Advice on wife's visa

[richak]

Some advice would be appreciated:

I'm based just outside London, UK and I have a NZ job offer from an accredited employer and will be appying for a visa under the work to residence category.
I will also be making an application for my wife under the partnership based temporary application and for my daughter I will be applying for a student visa. We have our medicals on 15 July and are awaiting the police certificates to come back, so almost there.

Unfortunately my wife has a work contract that she has to complete in Africa which will run until Feb 2014. I need to be in NZ in September 2013.

Firstly, is it likely that we will get approval before Sept 2013 enabling me to take up my position?

Secondly, my wife will be out of the UK before I submit my application in London, so can I submit a certified copy of her passport along with her application? Or should I wait and submit her application once I am actually approved and in NZ?

Finally, the fact that my wife will be away from me for these 8 months, is that likely to give me a problem on the question of whether it is a genuine relationship (we have been married 16+ years and she only took the job as it would enhance her career prospects and we didn't expect my job offer to come through so quickly).

Thanks for looking and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[JandM]

Finally, the fact that my wife will be away from me for these 8 months, is that likely to give me a problem on the question of whether it is a genuine relationship (we have been married 16+ years and she only took the job as it would enhance her career prospects and we didn't expect my job offer to come through so quickly).

No. As long as you provide plenty of evidence of your partnership (see old threads on the forum as well as suggestions from INZ), you can show that a) your wife has a work commitment, and b) you can show how you and she keep in touch (emails, skype, phone bills, etc.) during the time you're apart, that will do the necessary.

Firstly, is it likely that we will get approval before Sept 2013 enabling me to take up my position?

Look at the INZ London branch processing times page for their current estimate. But understand, every case is different, an estimate is not a promise, and it will take as long as it needs for them to check out everything necessary.

so can I submit a certified copy of her passport along with her application?

Ask INZ's advice, telling them how long she'll be out of the UK, WITH her passport.

[girlwithanewf]

Some advice would be appreciated:

I'm based just outside London, UK and I have a NZ job offer from an accredited employer and will be appying for a visa under the work to residence category.
I will also be making an application for my wife under the partnership based temporary application and for my daughter I will be applying for a student visa. We have our medicals on 15 July and are awaiting the police certificates to come back, so almost there.

Unfortunately my wife has a work contract that she has to complete in Africa which will run until Feb 2014. I need to be in NZ in September 2013.

Firstly, is it likely that we will get approval before Sept 2013 enabling me to take up my position?

Secondly, my wife will be out of the UK before I submit my application in London, so can I submit a certified copy of her passport along with her application? Or should I wait and submit her application once I am actually approved and in NZ?

Finally, the fact that my wife will be away from me for these 8 months, is that likely to give me a problem on the question of whether it is a genuine relationship (we have been married 16+ years and she only took the job as it would enhance her career prospects and we didn't expect my job offer to come through so quickly).

Thanks for looking and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Accredited employer visas can have a very quick turn around if everything is in order, no medical issues etc. We did that coming up to 4 years ago and it came back over a weekend, just a matter of days.
To get the stamp in the passport, your wife will have to submit her passport. Those visa applications all go as one package as far as I understand from my own experience - your wife gets a visa purely on the strength of your application. Makes it a lot easier to do it all at once.
I had one of those work visas, it just said I had to enter NZ no later than the date given - 6 months after the visa was issued. We didn't have to do all the same proof of relationship which you have to do with other kinds of visa. We just sent in our wedding certificate, proof that we owned a house together and had owned another house a few years prior to that and a council tax bill, also information to prove that we were caring for our child - birth certificate, child benefit information. We didn't send any personal stuff such as photos, emails, letters, skype calls etc, just very clear information stating that we lived here, together, paid bills together, had a child together over an extended period of time. Same applied when we did the residence application based on that visa. The main difference between this visa and residence visas is that you have a job offer already and have proved to an accredited employer that they want you, instead of everyone else on the job market. Do they even need to know on the visa form that she is away for work? She is only temporarily resident in Africa?
Your main problem is how to get the passport to London for stamping - I would ask if you can send in a certified copy with the visa and then bring/send the passport in for stamping. (I know when we applied later for residence here in NZ we did that as one of us was away at the time). The second problem is to ensure that your wife enters before the 6 months period.
If that were us, I would get the paperwork together asap, check with them that you can send in a certified copy. If it is send it all in together, somehow get the passport to London for stamping, and then enter NZ separately. Even if it means a quick trip to London for the passport stamping and a slightly less quick trip to NZ to enter and validate the visa. Hopefully it all works out time wise without the extra expenses of flights for visa purposes. Hope that helps, just what we experienced of course.
All the best.

[richak]

Many thanks for the great advice