Temporary Work Visa for my French Partner

[ORIO92]

Hi.

I came here seeking for some help, advice and reassurance.
I am a 23 year female New Zealand Citizen. In June 2014 I met a 25 year on French man (who was here on his working holiday) and we hit it off almost instantly. We have been in a relationship ever since. Unfortunately his working holiday expired in 2014 October and he had to re-enter the country twice (on a three month tourist visa) to come back to NZ.

He left in March 2015 for France. During the time he was here we didn't live together officialy and I understand that means it wont apply when it comes to giving evidence of living together. We continued our relaltionship long distance.

I went to see him in June 2015 for almost a month.

He wants to move back to New Zealand as he is not happy in France and we want to be able to start our lives properly together.

I understand that due to the fact that he has used up his one year working holiday, he will have to come here on a holiday visa again , live with me, and apply for a temporary work visa from within. This will give us a year to build up to apply for a partnership visa.

I am very scared of getting rejected. I understand that the general notion is that we rack up as much evidence (phone bills,,tenancy agreement..chores list..photos .. in our names etc) while he is here on his vistoris visa and that around 3 months is usually enough before starting an application for temporary work visa.

However people are telling me that I need to hire a lawyer which will cost between 6-10 k so that we can guarantee approval. reasons for this is because we are apparently "too young" and not in a relationship for "long enough"...

I know this is all hearsay from people and I am feeling very discouraged.

Can someone please help? Has anyone had similar experiences? And how long was the turnaround? Am I going about it the right way? And is it realistic to go through the applications ourselves withouthiring a immigration lawyer that will cost me an arm and a leg.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks in advance,

A loved up nz citizen

[Kiwilad]

Hey,

First of all I don't know who told you that you need a lawyer...... that's rubbish. There is no specific length that the couple has to be in a relationship for as long as you can prove that you're in a genuine and stable relationship, which I'm sure you will have no trouble doing especially after living together for 3 months, and you're certainly not "too young", the requirement is that you have to be over the age of 18. I don't know who has told you all of this but it sounds ridiculous. To make you feel a little better there was one couple on here not long ago who had been in a relationship for 6 months, aged 22. There's certainly no restrictions on age or length of relationship for you to worry about.
It sounds like to me you're doing everything right and have a good understanding of what you need to do.

[Kiwilad]

And 6-10k for help with a partnership based temporary work visa!!! Jeez! Someone's giving you extreme prices there!!

[JandM]

I just answered on your other thread as well.

[ORIO92]

And 6-10k for help with a partnership based temporary work visa!!! Jeez! Someone's giving you extreme prices there!!

Thanks kiwilad! Yes it sounds ridiculous expensive if you ask me. I've been following your story a bit on your and congrats on getting approved! it gives people like me hope!! was it reasonably straight forward the process or did you have bumps on the way?

[Kiwilad]

Yeah it seems a lot! Oh by the way the 'you're too young' part, my partners 23, I'm 22.. So I'm sure you will not have any troubles there.
Thanks heaps!

It was relitavely straight forward, we knew when we first start living together (3 months ago) that we would be applying for this visa so it was always in the back of our minds to get as much mail etc as possible.

The genuine and stable part was easy, I believe if you truly are in a genuine and stable relationship you should have no troubles being able to demonstrate that.
But living together we found difficult to prove, living in Thailand is difficult, nobody sends mail. Despite signing up for numerous reward card etc we literally received nothing, so it took abit of thinking and a good month to finally get some mail flowing. I was really worried about this part but turned out everything was ok.

Other than finding it difficult to prove living together in the way of correspondence, everything was very straight forward thanks to the guidance of everyone on here.

[ORIO92]

I live in NZ so hopefully that will be a bit easier

Will be posting regular updates on here when he finally comes over in September/October. I really can't wait to get the process started. How long where you in a relationship, if you don't mind me asking?

[Kiwilad]

From looking at your initial post it seems you have a good understanding of what you need to do. And I know this is a lot easier said than done but I dont think you need to stress yourself out too much wondering if you will get approved.

The other thing you have on your side is time. If your partner gets a 9 month visitor visa, you apply after 3 months and say it takes a month to get a decision, if for whatever you were declined atleast you still have another 5 months up your sleeve to gather further evidence of whatever was lacking.

[Kiwilad]

Sorry just saw your reply, we have been in a relationship for about a year and a half.

[ORIO92]

how do you apply for a 9 month visitor visa? He is French so he is part of the visa waiver countries, so he usually just gets stamped on arrival.? Sorry so many questions!