Partner Visa for Thai girlfriend.

[JMan89]

Hi guys,

I am currently looking at getting a partner visa sometime in the future for my Thai girlfriend Oy and would like some feedback and thoughts about our situation. I met Oy during my first visit to Thailand and made a second visit 1 month later to see her again, we have know each other for approx. 6 months now. We are both very much in love and I am trying to find a path that will eventually allow us to live together permanently. Here's our current situation:

I am a NZ citizen currently living in Perth Australia, Oy will be joining me in about 3 weeks on a 3 month tourist visa (visa application lodged with a visa adviser who says we have a strong application), after she goes back to Thailand I am planning on arranging an application for a student visa for her which will allow her to stay here in Australia for upto 66 weeks and work upto 20 hours per week. During this time we will set up a joint bank account and keep all letters addressed to her and myself that show our address, take many photographs of us together and try and collect as much supporting evidence as we can that show we have been living together and are in a genuine relationship.

Now this is where the NZ side of it comes in...

After her student visa expires and she goes back to Thailand, I will be quitting my job here and returning back to my motherland NZ for various reasons, but not to mention that it will also then be possible for us to get a partner visa as we will not qualify for one in Aus.

I understand this plan is looking a fair way into the future and of course depends on if we do indeed grow to love each other more and both decide we want to be together but I would like to be able to see a way this can be possible now before things get more complicated. Also, I am currently boarding at my older brothers house where Oy and myself will be staying, therefore there will be utility bills in our names.

Will evidence of us living together in Australia for over 12 months be enough for NZ immigration? Will I need to be employed in NZ in order to get the partner visa? Does this seem like a possible plan?

Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

[JandM]

Hello.

NZ likes their Kiwis to come home, and if the price for that is admitting their foreign partners, they are usually fairly up for it.

About three months' partnership proof is normally enough for an application for a partner-sponsored work visa http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...milystream.htm, and 12 months' evidence is enough for partner-sponsored residence http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...ly/default.htm. However, the application for either kind of visa usually goes better if it goes in while the partners are actually living in the same place, rather than afterwards. (Partnership visas, which only require proof of the partnership, not qualifications and work experience, being simpler, are the ones most often targeted by fraudsters paying people to lie to get them a visa, therefore, they are the most carefully scrutinized by INZ. And the cynical official mind is probably fairly liable to look at the scenario of two people who used to live together but who are now in different countries, and interpret it as a couple who have split up.) So, if it will be possible to time your leaving Australia to coincide with Oy's ending her course of study, and aim your application to that point, so there won't be a time when you're not living together just before you apply, things may work out more easily.

You, being a New Zealand national, don't have to be employed in NZ in order to sponsor your partner.

[JMan89]

Thanks for the quick reply, It's encouraging to know it's definitely possible.

Would it then be safer to apply for the partner-sponsored work visa say 4 months into us living together in Australia as there will be no risk of us being separated anytime soon, and then when we are both in NZ apply for the partner sponsored visa?

This raises a couple questions in my mind:
1. Can we apply for a partner-sponsored work visa or partner sponsored visa while currently living in Australia or any other country besides N for that matter?
2. Does the 12 month pre-requisite of living together have to be during 1 solid stint in one place or can it be broken up, say 6 months in Australia and 6 months in NZ?

Thanks again.

[JandM]

The partner-sponsored temporary work visa is only valid for entry to NZ for a limited time, so there's no advantage to having one before you're intending to make the move. I THINK (but can't immediately find the detail) that if the visa is issued it has to be used within three months, or it lapses - you can check this with a call to INZ. Similarly, I THINK partner-sponsored residence has to be used within six months of issue.

Another possible scenario would be applying for partner-sponsored residence when you have the 12 months' proof. (The Auckland processing times page is estimating 6 - 9 months' wait for allocation to a CO, then the processing comes after, whereas the work visa average is around a month.) Then, if you get towards the end of your time in Australia without that having come through, you could apply for the partner-sponsored temporary work visa, which can be processed more quickly - in fact, enquiring, 'Do I need to do this?' often sparks the arrival of the one you wanted in the first place.

1. Yes, you can.

2. The period covered for partnership evidence can be for wherever you happen to be - it's the living together that counts, not the place where it's happening. There have been people on the forum who applied while doing some world travel, with part of their evidence being their flights, hotel bookings, travel expenditure, etc..

[JMan89]

Thankyou so much for your help, I just have a few more questions

When you say that the work visa average is around 1 month does that mean it will be 1 month before it is assigned to a CO, and if so what is the typical wait after it is assigned to a CO?

Also, can I submit the application on my girlfriends behalf, providing of course I get all the relevant documents from her?

Thanks again

[JandM]

No, the month is for the visa to be finalised. See here. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/branc...ocessingtimes/

The application is from her with your support, so there are things that she has to sign. If that is done correctly, who actually sends it is immaterial. But of course, any queries and further contact from INZ will come to her, because it is her application.

[JMan89]

Ok, that's all the information I need for now.
I'm sure I will be using this forum some time in the future

Thanks again.