Getting a work visa (essential skills with job offer) until SMC visa granted

[Robert Cook]

Hello everyone,

We are in a bit of a pickle as regards to our moving to NZ!

Our situation is that myself and my wife are about to lodge our SMC visa, with a job offer (for myself, the main applicant) and the job starts in late October. We are aware that the SMC visa will not be granted in time for the end of October, so I need to get a 2 year working visa (essential skills with job offer) and my wife a partnership based work visa to cover us until SMC visa is granted.

I understand that the work visas can take up to 25 days to process with the London office and that they require posession of our passports until the visa is granted. We can't send off our paperwork until the 30th Sepetember due to my medical certs not having arrived yet. We fly on the 22nd Oct, so leaving it very tight and with no room for complications.

Now I have seen that many people have their work visas granted within 5 days, or so, of receival by the Immigration office - is this the norm? Also, is there a way of going down to the London office and gaining a 2 year work visa on the same day, or speeding up the process?

The last little niggle is that due to us applying for a 2 year work visa they require our medical certs. My wife's is all well and good. Mine is pretty good but for one slightly elevated result. My HbA1c is 44mmol/mol, which is 2mmol/mol over the range that INZ have. The Dr has ticked 'abnormal' but also stated next to the result that it is 'not significant'. This most likely means I will be referred to the MA for our SMC visa. Does this happen with the work visas also, because if it does then we are delayed even further. The knock on effect of this is that our passports won't be returned in time, we will have to cancel our flights, set back my job start date and we won't be able to enter NZ until they are returned to us.

I don't imagine they are as stringent in the health checks for work visas as they are with PR visas - is this the case?

I think that is our situation in a nut shell.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Rob and Germaine

[Karen Phillips]

Hi Rob and Germaine. Here are a few answers. Work Visas with no complications are coming back in about 2 weeks at the moment. There is no shortcut by going to London in person. However, if necessary, it is sometimes possible to get an e-Visa. You can send in your application with a certified copy of the identity page in your passports. You could
then travel to NZ and then return your passports physically or get the e-Visa in them or arrange to have them put in your passport in New Zealand. However, there is a risk that you could be refused entry if your visas have not been approved and your primary purpose of going to NZ is to work. Unlikely - but possible! You can get an Essential Skills Work Visa for one year - so you wouldn't need medicals right now. If you submit your medicals, which having paid for them is probably for the best, I can almost guarantee yours will be referred to the MA - just about everything marked "abnormal" is referred. This can create a delay of 1 -2 weeks. I would proceed as fast as you can, put in a cover letter explaining the urgency and rather than cancel the flights, see if you can pay a small amount to delay them by a week or so. You could get your visas in time, but it's going to be tight. Good luck! Karen PS make sure you provide plenty of partnership evidence for at least 12 months dating up to the most recent evidence you have.

[mikeandcaroline]

We were told by our immigration agent that anything referred to the MA can mean a delay of 4-6 weeks, but it is around 3 weeks currently. Though if they then ask more questions it will go back around again and be another potential 4-6 weeks. Anything going to MA can't be hurried up, you just have to wait until it appears out the other end. No one has access to them or any way of finding out where you are in the queue, not even the case officer.

We were advised not to make any non reversible plans until we had our visas.

Does your employer know the situation?

[JandM]

Yes, I think you need to keep your employer in the loop with this. I'm afraid you've put the cart before the horse, making your starting and travel arrangements before your visas were in place, as visas are granted, not bought. It probably won't be too much of a surprise to him/her - NZ employers making offers to foreigners are usually aware that there can be INZ delays, through no fault of their new employee.

[Robert Cook]

Many thanks Karen, mikeandcaroline and JandM. We realise that we did jump the gun a bit with booking our flights but were tied down a bit by the start date of my job. I'll see what the possibility is of changing our emirates flights for maybe another 4 weeks later and hope that the MA does not ask for any further tests. I can't see them doing so as it's only a slightly elevated result and seemed not significant by the panel Dr. Would they maybe grant a 6 month visa on the condition that follow up tests are done in NZ? I thought I had seen this in a previous post.

I'll update the post as our situation progresses.

Many thanks,

Rob

[Karen Phillips]

... applying for a 12 month visa would be the easiest solution as you don't need medicals but I guess that sooner or later you have to overcome this "hurdle" and so better now than later I guess. I have had quite a few medical referrals back within a week, although some have taken longer.

[Robert Cook]

... applying for a 12 month visa would be the easiest solution as you don't need medicals but I guess that sooner or later you have to overcome this "hurdle" and so better now than later I guess. I have had quite a few medical referrals back within a week, although some have taken longer.

Hi Karen,

We wanted a 12 month visa initially, but there is a question which states 'Do you intend to stay in NZ longer than 12 months?'. If we tick no we are not being turthful, if we tick yes then we have to send medical certs and are in the same situation.

The fact that my HbA1C is only slightly out of range will most likley mean it will pass through the MA's quite qucikly, and without further requested tests I would have thought. However, I can't be sure of this as it is in the hands of INZ. So when you say a few medical referrals have been back within 1 week, is this recently? And when you say longer - without further tests being requested - how long would this approx be? Would they not grant a shortened visa to satisfy my start date and then follow up from NZ?

Many thanks,

Rob

[Karen Phillips]

Hi. I doubt you will get any sort of visa until the medical assessor has checked out the blood test. I do understand that it is probably really minor - but they have recently checked 100% of anything stated as "abnormal". In the last two months I have had two MAs in London office. Both came back in about a week initially and then required further tests. One was mild anaemia another was old, dormant TB. Once the new tests were back, the visas were issues in less than a week. Total delay was about 2 weeks in each case. I cannot say what yours will be as it depends on caseload at the time. However, I think you are right that if you intend applying for residence more or less immediately, it is clearly your intention to stay longer than 12 months and so you have no choice. I am sure it ill all be fine - but I think you may have a deadline issue. Once you have lodged your application and been allocated a Case Officer, talk to that person and see what s/he can do. Cheers. Karen

[Robert Cook]

Hi Karen,

That's great info thanks. Do the MA's pretty much always refer for further tests, even if very minor? Or do they sometimes just say that's OK and pass it back to the CO?

I'm aware that our deadline is too close, even if I didn't have a medical referral we are very close to the turnaround time for the work visa and our flights. I have informed my future employer and asked the relocation company who booked our Emirates flight what we need to pay to change our flight for 4 weeks later.

We are sending our SMC visa at the same time as our work visa with all certified copies, medicals etc, so I suppose at the very least if they pass my medical to the MA it will only need to be seen by them once for both of our visa types.

Thanks Karen,

Rob

[Karen Phillips]

Hi. They don't always ask for more tests. Hard to predict. As you say, it will only have to be assessed the once. Talk to your CO when you have one. They are usually very helpful. Kind regards, Karen