Hi All,
Been reading the board, looking for a similar thread, but happily most of the discussions on here are about successful applications for residency and a new life in NZ. My issue is one that's not quite so positive, although parts of it are definitely a good thing.
My wife and I moved from the UK to NZ about 4 1/2 years ago, I'm a Kiwi (born in Nelson) and she applied for and gained residency through a partnership application. We'd been married for over 2 years when she applied and we'd been together for about 5 years. Sadly, things did not work out between us and we have seperated. She had already settled well into NZ life by the time we seperated, has a good job, a new bloke (who she's living with) and is generally happy to continue living in NZ. I have also moved on and have met a great new girl, who I definitely see a long-term future with...
But here is the issue. We've gone past the 2 year seperation requirement for filing for divorce, I am happy to just get it signed, filed and done, so we can both just get on with our new lives with our new partners. However my wife is concerned that, as her residency is based on a partnership application, if we file for divorce, she will have to re-apply for residency. Not that this would be a problem, as said she has a good job, excellent education background and is easily of value in NZ. She wants me to instead wait another 7 months, so she can apply for citizenship, before proceding with divorce (it is a condition of her residency that she must inform immigration of any change in circumstance).
I don't think this will be an issue, but I understand her concern. However, while we had a pretty clean seperation, no real bad feelings towards each other, I don't want to stall it unecessarily and part of me thinks that she's using it to mess me around (something she enjoyed doing when we were together, but I won't get into that now... )
Does anyone know anything of what might happen? I would think that this is not the first time this kind of thing would have happened, but there's very little information on the internet, or the immigration website.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Jason