Family Residence Visa

[Hoggle]

Hi,

I'm a kiwi (been living in the UK for 7 1/2 years). My husband and I are planning on moving to NZ in November (he's English) and we are looking at the family residence visa at the moment. I had a couple of questions and wondered if anyone can help (I've been looking through all the threads and found lots of useful info!):

1. We have been married for 11 months so obviously have mariage certificate etc as evidence of our relationship. For the other evidence, how much should we be collecting? Eg. we have had a joint bank account for 5 years - should we be showing evidence of this for the whole 5 years? HOw many joint letters, bills, photo's etc should we include?

2. We have lived togetehr for 5 years but don't have our names together on joint leases - does this matter?

3. The application asks for police checks for each person referred to in the application - am I right in assuming that this is myself and my husband not all the family members listed (that are obviously not moving with us!) - sorry probably a stupid question!

4. Biggest question - we are having a baby in early July - do we need to wait until the baby is born before submitting the visa or should we get the process started levaing the baby's details off until it is born?

5. Do all applicants have interviews?

6. How long does this usually take if no problems with medical?

Thanks for your help, it's looking a bit daunting even though we have had a simple straight forward relationship/marriage for significantly longer than the 1 year required!!

Great site - already got lots of useful information!!

[mptopham]

Hi, and welcome to the forum. I have recently got PR at the London branch as my wife is a kiwi.

1. We have been married for 11 months so obviously have mariage certificate etc as evidence of our relationship. For the other evidence, how much should we be collecting? Eg. we have had a joint bank account for 5 years - should we be showing evidence of this for the whole 5 years? HOw many joint letters, bills, photo's etc should we include?

This is up to you but the more the better. We went back 2 years and provided the following: Joint bank statements x 3
Tenancy agreements x 2
Council tax bill (x 2)
Utility bills (3 I think)
Photographs (about 10 of them as a couple and with family)
Marriage certificate (with copy)
Wedding invitation
Personal cards (3 of them)
Airline tickets (2 trips)

2. We have lived togetehr for 5 years but don't have our names together on joint leases - does this matter?

If you have enough other evidence of living together this shouldn't matter.

3. The application asks for police checks for each person referred to in the application - am I right in assuming that this is myself and my husband not all the family members listed (that are obviously not moving with us!) - sorry probably a stupid question!

Yes just you and your husband

4. Biggest question - we are having a baby in early July - do we need to wait until the baby is born before submitting the visa or should we get the process started levaing the baby's details off until it is born?

I can't help with this one I'm afraid! You might need to call the london Contact Centre (if you do call use 01245 454448 rather than the £1 a minute number)

5. Do all applicants have interviews?

You wouldn't normally need an interview for partnership applications (in fact I don't think you ever have an interview for partnership but I could be wrong)

6. How long does this usually take if no problems with medical?

See my timeline below as an example and this thread http://www.enz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=33676 Also check out the London Branch page for estimates http://www.immigration.govt.nz/branch/londonbranchhome/

Good luck

Mark

[JandM]

Question 5 - a CO can require an interview with anybody, but it very rarely happens except for Skilled Migrant route applicants without a job offer. (I seem to remember someone posting that they'd been interviewed on the partnership route when the CO seemed to think they weren't a genuine partnership.)

[Origems]

Hi,

It sounds as if your OH might qualify for a Permanent Residence visa straight away as you have been an expat for more than 5 years and your relationship has been for 5 years as well. If you want to bypass the usual Resident visa you will however need to provide proof of your relationship going back 5 years which it sounds like you can with your joint bank account. We supplied a mortgage statement from 6 years ago and another one from 4 years ago which seemed to do the trick so I'm sure a joint bank account statement from 5 years ago will be fine along with the other info you've listed.

Tim

[Moomette]

4. Providing that you yourself have got full NZ citizenship, your baby should qualify for citizenship by descent, hence would not need to be included in the application for your husband, but would just need to be registered once born http://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.ns...t?OpenDocument

6. I applied from London just under 1.5 years ago, and I think it took about 2-3 weeks to get approval with no medical issues. This may have changed since then though.

[Hoggle]

Thank you all for your responses - very helpful! I need to renew my NZ passport so will pop into NZ House and check things through with them them.

Thanks again - I'm sure I will be on this site a lot more in the next few months!!!