Help with visa options

[kmarees1986]

Hi All,

I have searched the NZ immi website and was hoping for some further clarity from the experts on this site.

I am Australian, my husband is from the UK. We are about to have a daughter next month who is going to be born in Australia, making her Australian too. The three of us are exploring possibly moving to New Zealand as my husband is having some problems obtianing a visa to Australia, and I want to be as close as possible to my family in Australia.

I understand that when I enter NZ on my Aussie passport I am granted a NZ Residence Visa - but does this make me eligible to sponsor my husband as my partner?

Furthermore, if he enters on a tourist visa can he easily change over to a bridging visa of some sort while we possibly persue a partner visa? Or a skilled working visa, he is a Plasterer with 20 years experience and a sustained self employed business in the uk

Thanks in advance everybody!

[JandM]

Hello.

Yes, you're right that you (and your daughter) can get Residence in NZ on the strength of being Australian. http://www.dol.govt.nz/immigration/k...base/item/1068 Since you're making NZ your home, you will probably want to qualify for PR, so bear this in mind. http://www.dol.govt.nz/immigration/k...base/item/5323

Yes, once you have Resident status, you will be able to sponsor your husband for Residence http://www.dol.govt.nz/immigration/k...base/item/1121 (as long as you can show proof you have lived together for at least 12 months, otherwise he will have to apply for a partner-sponsored work visa first, and build up to the 12 months' proof), upon showing that NZ is now your permanent place of residence. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...nersstatus.htm

Furthermore, if he enters on a tourist visa can he easily change over to a bridging visa of some sort while we possibly persue a partner visa?

As a UK passport holder, he would be able to enter as a visa-waiver visitor (simply filling in a card on the aeroplane) for six months, and extend that, and this would normally be WAY more time that it would take to have a partner-sponsored Residence processed (assuming satisfactory partnership proof, and no problems with character or health certificates). However, if he entered WITH you and your daughter, if you were looking to get Residence stamped in your passports upon arrival, there could be difficulties for him: being a visitor implies an intention to leave again, and, in most cases, that you hold a ticket out before you're allowed to board a plane in, so it would be obvious his situation wasn't straightforward. INZ officials at the airport are responsible for being alert to people who don't fit the profile and might end up as overstayers/illegals.

Anyway, assuming that you all arrived in NZ (passing over for the moment when you stated to the authorities your intention to be resident), there is no provision for any 'bridging visa' that would allow him to work. The partner-sponsored visas, whether the work visa or Residence, are among the quickest to be processed, but he would be a visitor in the meantime. If he wanted to apply for a work visa in his own right on the basis of his skill as a plasterer, he would be on the same terms as anyone else with NO connection to a NZ resident - see the Immigration NZ website Find A Visa section - and even with all the necessary qualifications, and a job offer, could not expect the visa to go through more quickly than a partner-sponsored one. And he still could not work on his visitor visa while waiting. YOU, an Australian, could immediately take any job offered to you, but he would need to wait for the appropriate visa.

[kmarees1986]

Hello.

Yes, you're right that you (and your daughter) can get Residence in NZ on the strength of being Australian. http://www.dol.govt.nz/immigration/k...base/item/1068 Since you're making NZ your home, you will probably want to qualify for PR, so bear this in mind. http://www.dol.govt.nz/immigration/k...base/item/5323

Yes, once you have Resident status, you will be able to sponsor your husband for Residence http://www.dol.govt.nz/immigration/k...base/item/1121 (as long as you can show proof you have lived together for at least 12 months, otherwise he will have to apply for a partner-sponsored work visa first, and build up to the 12 months' proof), upon showing that NZ is now your permanent place of residence. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...nersstatus.htm

As a UK passport holder, he would be able to enter as a visa-waiver visitor (simply filling in a card on the aeroplane) for six months, and extend that, and this would normally be WAY more time that it would take to have a partner-sponsored Residence processed (assuming satisfactory partnership proof, and no problems with character or health certificates). However, if he entered WITH you and your daughter, if you were looking to get Residence stamped in your passports upon arrival, there could be difficulties for him: being a visitor implies an intention to leave again, and, in most cases, that you hold a ticket out before you're allowed to board a plane in, so it would be obvious his situation wasn't straightforward. INZ officials at the airport are responsible for being alert to people who don't fit the profile and might end up as overstayers/illegals.

