Partnership Work Visa. Having studied the reasons that I have been given, I am confident I can lodge a successful appeal.

Does anyone else have experience/knowledge of this process? I have been given a certain amount of time to respond, but does the same visa officer review the file, or does it go to a new officer? If the decision remains the same, can I pursue the appeal further, e.g with that officer's superior?

Many thanks in advance for any help you can give....

[JandM]

Hello and welcome.

I don't remember hearing of anyone appealing their case with the exact kind of visa you mention over the last couple of years, but certainly people have argued on points of detail in their PR aplications.

[Womble10]

Thank you very much indeed. I have responded to the officer dealing with the application, so fingers crossed!

[Womble10]

Just to let you know, I submitted more supporting evidence and although I have 'only' been given a 6 month working visa (they could have awarded 12 months), I am very happy as I can go and build up further evidence while in New Zealand to get an extension. I guess the one lesson I have learnt is to give as much supporting evidence as you can at the start of the application, even if it doesn't seem to be that significant. Every little bit helps!

Good luck to everyone else out there going through the approval process....

[Mamee & Co]

Well done Womble10.

Happy Landing in NZ.

[JandM]

That's good news - congratulations!

[stevekelly]

Congratulations Womble10 - very good news that you at least got the 6 months and can now build on that.

I am going through the very same process myself and am currently gathering relationship evidence to apply for 1 year work permit. Would you mind me asking what evidence you originally supplied and why they declined your application? What else did you have to supply? I'm keen to avoid any pitfalls myself so any advice would be really helpful.

Also can I ask, did you apply from within New Zealand or outside NZ?

Regards - Steve

[Womble10]

Thanks everyone.

Hi Steve,

Although my partner and I had only lived together in the UK for three months, we had been together for just under a year. She received a job offer back in NZ which was too good to turn down, so things happened rather quickly and she moved back towards the end of last year, with me planning to follow as soon as my work visa had been obtained.

We had never changed household bills/tenancy agreements etc to show both our names, and she had organised for her mail, e.g. bank statements, to be redirected by the Royal Mail, as she was conscious that she would only have to change everything when she moved back to NZ. We were able to supply proof that her mail had been redirected, and that her previous landlord had our address as a forwarding address. We also supplied the invoice from the company that delivered her belongings back to NZ, to show where the items had been picked up from.

We also supplied bookings of the trips abroad we had taken, as well as the engagement notice I had taken out in a national newspaper here in the UK, along with engagement cards, wedding invitations we had received as a couple, thank you cards to both of us. I guess because I know are a genuine couple, I perhaps underestimated just how much evidence we needed to provide to others to prove the same! Admittedly, many couples will have been together and lived together for much longer than us, but I still felt at the time that we have provided enough to prove a genuine relationship.

Anyway, around the time of the inital rejection, we booked our wedding, so I was then able to provide booking details for that. We had also opened up joint bank accounts in NZ, so I also sent details of those, along with phone records for the time we had been apart when she had taken up her job, with me here applying for the work visa. We also provided letters from friends and family as well as the person conducting our wedding, to testify to the genuine and stable relationship we have.

I completely understand that Immigration New Zealand have to err on the side of caution and so they should. The reason they gave for declining initially was that living together for just three months was not sufficient effience of a genuine and stable relationship. Along with the additional evidence, I argued that nowhere in the policy (which was supplied to me by Immigration New Zealand) was a minimum period of time that a couple should live together, actually stated. I also argued that all the supporting evidence that I had supplied supported our relationship. Although I have not had any written feedback yet, it appears I done enough to convince them.

I wish you all the best with your application...

[stevekelly]

Hi Womble10, and thanks for your reply.

I am however very confused now. I was told (by both people on this forum and by NZI themselves on the phone) that you only need to prove that you have been living together for a year if you're applying for permanent residency, not just for an initial 1 year work permit? Myself and my girlfriend have never lived together as she had to return to NZ from the UK shortly after we started our relationship. We have been doing a long distance relationship and have been making huge efforts to make the relationship work and stay alive, with me visiting NZ 3 times on a holiday visa, and we have plenty of evidence to show that we have been together including photos of trips together, hotels bookings, flights together, numerous emails, text messages and phone records to show that I called my partners NZ landline for about 2 hours almost every weekend we were apart.

Am I to think that this is a complete not starter for us and I have completely misinterpreted the rules, or were you applying to be a resident with your application?

Thanks - Steve

[JandM]

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...milystream.htm

Here's the page at NZIS that tells you about partner sponsored work visas of various kinds, which you get depending on your partner's nationality, or whether they have PR or a work visa. In all cases, to be eligible, you have to prove that you are this person's genuine partner (and this is what Womble 10 has been doing). You don't have to have been in the relationship for a year. How long the relationship has been going on can in some cases make a difference to the length of the visa they will give you.