After getting a case officer

[george0509]

currently, i have been on the process of applying residence under partnership. INZ accepted my case in Jan 2016. After 7 months waiting, i got a case officer at 1 of Aug 2016 from henderson branch. until now the case officer still has not contact me and my partner. is this normal?

[JandM]

COs don't all routinely announce themselves to the applicant when the case is assigned to them. Your CO already has a lot of information about you, and will be starting to verify each piece of evidence by contacting some third party to ask if it's true. S/He doesn't need any information from you to do that.

[george0509]

COs don't all routinely announce themselves to the applicant when the case is assigned to them. Your CO already has a lot of information about you, and will be starting to verify each piece of evidence by contacting some third party to ask if it's true. S/He doesn't need any information from you to do that.

thanks for your replying

[george0509]

hi JandM,
would you give me some suggestion about after how long time waiting that i can give the case officer a contact? thanks

[JandM]

You don't need to contact him/her. You can't expect a relationship of social politeness with your CO. The COs' job is to focus on moving their cases through, so telling people 'now your case is doing this, now your case is doing that' is not part of it, as that time could be better spent doing something on another person's application which would get it one step nearer to granting their visa. This is why EVERYONE spends long periods of time with no contact from INZ. These times are when the CO doesn't need any more information, and hasn't any news of a result to give.

People tend to imagine their CO *just* working on THEIR file, but it's not like that. Each of the COs has an allocation of 70 - 80 cases that they are working on all the time. They work their cases in rotation. They take the first, do everything they can for the time (sending out queries, or ticking off replies), then put that to the back and take the next, then the next, then the next, and so on. They don't take any file out of order. Any replies go to your file wherever it is in the queue, and the CO won't see them until it's your file's turn to be looked at again.

[george0509]

thanks a lot.

[george0509]

You don't need to contact him/her. You can't expect a relationship of social politeness with your CO. The COs' job is to focus on moving their cases through, so telling people 'now your case is doing this, now your case is doing that' is not part of it, as that time could be better spent doing something on another person's application which would get it one step nearer to granting their visa. This is why EVERYONE spends long periods of time with no contact from INZ. These times are when the CO doesn't need any more information, and hasn't any news of a result to give.

People tend to imagine their CO *just* working on THEIR file, but it's not like that. Each of the COs has an allocation of 70 - 80 cases that they are working on all the time. They work their cases in rotation. They take the first, do everything they can for the time (sending out queries, or ticking off replies), then put that to the back and take the next, then the next, then the next, and so on. They don't take any file out of order. Any replies go to your file wherever it is in the queue, and the CO won't see them until it's your file's turn to be looked at again.

Hi JandM,
thanks for your helping before.
After another 20 days passed, i have not heard anything about from co and i do not know how long time i am going to wait. i know you might suggest me to be patient more, and i also believe you this is the only thing what i can do at this moment, but This type of no hoping waiting is really torching people. especially, the visa will affect a person's life in future at some point. i think the immigration officer should understand these elements as well. The whole process are with no any promise (like a fixed timeline or something), which makes everything is not clear to appliers. some people are lucky can get a result very soon. some people are no ending waiting their final result. that might makes people think, is this process are fair to every body? if it is, why everything is based on a person's lucky or not just like a gambling.
As every body know, a lot of good jobs actually are only available to local people. if we consider all human should be equal, which is not fair to foreigner people.even though a lot of foreigner are still working hard at a tough position to get a chance to be a New Zealand residence without any complain. i think this can be called New Zealand dream. these people who are like me, we are contributing our life to this place and wish spend our whole life at here. i cannot understand why the immigration department makes things to be mystery instead of welcome us.
sorry, these information might be a little bit negative to you. i do not know who you are and why said these to you. i just think you are a warm heart person who are always help people.

[JandM]

I hope you feel better for having written it all out, anyway.

You're quite right that there IS nothing else to do, only wait.

You are not alone. It is a very common reaction in applicants, to feel angry and/or hurt that they do not get quicker results, and that they cannot oversee the process of their case closely and know what is happening. It is normal to feel like this. You are an adult person, used to deciding things for yourself and having quite a lot of control over what happens to you. To be in a situation where a large government bureaucracy has power over what you want, and you don't, feels like an attack.

It isn't like that for the INZ officials. They work thousands and thousands of cases every year. For them, each case just involves making sure that their checklist has pieces of evidence to match each point and get a tick. When there is a tick in every necessary place, the case is done. The CO can't get emotionally involved in the personal story of each applicant - their soul could not stand it.

All the control you have over the case is to make sure your CO has the correct pieces of paper to match the requirements, organized so as to be easily understandable. Your feelings are yours to deal with, not the CO's.

I know it's hard to bear. Everybody finds it just as hard as you. Go and think about something totally different, in real life, near you where you are, and let the INZ machine do its work.

[george0509]

Hi JandM,
thanks for your replying again and i am feeling much better today.
I am trying my best to understand how hard these officer's working are, and that makes me feel peaceful. whatever my result is going to be. just hope one day all governors and normal residence can understand each other more, that will make the society to be more peaceful and work more smoothly with each other.
maybe it is the reason why people want to move to another country