Accredited Employer Work Permit | FBI Police Certificate

[bengaboy]

Team,

I am in a tough situation now and need some serious help!

I am an Indian national, currently staying in the US for the last 3 years. I am applying for an accredited employer work permit with my joining date as 19 May. I am an IT Infrastructure person with around 10+ years of relevant experience.

I did submit my application a couple of weeks back in the US branch and got a reply yesterday from them that they need an FBI-issued police certificate. This requirement catches me by surprise since it wasnt there in the checklist of documents which I needed to submit. As per the documentation on the NZ immigration website, since this visa is a temporary entry class visa, it requires a police certificate from the country of citizenship, as well as any other country where I have stayed for more than 5 years. There are various places on the website which says this. One of them is -
(http://glossary.immigration.govt.nz/...rtificates.htm), it says -
If you are in New Zealand temporarily, for example, to study or work
You must provide police certificates if you are 17 years of age or over and you are intending to stay in New Zealand for 24 months or longer, unless one of the exceptions applies.
We need to see certificates from:
your country of citizenship (unless you can prove you never lived there), and
any country you have lived in for 5 or more years since turning 17 years of age.
Since I have stayed in the US for a period of around 3.5 years, I don't think I am required to submit the FBI Police Background Verification certificate issued in the US. Police certificates from India (which is my country of citizenship) should be enough.

Nevertheless, did a bit of research on this FBI certificate and got to know that it would take 13-14 weeks for FBI to issue this certificate (http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ide...summary-checks). Since I am not a US national, I cannot use any of the channelers and have no other option but to wait for these 13-14 weeks. This would of course delay my application and I doubt whether my potential employer would wait that long.

Based on these observations, I did speak to the NZ immigration call center yesterday night. She validated and confirmed all these points, spoke to her supervisor and assured me that she would put in these notes in my application for the CO's consideration. She also acknowledged that the website may have ambiguous data and may need to be reviewed internally.

I have been mailing the CO, but she feels strongly that I need to send across this certificate. She feels that the health and character requirements of this visa is the same as the one for a residence-class visa (and not a temporary-entry work visa) and thus I need to submit police certificates for all places I stayed for more than a year (and not 5 years, as I beleive). Also, she has refused the option to waive this requirement and/or to submit a statutory declaration.

In her email today morning, she listed out these options -
1. Provide the police certificate and proceed with this visa type
2. Change your visa type and you may not be required to provide a police certificate
3. Continue with this visa type without your FBI police certificate, in this case your application will be declined.

For sure, option 3 is not an option.
Option 1 - Do you think the CO would put my application in cold storage and wait for 13-14 weeks for this FBI certificate to come in? Of course, assuming that my potential employer doesnt lose interest in the meanwhile.
Option 2 - I need help on this option? What do you think I could go for? Does my potential employer have to submit some additional documentation?
Option 3 - Of course, this isnt an option.

I am worried/nervous/dissapointed and need help!

bengaboy

[Bromley86]

I can see her point, in that it does look like you are applying for a residence class visa, i.e. Talent (Accredited Employers), aka Work to Residence.

We were hoping to use the Talent visa, but the job offer was only a 12m contract, so we're having to go the SMC route to residence. That's not relevant to you, but what is that we're also having to get a temporary work visa as the SMC won't be processed in time. Definitely speak to an immigration agent; I'd assume it's not worth messing around if a case officer is digging their heels in.

[larrykiwi]

See A5.5 e http://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/i45181.htm

[bengaboy]

See A5.5 e http://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/i45181.htm

Thanks Larrykiwi! My idea is not to challenge the CO. She may have her reasons and I'm sure they are valid reasons.

Nevertheless, apart from waiting for the FBI certificate to come through - is there any other work permit/visa I could apply for? Any suggestions?

bengaboy

[Sun777]

Nevertheless, apart from waiting for the FBI certificate to come through - is there any other work permit/visa I could apply for? Any suggestions?

those aged 17 and over applying for temporary entry class visas who intend to stay in New Zealand for 24 months or longer; and

On above link there a golden word "intend", as you are already expressed your interest for Work To Residence (towards residence) , I don't think there is a workaround for this. So as far as my knowledge goes its Option 1.

I had similar experience (for my partners' Health check) when we were considering to apply for a temporary Work Visa while facing medical hurdles for SMC.

[Bromley86]

is there any other work permit/visa I could apply for? Any suggestions?

As she said, take a look at the temporary work visa route. The fly in the ointment is that the test that the employer has to satisfy regarding proving that they looked for NZers to fill the job may be stricter. Again, consult an agent; if you have concerns that the job offer may evaporate if you wait to long, you can't afford to mess around.

I have a job offer from a New Zealand employer

If you have a job offer from a New Zealand employer and do not fall under one of the categories for specialist workers below, you may apply under the Essential Skills work category.

[bengaboy]

OK folks, here is an update.

In the end of may (nearly 2 months after the issue was brought up), the CO got in touch with me and issued me the visa without waiting for the US FBI certificate. Yeah!!!

I am all set to come to NZ in mid-August!

Thanks so much all of you for your help and support!

[Otaku]

Glad the matter sorted itself. How is job search going?

[bengaboy]

Thanks for asking Otaku. I do have a job (accredited employer) and I'm all excited to join them in August!

[Otaku]

Thanks for asking Otaku. I do have a job (accredited employer) and I'm all excited to join them in August!

Good to know. August is a fairly good time of the year with winter receding and summer about a month away. All the Best!