First entry in NZ for successful SMC category applicant

[ssachin]

Hi everyone,
My self and my wife were successful in our resident visa application (SMC category) last year. The blue stickers on my passport says, i need to make my first entry to NZ should be before 30th Jan 2016. I am planning to travel in Dec 2015.
Due to some personal reasons, my wife is planning to join me by end of 2016. So, do we need to apply for extending the visa date for my wife?
Any suggestions?
In our case, i am the primary applicant.

Thanks.

[JandM]

You CANNOT extend the visa date for your wife. If she does not enter NZ before the date on her visa, it will lapse, and her whole part of the application would have been done for nothing.

That first entry to NZ activates the visa, and each person must arrive in NZ to do so. Once her visa is activated, she could then leave after a brief holiday visit (or on the next plane, if she wanted). She then has two years' travel conditions, which allow her to enter NZ freely as many times as she wishes. In the meantime, you, the main applicant, must think about fulfilling the requirements for Permanent Residence http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...quirements.htm, because when YOU qualify, some time two years or so after your first arrival, your wife will then also get her PR (since she's a secondary applicant on your application), then you will both be able to travel out and back whenever you wish.

[ssachin]

So, this means before the first entry date, we both need to travel. After couple of weeks she can go back and can join me later right.
Also, what king of formalities we need to pursue soon after the first entry? Will there be any other stamping on the passport stating that the visa is activated?


Thanks JandM.

[JandM]

... (Edited because of a forum glitch.)

[JandM]

You need to provide the same kind of evidence covering the 12 months up to the date of his application. The fact that some of it will have been seen before does not matter.