resident visa partnership category, how long did yours take?

[elswyth]

I finally got my ducks in order and am sending off my application within the next week! Just curious, for those of you who were accepted, how long did it take? I have read the branch processing times on the website but am keen to hear real life anecdotes since the website is so vague! Also please state whether the sponsor was an expat , since expats get first priority and regular partner applications like mine would be second.

My partner got his skilled migrant resident visa a couple years back, about 6 months after submitting it. Hoping mine will take about the same time!

[JandM]

Good luck!

[elswyth]

Thanks, JandM!

Would anyone like to share their experiences?

[Lauralocks]

Hi,
I applied in the UK. My husband was an expat kiwi (I only say was because he's not expat anymore, not because he's not my husband or not alive!). My timescale for the process is in my signature. In terms of my experiences generally, I found it all a very smooth process once I'd submitted my forms. I missed a bit off the application and my case officer emailed me and let me know, sending me the extract from the form electronically. It didn't seem to slow the process at all. The more difficult bits of the process were definitely getting everything ready to submit. My medical was fine, but stressful. For the evidence of partnership I put a lot of work into gathering everything I possibly could think of, including letters from friends, photos, bank statements, evidence of holidays together. I can't remember all of it. I sent it in with a covering letter and a contents list, then I put a post-it on each group of documents explaining what they all were. It took a lot of work but was worth it as there were no questions and everything was very quick. I sent a photocopy of my passport initially as we were going away during the process, then I sent my passport in when it had been approved and they were ready to put in the blue stickers.

My experience is probably different to yours as we were in the UK not NZ, and my husband was expat as I said.

Good luck with your journey. Let us know how you get on.

Laura

[elswyth]

Hi, thanks, Laura! Wow that is really quick... my bf isn't an expat though (quite the opposite, he's just had Residence for a couple of years himself and has been in NZ the whole time) so I figure ours will take quite a bit longer than that.