Need some urgent advice please..

[Islandhobbit]

Hi everyone,

My wife and I have been in New Zealand for 4 years now. We both hold level 7 degrees and we applied lodged out ITA on the 4th of April at the chch branch.

We have two sons both born here and the youngest still does not hold a valid visa as we haven't applied for one yet. He is 7 months old. It took over 4 months to get a Fijian passport and as soon as we received it we lodged for residency.

My wife is on a graduate job search visa expiring in march next year and my work visa along with my older sons visitor visa expires in early July. What are our best options? Call and check up on our residency application and hope they grant it to us in time or apply for another work visa? If I were to apply under my wife would that be possible? Or will I have to go through the whole process of getting my employer to advertise my position, put it on the Canterbury hub etc?

Also do I need to apply for a visitor visa for my 7 month old son?

Please help.

Cheers

[Islandhobbit]

Bottom line.. We're hoping we don't have to spend more money on visa applications. We're saving up for our migrant levies. Etc

[JandM]

Hello. A couple of questions first, as the answers make a difference.

Who put in the ITA? - that is, who was the main applicant? It only needs to be ONE of a couple, since the other one will automatically get Residence when the main applicant does.

Would I be right in thinking that your wife now has a skilled job in NZ, that she has been able to start working on because of her Graduate Job Search Visa?

A child born in NZ, whose parents are legally there, is never without a visa - s/he is given the visa status of whichever parent has the higher class of visa. You just need to fill in the form mentioned here, and ask INZ to declare what the situation is for your boy. http://www.dol.govt.nz/immigration/k...base/item/1084

[Karen Phillips]

Hi. I feel that the best place to start is with INZ Christchurch. Tell them that you are keen to ensure your visa doesn't expire and would appreciate some idea of the timeline for a decision on your residence application. If this doesn't resolve your problems, I have contacts in Christchurch who run a not-for-profit centre in Christchurch to help people like yourself. Send me a Private Message and I will give you their details. Kind regards. Karen

[Islandhobbit]

Hi JandM, my wife has been on a work visa under partnership for the last 2 years. I was the principal applicant. She did post grad studies last year and then applied for a graduate search visa. She began a skilled Job in jan 2013.

My daughter and I's visa expire in July this year and my wife's in march next year. Do you think it's worth a shot asking immigration to hurry the process up so we don't have to pay for new visas?

My wife is the principal applicant.

[Islandhobbit]

Thanks for that Karen,

I have filled out our work visa applications under my wife and will call immigration first thing in the morning. Will keep you posted. Cheers

[JandM]

Do you think it's worth a shot asking immigration to hurry the process up so we don't have to pay for new visas?

I don't think you can really say 'hurry up', but you can ask them if they think it's possible that the Residence visas will be through in time, and also, if not, what they recommend as the best course of action for you, all things considered.

You should be eligible to get a partner-sponsored visa, to match your wife's graduate job search visa for length, and also a matching one for your elder child(ren), in case the Residence won't be through in time.

Good luck with it all, and yes, do keep us posted with what happens.