Hi there,
A friend is going to apply for a partnership-based work permit after already overstaying a visitor's permit for 4 months!
She had applied for a working holiday permit back in October, reached the second stage of the application, but was then told the quota had been filled and she'd missed out.
Her excuse is that as she thought she was getting a working holiday permit, she did not change the date of her return ticket and has since lost her airfare, meaning she hasn't been able to afford to fly home (or go to Australia to apply or something like that).
I'd say INZ will have little mercy on her. The permit she is applying for now would be a partnership-based work permit - Kiwi partner (together for 8 months, living together for 6 months).
They might simply ask why she didn't sort it out before. It was just a major error on her part - some people don't take these things seriously enough until it's too late.
Cheers for any replies. Have searched forum for 'overstaying' but not coming across any similar situations.