Hi
I am returning to NZ with my US born wife and 6 month old daugher in June. I cannot wait and just hope my wife settles ok (incidently if there is anyone on this thread that is based in Auckland and is a newly arrived expat and female/yoga lover/adventure seeker im sure my wife would love to make share experiences and make some friends).
Anyway, we successfully applied for her residency under the family category last year and were given 12 months to start the visa (which would expire before we intend to arrive permanently in june). As luck would have it we need to be in NZ for a wedding in a few weeks. I'm hoping that our arrival will "trigger" my wife's visa and we will not need to go about reapplying. Does anyone know if we are arriving but not yet intending on staying permenantly will this trigger the visa?
To complicate matters my daughter will be travelling with us and we have not had a chance to get her NZ passport yet (we have managed to get her NZ citizenship but cannot get an NZ passport in time before we leave as we need to apply through London or NZ). Therefore she will need to be on a tourist visa and we will apply for her passport once we come back. I'm worried that my daughters toursit visa will make it clear to the customs people that we are intending on leaving for a short time and will not trigger my wifes visa as a result. Appreciate this is complicated but interested in anyones experiences at customs starting their visa.
Thanks