We made our application for parent visas via Wellington office in
Sep 2010.
After a couple of early requests for repeat blood tests for minor issues we heard nothing beyond the acknowledgement informing us of the 18-24 months' wait.
At the end of 17 months, in the hope of stirring things up, I rang and informed them we were now back at our UK address and asked if our application would need to be transferred to London but was told that the decision would be made by the individual case officer once one had been appointed. I could get no further information whatsoever about the length of any further wait, except that applicants didn't often have to wait "beyond 2 years!!"
On April 11th,
almost 19 months after our application, we had an email from our appointed Case Officer, asking for updated information regarding sponsor's income and a birth certificate for my son still living in UK (previously included with our application and already returned to us) These were posted (UK-Wellington) and
3 days after receiving them the CO emailed to say our application was
APPROVED
Still feeling shell-shocked that after the interminable wait the final decision came through so quickly!!
Good luck for a positive outcome!