Partnership Work Visa to Residency

[Emmaruth29]

Hi, my partner has just received his partnership work visa for a year as we're just short of the 12 months living together. He was previously on a working holiday visa for a year and we've been together for four years.

I am a NZ citizen so are we able to apply for residency for him once we've been living together for the 12 months or should we apply for another work visa? If we can apply for his residency, I'd like to get it done reasonably quickly so I know it'll be approved before the year is up.

Thanks!

[JandM]

You can apply for partner-sponsored Residence for him as soon as you can show 12 months' evidence of living together. Some of the evidence will be with INZ for the previous application, so send copies if you have them, with the previous application's details so they can see what was logged - make it as easy as possible for the new CO to tick their boxes. And keep collecting evidence while the new application is being processed, as INZ commonly ask for more just before the visa is granted, to make sure they're not issuing to someone whose relationship has broken up in the meantime.