Anyway, assuming that you all arrived in NZ (passing over for the moment when you stated to the authorities your intention to be resident), there is no provision for any 'bridging visa' that would allow him to work. The partner-sponsored visas, whether the work visa or Residence, are among the quickest to be processed, but he would be a visitor in the meantime. If he wanted to apply for a work visa in his own right on the basis of his skill as a plasterer, he would be on the same terms as anyone else with NO connection to a NZ resident - see the Immigration NZ website Find A Visa section - and even with all the necessary qualifications, and a job offer, could not expect the visa to go through more quickly than a partner-sponsored one. And he still could not work on his visitor visa while waiting. YOU, an Australian, could immediately take any job offered to you, but he would need to wait for the appropriate visa.

Thank-you so much for that information, I understand it alot clearly now! I think my husband will need to go ahead to New Zealand before me and our Daughter so I don't think we will have the problem at the airport. I guess similar to Australia he needs to show he is a genuine tourist rather than somebody entering with the intention of staying permanently even though we would be going down the correct avenues to get him legal to work.

Thanks again, its good to know there is another option for us to be close to my family and not have to live in the UK!

[JandM]

You're welcome to the information. Don't forget, there is a LOT of detail available at the INZ website (which was freezing up on me earlier, but has now woken up again), for instance, here's the partner-sponsored temporary work visa http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...milystream.htm, and here's partner-sponsored Residence. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...ly/default.htm

JandM, typing in the dear old despised UK!

[jawnbc]

This is just about right--but there are few things to pay attention to when YOU arrive in NZ:

• Every time you leave NZ you will be reseting the clock for eligibility for permanent residence and citizenship. Even when you pop across the pond to Australia. To avoid this you need to apply for a "variation of travel" permit once you've arrived. It's not too expensive (around $200) and they issue them on the spot. But important to know.
• Passports are not longer routinely stamped and no visa sticker issued for Aussies arriving in NZ to live: the "visa" is entered in their computers via your arrival card info. So ask--firmly--for a stamp or sticker in your passport when you arrive.
• The stickers/stamps are expected to get a tax file number (IRD number), register with a GP for a PHO (which means less money out of pocket to see a doctor and subsidized prescription meds.
• On a UK passport he might need an onward ticket to enter as a tourist...

My husband went through this a few months ago. He had to go to INZ in downtown Auckland to get a printout of the computer files since he didnt have anything in his passport. IRD number set up was easy; the GP to which he registered didn't like that he didn't have anything in his passport. So he went down to INZ and applied for a "variation of travel" sticker--which is really a Resident Visa.

[English Fe]

[*]Passports are not longer routinely stamped and no visa sticker issued for Aussies arriving in NZ to live: the "visa" is entered in their computers via your arrival card info. So ask--firmly--for a stamp or sticker in your passport when you arrive.[*]The stickers/stamps are expected to get a tax file number (IRD number), register with a GP for a PHO (which means less money out of pocket to see a doctor and subsidized prescription meds.

I hope to be coming on my Australian passport, with my two children on their Australian passports, is it routine for people to ask for a stamp and what exactly should you be getting if you are intending having PR in NZ?

Many thanks

[jawnbc]

Ask politely for a stamp; they may say they no longer give them. Just by arriving in NZ on an Aussie passport and tick on the arrival card you're moving there you get the right of residence. Equivalent to PR except every time you leave NZ the clock restarts. Only matters if you want NZ citizenship.