Advice needed immigration officer's response on partnership based temporary work visa

[half_life]

Hello all!

My partner and I got married on the 10 October 2013. We both are from India and it was a culturally arranged marriage. I hold a New Zealand resident visa and therefore my partner applied for partnership based temporary work visa.

To support the application we have provided the following:

1. Marriage certificate
2. Photos of the wedding ceremony and our outings
3. Video of the wedding ceremony
4. Proof of online communication and call history
5. Certified copy of my residence visa
6. Police clearance certificate and full medicals

We applied for temporary work visa based on this information on the INZ website:

If you have been living together for less than 12 months, initially we can only grant you a work visa for up to 12 months. Later you can apply for a further work visa for a total stay of up to two years (including the time already granted on your initial partnership work visa) if:

1. you and your partner want to stay longer in New Zealand and can show us that you are still in a genuine and stable relationship, or
2. you apply for residence as a partner.

Today my partner has received an email from the Immigration officer stating that she has been granted a visitor visa instead of temporary work visa citing the following reason:

"While I am satisfied at this stage that you are in a genuine relationship with your partner, I note that you both have not lived together and, therefore, you do not meet the ‘living together’ criteria required to assess this as a partnership under New Zealand Immigration Instructions, please refer to instruction E4.5.5 (F2.20). We are, therefore, unable to approve a visa under the category of Partnership."

We have some confusion over this explanation as the above referred sections, we believe, do not apply in our case. As per INZ website, E4.5.5 applies to partners and dependent children of temporary entry class visa holders which is not the case as I hold a resident class visa; and F2.20 speaks pf people applying for resident class visas which once again is not the case.

Please advice us with future course of action as my partner is keen on obtaining a work visa rather than a visitor visa.

Thanks in advance!

Srikanth

[FrenchGuy]

We both are from India and it was a culturally arranged marriage.

Hi,
Are you happy with it ?
I think immigration services may have doubt especially in your situation. Altough immigration in France is not as strict as in NZ, arranged marriages exist (called "white" marriage) and are used by migrants to allow someone to move easily in the country. The "false" husband/wife have to pay the other one several thousand euros and after 6 month they divorce.

They want to be sure you're not in this case.

[JandM]

This is a normal situation. An actual marriage does not, for New Zealand, rule out the need for proof that the partners have lived together - they are normally happy once they can see about three months' evidence.

She has been given the visitor's visa so that she can join you, you can begin collecting evidence that you are living together, and then, once you have about 12 weeks' proof, she will be able to get the partner-sponsored work visa.

As FrenchGuy says, INZ are VERY careful about checking all visa applications based on partnership because those are the visas which are targeted by fraudsters. Therefore, you should collect as much information to send to them as you can. There are old threads which give suggestions about what you need. https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=cr&...tnership+proof