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Thread: Vietnamese girlfriend - study visa vs work permit

  1. #1
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    Question Vietnamese girlfriend - study visa vs work permit

    Hi all

    I am a New Zealand citizen. My girlfriend (from Vietnam) and I would like the chance to live together, with a view to her eventually gaining residence in NZ. There are a number of ways to do this I am sure, but what we are interested in the method that would be:
    (1) subject to the least uncertainty, and
    (2) the quickest to get a decision on.

    After looking at the NZ immigration website, it seems that the best option might be for her to study here for a year. A study visa seems a fairly routine visa to get, and the study she does here could also potentially be of benefit to her eventual settlement process. I could support her application by sponsoring her, and also at the end of the year living together we could presumably apply for a partnership-based visa. The only downside is the potential cost of the course, but it is one we are prepared to pay.

    I see this as a better option than a partner sponsored work permit, which she would not quality for as we have not lived together for 12 months. Also her professional background (as a teacher from a non-English speaking country) would probably not assist her in any visas relating to skill-shortage.

    Is there anything I am missing, or haven't taken into account? Any advice welcome! As background, she is in her mid-30s, has a post-graduate degree in the humanities, and her English language skills are pretty good.

    Thanks!

  2. #2
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    It sounds as though your reading of the INZ regulations is correct.

  3. #3
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    I don't know whether I am misreading your post but you said
    I see this as a better option than a partner sponsored work permit, which she would not quality for as we have not lived together for 12 months
    There is a difference between Residence ( 12 months living together needed - indefinite ) and a partnership based work visa ( around 3 months of living together needed- usually granted for 12 months )

    Because I know how much the international student fees are in NZ I would try to avoid going down the student visa route and maybe try to get a partnership sponsored visitor visa, were you will need to supply as much evidence of your relationship as you have to get it approved... If there is very little evidence then this might not work for you but I am just putting it out there its worth a try too .

    http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...itors/process/

    If thats not an option for you then a student visa is probably your best bet.

    Good luck

  4. #4
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    Ice is quite right, of course, about the partner-sponsored work visa only requiring around three months' evidence of living together. However, I didn't think it would solve your immediate problem, because you couldn't get it straight away, as you haven't lived together at all.

  5. #5
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    Yes JandM since the OP didn't state what kind of relationship evidence he already has I just wanted to put it out there. I have seen some posts on this forum where people were successful with getting a partnership visitor visa despite never having lived together.

    Here is one for example. They did have a lot of relationship evidence but this one was just the first one I could find.

    http://www.enz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49105
    Last edited by ice; 1st March 2016 at 12:54 AM.

  6. #6
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    I think that unless your partner is genuinely intending to study, that is not a good option. INZ Vietnam are extremely risk averse and will quickly pick up on there being another purpose for them being in NZ. If you are genuinely seeking a relationship based visa it would be better to stick to that path. make sure you have strong documentation of your relationship to date, and most probabaly you will need to be living in Vietnam with your partner for a time, before she applies for her visa. AS others say it certainly doers not have to be 12 months for a temporary visa, but most likely 1-3 months as a minimum.

    There is no quick way and as always a case of "short term pain for long term gain"

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by ChrisMwn View Post
    I think that unless your partner is genuinely intending to study, that is not a good option. INZ Vietnam are extremely risk averse and will quickly pick up on there being another purpose for them being in NZ. If you are genuinely seeking a relationship based visa it would be better to stick to that path. make sure you have strong documentation of your relationship to date, and most probabaly you will need to be living in Vietnam with your partner for a time, before she applies for her visa. AS others say it certainly doers not have to be 12 months for a temporary visa, but most likely 1-3 months as a minimum."
    Thanks for the advice everyone!

    I agree with you ChrisMwn that it would be better to be as upfront as possible, although in this case, she would be coming here to genuinely engage in study, with a view to improving her prospects in the NZ job market.

    Our relationship is a "parallel" motivation, but the question is whether INZ would care about this, or want us to try another route? (My sponsorship of the student visa will make it clear to anyone looking that there is probably this "parallel" angle to the application).

    Something that I didn't mention in my original posting is that we plan for her to come and spend time in NZ on a visitors visa later this year (with my sponsorship), prior to the period of study (which would probably be the 2017 academic year). We were looking at 3 weeks, but on the basis of what others in this thread have said, perhaps we should aim for 8 weeks (the maximum she can take off), and then use that time living together as the basis for some sort of partnership-based working or visitors visa later?

    Again, any thoughts or reflections welcome!
    Last edited by adwood88; 2nd March 2016 at 12:09 PM.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by adwood88 View Post
    Thanks for the advice everyone!

    I agree with you ChrisMwn that it would be better to be as upfront as possible, although in this case, she would be coming here to genuinely engage in study, with a view to improving her prospects in the NZ job market.

    Our relationship is a "parallel" motivation, but the question is whether INZ would care about this, or want us to try another route? (My sponsorship of the student visa will make it clear to anyone looking that there is probably this "parallel" angle to the application).

    Something that I didn't mention in my original posting is that we plan for her to come and spend time in NZ on a visitors visa later this year (with my sponsorship), prior to the period of study (which would probably be the 2017 academic year). We were looking at 3 weeks, but on the basis of what others in this thread have said, perhaps we should aim for 8 weeks (the maximum she can take off), and then use that time living together as the basis for some sort of partnership-based working or visitors visa later?

    Again, any thoughts or reflections welcome!
    I have been in a similar situation, I meet an Armenian girl online (on Facebook) it was an accident really (long story) but we became friends and after a few years of chatting and skyping each other we became partners, although we had not even meet in person. I then went to live with her for three weeks in Armenia and then I came home to NZ. Together we gathered all of the evidence we had of our relationship, photos together from when I was there, invoices for the flowers I had sent to her every month (about a years worth) our Skype logs and supporting letters from friends and family. We applied for a visitor visa as we knew we had no chance at a partnership visa as the living together for a good amount of time requirement is quite important to them. They declined the visitor visa because we said in our cover letter that we wanted to gather evidence of living together so we could apply for a partnership visa in NZ, but our CO offered a limited visa as an alternative and said her visitor visa was declined, reading the emails from our CO there main concern was that we had only been together for 3 weeks in person and that she did not intend a temporary stay, the two years of online contact basically meant very little to them, we were told our relationship could not be considered stable.

    But we took the limited visa which was for 4.5 months to use this time to gather evidence for a partnership visa, the only catch is that since she is on a limited visa she has to return home to apply for her next visa while I have to stay in NZ (for work).

    Perhaps our honesty was appreciated, I am not sure.

    I would not consider applying for a student visa without telling them about your relationship, because when she goes to apply for a partnership visa and they see that you were together before she applied for her student visa you will have some trouble on your hands. If it were me I would either go for the student visa but make it clear you are in a relationship also, or apply for a visitor visa for a few months, gather solid proof of living together for those months (joint bills etc) then apply for a partnership visa. You may wind up with a limited visa like we did but it still allows you to gather evidence.

    Good luck and let us know how you go!

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