Visitor visa for wife and child

[jimbobbennett]

Hi,

I'm applying for a work visa for an accredited employer and wondering what to do about my wife and child. Ideally we are trying to get the visas done as soon as possible so were thinking of just getting mine sorted, flying there (with an outbound ticket for my wife and daughter) so my wife gets a 3 month visa on arrival (she has a dutch passport) and my daughter gets 6 months (UK passport). Then whilst we're there they will apply for the relevant long stay visas and cancel their outbound travel.

Is this doable? Has anyone else done something similar? Or should they get a full 9 month visitors visa first, or another visa?

Thanks in advance!

[JandM]

Hello.

The normal procedure for your situation would be for your wife to apply for a partner-sponsored temporary work visa http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...milystream.htm, and to apply for a student's or visitor's visa for your daughter (student's for aged 5 or over, visitor's for under 5, application filled in as if by her, then signed on her behalf by a parent), both depending on your own work visa. Then they'll match yours for length of time. You can apply for these all at once, linking them with a covering letter, then INZ will process them all as one case, supplying what you won't know up front, e.g. your visa number, as it becomes available. (That is, you don't have to wait till you get your visa to be able to apply for the family's.)

The difficulty about doing what you thought of is that your wife would have to complete a declaration of the purpose of her 'visit' just before arriving in NZ, and if she told the truth, she wouldn't be eligible for admission on a visitor's visa. By definition, a visitor is someone who is entering the country for a short time and then intending to leave and go back home again. Immigration at the airport are on the alert for situations where the person has a likely reason for wanting to stay on though they haven't got the correct visa, and obviously, being with a husband with a brand new work visa is going to be a red flag to them.

[jimbobbennett]

@JandM - thanks for your response.

That's possibly a pain as I was hoping to get it all wrapped up quickly. The delights of applying for a NZ visa whilst travelling the world and will only be home for a couple of weeks before christmas.

I'm almost ready to click submit on my online application but I notice for the family stream there isn't an online form - so I guess this will need to be submitted in paper form with the covering letter?

Any idea how long these visa's take - are they a quick thing or many months of verifying we're a genuine couple.

[JandM]

Yes, you'll have to do paper forms. Here https://www.google.co.uk/#q=site:enz...tnership+proof are old threads that will give you ideas for different kinds of evidence you can submit. The easier you can make it for the CO, by providing lots of evidence all laid out and plain to understand, the more quickly they can deal with it. Keep collecting partnership evidence, because INZ will ask for more just before issuing the visa, to cover the time while it's been being processed (guarding against giving a visa to anyone whose relationship has broken down in the meantime). Then keep all that evidence, and collect more routinely, because you will need 12 months'-worth to put in for her Residence.

The INZ London branch say http://www.immigration.govt.nz/branc...ocessingtimes/ it can be done in one to three months - partnership visas are given priority. NZ like to have their kiwis come home.