Hi there,
I have applied for a partnership residency visa which was received by INZ (dropped off at Auckland branch, assigned to Manukau branch) on 5/10/15.
Yesterday I received a letter from what appears to be the Case Officer (says Immigration Officer on the letter) requesting more evidence:
“Please send the following:
1) Original or certified copies of further evidence spanning the entire duration of your relationship such as:
Evidence of Joint assets/Ownership of Property
For example: purchase of car, house, insurance etc
Evidence of joint mortgage or tenancy agreements
For example: joint names on the residential tenancy agreement or lodgement of bond with Tenancy Services, etc
Evidence of Joint liabilities
For example, loans or credit to purchase real estate, car, major home appliances, etc
Evidence of Utilities accounts
For example: electricity, gas, water, telephone, etc
Evidence of joint and/or individual bank statements for all bank accounts for the last 6 months
If you do not have any joint accounts, please submit your individual account statements to prove that you are financially interdependent. For example: joint savings, cheque account/everyday account, credit cards statements, etc
Birth certificate(s) of your child(ren), if applicable
Correspondence (including post marked envelopes) to you and your partner at the same address
Letters of support from friends and/or family confirming the length and genuineness of the relationship
Note 1 – Please do not send in complete photo albums, CDs or videotapes. All original documents sent in will be returned to you by courier track pack.
Note 2 – The threshold to demonstrate that you and your sponsor are in a genuine and stable partnership is much higher for temporary applications, so provide as much evidence as possible.
Note 3 – Applicants and their sponsors will normally be requested to attend a partnership interview at a later date. If substantial evidence is submitted to demonstrate and prove your relationship, the officer has the authority to waive the interview requirement.
(Please note if any of the above mentioned documents is not under your joint names or cannot be provided, please still provide those as evidence with a letter explaining as why this document cannot be provided)
2) Please also provide us with a written chronology of your relationship signed by yourself and your partner (and date it) which provides details as follows:
When, where and how you met each other
Detailed history of the development of your relationship including
Details of any travel together
Details of shared common interests
Details of shared future plans
List the addresses you have lived together in during your partnership with approximate dates
Specific details of any time apart since the commencement of your relationship and the reasons for any time apart
Send the requested information by 18/11/2015”
I have sent in statements (downloaded from online banking and printed) from our joint account dating back over a year - would it be best to bring these into the bank and get them stamped and resubmit?
I have sent in over a year's worth of mail addressed to my partner and I at our address (individual mail, not joint). As my partner moved in with me, I already had the lease with my flatmate, and the bills are all in my name. However, when we were applying for a work partnership visa last year, I rang the power company and asked them to add my partner to the account, however the bills continued to come in my name only. As I had already applied for the visa, I was doing it to have supplementary evidence if required. My visa was approved and I thought no more of it. Last night my partner rang the power company for a letter to confirm that he was on the account, however it turned out they had made a mistake and added him to the gas account (which I had closed a month earlier). They are going to send us a letter to explain this error, and that he should have been on the account since the date I requested, a year ago. Would this be helpful?
We've also been racking our brains re joint assets, as the house was already furnished when he moved in, so we don't really have any. However we found some emails discussing us purchasing a fridge, and the payment for said fridge coming from his bank account - would this help?
A further complication is that as my partner is currently in the midst of VERY expensive legal proceedings between himself and his ex regarding his daughter, we agreed I would pay the rent/bills while he kept up child support/lawyers fees etc. The thinking being it would be short term and that his daughter should of course take priority. However it has gone on much longer than anticipated so all rent/utility payments are still coming solely from me - could I explain this in a letter?
I can definitely include more support letters, photos, tickets etc. I had already sent in a timeline letter, but I guess it was not detailed enough. We will do another, more detailed one together.
Any more advice/answers to the above questions would be so appreciated!