Partnership Permanent Resident application advice

[alow]

Hi there!

I am currently a 22 year old university student in New Zealand. I am in NZ under a student visa. I have been in a relationship with my partner for 2.5 years and I am now thinking of applying for a partnership permanent resident visa.

We have been living together for a year now. We have joint bank accounts. My partner is already working but I am still being financially supported by my family so I do not have a steady income. Will that affect the application in any way?

Also, what is considered "documents showing public or family recognition of your relationship"? Would greeting cards & group photos with family and friends come under this?

How do I provide evidence of the duration of our relationship, degree of commitment, communication and commitment?

I seem to fit most of the criteria for application stated on the INZ website. What are the chances of my application being approved & how long does it usually take for the residency to be granted?

Would be very helpful what sort of arrangements & preparations I need to do before lodging my application. Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated.

[JandM]

Hello.

Here are some old threads on the forum dealing with the kind of evidence people have used to support their partnership visa applications. https://www.google.co.uk/#q=site:enz...rship+evidence You will find plenty of varying suggestions to help you.

As 12 months' living together is the basic requirement for partner-sponsored Residence, you have to show very clearly that 12 months before submitting your application, you were already living together. There needs to be something to firmly establish that, both the fact and the date. From then on, you should aim to assemble AT LEAST three or four pieces of evidence that you continued together for every passing month. As you will see on the old threads, these pieces of evidence can be varied. Yes, photos, invitations and greeting cards can do the job - label and date these, linking to the occasions, or passing seasons, or a trip you took together, etc. etc.. Mail sent to each of you at the joint address is good, particularly from official bodies, and having the envelope with franking on can help.

You need to end up with as solid a picture of the 12 months with you together as you can. That is what the CO will have to check through, and you're trying to make it as easy as possible for him/her.

Continue to collect partnership proof even after your application has gone in. It is common for the CO to ask for more partnership evidence, to cover the time of processing, just before issuing the visa (to make sure they're not going to give it to someone whose relationship has broken up).

As to how long it takes, this varies with the amount of applications going through at the time. You can Google "NZ immigration (whichever) branch processing times" to see their current estimate of timings. It's never a promise - this timing is a guess based on how things have been running recently on average. Then of course, every case is individual and is checked out on its own merits. So no firm prediction is ever possible.

Good luck!

[alow]

As 12 months' living together is the basic requirement for partner-sponsored Residence, you have to show very clearly that 12 months before submitting your application, you were already living together. There needs to be something to firmly establish that, both the fact and the date. From then on, you should aim to assemble AT LEAST three or four pieces of evidence that you continued together for every passing month. As you will see on the old threads, these pieces of evidence can be varied. Yes, photos, invitations and greeting cards can do the job - label and date these, linking to the occasions, or passing seasons, or a trip you took together, etc. etc.. Mail sent to each of you at the joint address is good, particularly from official bodies, and having the envelope with franking on can help.

You need to end up with as solid a picture of the 12 months with you together as you can. That is what the CO will have to check through, and you're trying to make it as easy as possible for him/her.

Good luck!

Hi there. You've been amazingly helpful!

I have no problem assembling mail addressed to me at our joint address since I have a habit of keeping envelopes and letters. My partner on the other hand tends to throw away his mail after reading it. The "oldest" letter addressed to him that I can find is actually only from the 6th month we stayed together. Would that be a problem? But then again our tenancy agreement does state the date we moved into this joint address. We also have electricity bills addressed to both of us & transactions within our join bank account. Not sure whether that would suffice :/

[JandM]

Nothing is an absolute MUST for either one of you - just try to cover proving that both of you are there each month, by whatever means you can, and in as many ways as possible. (The electricity bills and bank activity are good.)