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Thread: Partnership based residency- suddenly heaps of questions to answer in a week.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
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    New Zealand
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    Default Partnership based residency- suddenly heaps of questions to answer in a week.

    My wife lodged an application for partnership based residency on 6 October 2015. We have been living together continuously in NZ for over a year, we married in December 2013. Please feel free to read our earlier posts. Two days ago we emailed the support officer who returned our documents and processed our fee a few weeks ago, because we wanted to check if they had the bundle of support letters from friends family and our employers, as we did not get them back, they were not mentioned in the letter acknowledging application, they were an important part of the application and we might need them if another work visa was required before the application was processed. So today we get this email:

    In order to proceed with your application I need you to provide me with the following information by Monday 23rd November - electronic copy by email is preferable, however a hardcopy also needs to be submitted to the address below:



    · Please find attached page 2 from your Residence Application form that need to be completed.

    o Please print out the attachments and complete the highlighted fields. We require all fields to be completed to meet strict guidelines.

    Missing the date of Birth! Very silly of us! Not hard to fix though, thankfully.


    · We have noted your partner has a child from a previous relationship. Please have Michael provide a statement with details of this previous relationship and when it ended. Please also provide original or certified copies of divorce documentation.

    We sent the NZ decree nisi from 2013 with the first visa application. We can courier another original copy no problem. I can state, as I have done that I was legally separated once again as documented in NZ, prior to divorce for just on four years from Jan 2010.

    · The copy of your birth certificate I have on file is unclear. Please provide the original of your birth certificate. We will return this once the assessment has been completed.

    We provided the genuine, officially receipted National Statistics Office of the Philippines Full Birth Certificate with the application, but it is indeed hard to read. After we and our friends making numerous phone calls, it seems we might be able to get a municipality registrar full Birth Certificate from the Island township where my wife was born, which will be retyped by an official and can be notarised by an attorney. Maybe we can get this within a week, if we urgently DHL it here,

    · Please provide comment on how the age difference in your relationship has impacted on your partnership and how you overcome this difference

    Well, we haven't really though about it? My wife finds me lively enough? We have no trouble socialising with our friends and family, who also see no problem to the best of our knowledge. Not sure what the problem is supposed to be in general terms, but we have to say it does not seem to apply in the specific. So how do we honestly answer this with the due seriousness and attention to detail?

    · Partnership evidence – please provide the following:


    o Original or certified true copies of joint or individual bank accounts/statements, credit cards, loans or hire purchases. Bank statements must be printed and officially stamped by your bank. Please submit statements from October - November 2014, mid-2015 and your most recent

    We provided copies for the entire period for all accounts, we can and will provide the certified copies for the now specified ones


    o Original or certified true copies of joint or individual homeownership or residential tenancy agreement for your current address. Home ownership documents can include council rates invoices

    Current original residency tenancy agreement already provided, tagged, and returned to us. I imagine we send it again?

    o Original or certified true copies of joint or individual correspondence sent to your home address covering 12 months. This can include any document that contains your name/s and address

    We sent all the clearly labelled mail, received by us since the last visa application, including official mail, mail from utilities, our bank, and many courier packs addressed to us both, as well as to us both individually.

    While not asked for, we could send further mail, further support letters, copies of our refinancing documents in both names, completed life insurance in both names and the mirror wills we were getting witnessed this week.
    I think we will have to apply for urgent special leave to ensure getting a decent reply to the CO in time. We probably wont be at our best at work anyway. We will ask for an extension where a complete response is not physically possible for us in the week allowed. Folks, any appropriate and considered comments are very welcome indeed and we will try to answer any reasonable questions also.
    Last edited by queny; 16th November 2015 at 10:22 PM.

  2. #2
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    Mar 2014
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    I forgot to mention we also sent a support letter that was kindly supplied by our landlord

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    All your reactions there seem to be very measured and exactly what is required.

    Also, be aware that it is totally normal for INZ to ask for more partnership proof just before a visa is granted. This is them making sure that they don't grant a visa to someone whose relationship has broken up in the time it has taken for the application to be processed.

    Giving a short deadline is something that has been imposed on COs by government relatively recently, in an attempt to cut processing times. In reality, though, officials are perfectly well aware that some things - e.g. evidence that has to be mailed from abroad - CANNOT be produced within those few days. It seems to be working out that if you send what you CAN, and mention what you have done and are doing to provide the rest (so it's on its way and you will forward it when it arrives), this is regarded as sufficient to comply, and the extra time is allowed without fuss. Just don't let the deadline pass without the CO getting a reply, as that is taken as a sign that you can't provide what they've asked for and the judgement will be made without that evidence.

  4. #4
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    Feb 2008
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    By the way, my sympathies for that rude question about your age difference. I know governments can't be expected to be subtle, and they have in mind a stereotype of one kind of fraud that they're checking that you're NOT, but it must still be truly annoying and hurtful.

  5. #5
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    Thanks for yet another rapid, reassuring and very helpful reply JandM!

  6. #6
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    Sep 2015
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    All the best queney.

  7. #7
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    Mar 2014
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    Cheers Jazz. Just read you are still waiting, so nerve wracking! We just sent all the requested documents, (except the Municipal Registrar Full Birth Certificate coming from Mindoro), and statements for overnight courier. The CO has said he will allow extensions if required. We gave him the DHL way-bill on that so he can also track it, ETA is by end of Day Monday (his initial deadline) to us, so that one alone will need one.

    Jazz, while each case will be different and your documents may have been better and more comprehensive than ours, based on our experience be ready to do quite a bit of work in a hurry writing one or two statements about personal relationship matters and finding more certified documents, or replacements for any illegible or otherwise unsatisfactory ones even if original or certified. Which is fair enough, they have strict rules to follow and an important job to do.

  8. #8
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    Sep 2015
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    New Zealand
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    Hey thanks quene and yeah I'm still waiting to get a co on my application it's benn 5 months now and thanks for your advice. Hope you ll get a good news soon.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
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    New Zealand
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    Just to update:

    We managed to obtain the Municipal Civil Registrar Birth Record from the somewhat remote island my wife was born on and get it to the CO within 9 days of his request, the last of the current documentation and statement requests we had to meet. He has acknowledged he has all the info he needs for now, including the 15 or so and often quite detailed support letters from our mutual friends, family, colleagues and employers. We also updated with our wills, life insurances and finalised loan documents, more pictures, more Facebook posts, more support letters, utility bills and mail sent to us since filing the residency application 6 October.

    We are now gathering further evidence and a renewed national police clearance for the work visa which we would not be at all surprised to have to apply for in the second week of January when INZ reopens. That is the time suggested by INZ that we ask again if one will be required to keep my wife legally in NZ and working after the Feb 16 2016 expiry of her current second work visa. Hopefully if we file it as soon as we are told it is required any such work visa will be processed in time to do that.

    Merry Christmas everyone, and God Bless for all the invaluable yet free information gathering efforts and sharing of personal immigration stories that help so many of us realise some very important life goals.

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