work hours CO

[BelgianKiwi]

My interim visa expires on 25 January. Because I had not heard from my CO (Wellington) in 3ish months, I called him on Tuesday. I gave him my application number and then there was a long silence followed by "oh... oh... yes". I think he then realised he had forgotten about me. He said he would make a decision very soon and that I would probably hear back from him this week.

Yesterday I had the sound of my phone off from 6.30pm until 7.30pm and at 7.30PM I saw that I had missed a call from "unknown number" at 7.24pm. Could that have been the call with news? I just checked my emails (inbox, junk and spam) and looked in my application page online: no change. I'm still on an interim visa and my work visa application (this is why they gave me the interim visa while they process the work one) is still pending?

My questions are: does your CO call you in the evening, do they work in the weekend and public holidays (as 25 Jan is Wellington Anniversary Day)? Probably not but I just wanted to ask.

[l00k]

I think it boils down to individual, none knows about their work hours

FYI I got a visa approved on a Saturday, the status changed at 10am (nothing happened on Friday), so I can assume that some of them do work outside the 9-5 ordinary hours.

[ihabkal]

it's just the computer system e-mailing or getting updated automatically with new data after work hours. they don't work outside the regular hours.

[ChrisMwn]

wrong, they work overtime when there's a need, and a backlog. Its quite possible (though unusual) for a CO to be calling at 7.24pm

[BelgianKiwi]

Thanks everyone. I'll call my CO at 1pm as the downstairs reception closes at 2pm today so that I can pick up my passport in case I get declined and have to leave the same day.

[BelgianKiwi]

Hi everyone, I have a little update. My CO called me just after 5pm on Friday asking if I could come see him next week and bring some payslips with me. Afterwards he'll decide. I didn't think that a CO would meet a client and that it was allowed. He was actually friendly compared to emotionless the other times I briefly spoke to him on the phone.

[BelgianKiwi]

I got a phone call from my CO on Thursday to say he was just about to approve my application but that he had to double-check if I had to do a blood test. I emailed and called him the next day because apparently their system had updated my status to a 2-year work visa 6 minutes before he called me. He emailed me back today to say that I was approved in principle until the medical is cleared. I've heard horror stories of the medical assessors taking more than a month to clear medicals. Does anybody have an idea from how long it takes nowadays?

P.S. They still have my medical that I gave them on 09 June 2014 for my previous work visa application and skilled migrant application. They used the same medical for my current work visa application. My application file says that it was received on 10 July 2015. Immigration's website says that a new medical does not have to be done if you have done one in the past 36 months. So I should be good but I won't allow myself to get excited or be happy until I get the all-clear.

[JandM]

There was a huge backlog after they automated some parts of the system for referring medicals about five months ago. At its worst, the waiting time got to be about 11 weeks, but they have been working on tweaking the system, and also training up extra MAs, and the last I heard, the wait had got down to 7 - 8 weeks.

When did your medical go in? Or is this a new blood test the MA has asked for just recently?

[BelgianKiwi]

The last time they received it was 10 July 2015. It was just the CO who said something about a new blood test on Thursday. And today he emailed me that I got approved in principle until the medical gets cleared. That's all I know.

[JandM]

In your place, as you don't clearly understand what the CO is talking about, I would email back and ask exactly what is happening. After all, if you are supposed to be asking to get a new blood test done, you will want to do that as soon as possible, but you can't take action if you don't know what is required.