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Thread: Essential Skills Work Visa Advice

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
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    Default Essential Skills Work Visa Advice

    Hi all.

    I'm new here to this site and have read endless posts regarding people in situations fairly similar to what my partner and I are going through, but still thought I'd go ahead and ask for a bit of advice. Just a warning that this post is going to be quite long as so far it has been quite a messy and complicated process .

    I myself am a NZ citizen, born here with Kiwi parents. My partner and I have been together for 1 year and 4 months and my partner is from India and currently applying for an Essential Skills Work Visa through Immigration NZ. He has been in the country for just over 2 years and is now on an Interim Visa while he waits to hear whether he is granted the Essential Skills visa.

    My partner first came to New Zealand on a 1 year student visa and did his Post-graduate Diploma in Hospitality Management. After completing his post-grad diploma he was then granted a 1 year open-work visa which has since expired last month, hence why is he now on an interim visa. His current work position is as a Food and Beverage Supervisor working for a local hotel chain. They have been extremely supportive of his visa process and due to circumstances that delayed his initial application, they have said that they are able to wait up to 1 month and will provide additional time if Immigration state that his visa isn't far from being processed.

    We had originally paid an Immigration Lawyer to receive immigration advice and handle our case but (unfortunately for us both) the lawyer told us we were entitled to apply for Skilled-Migrant Residency which we then found out was wrong. We were then told by the lawyers that his best option would be to apply for the Essential Skills Visa and although we were very vocal about wanting to apply for my partner's visa quite early, the lawyer insisted that the Hamilton Branch would be very quick and that he wouldn't even need to go on an Interim Visa because it would be done before that happened - his visa was due to expire in 4 weeks. After a lot of what has since turned out to be very bad immigration advice, we have since discontinued services with said Immigration Lawyer, and she was clearly very wrong as since his application was lodged in early July, my partner's application is still in queue and he has now been on an Interim with no work for the last 3 weeks. We have also lodged a complaint with the Law Society after they agreed we had (multiple) grounds to lay a complaint .

    It has now been 27 working days (5 weeks and 2 days) since his application was lodged and we are hoping that a decision will be made next week. We are aware that the usual timeframe is 25 - 30 days so hopefully we hear from Immigration soon.

    Now the problem is that it is coming up to the 1 month timeframe that my partner's work gave him. Although he is confident he could find another job relatively quickly if he did lose the job, our obvious main concern is that his visa is an Essential Skills Visa which is employer specific. Does that therefore mean that if he did lose his job due to them having to wait while he is unable to work for so long due to his interim, his Essential Skills Visa would then be null and void?

    We would both be pretty devastated if he did have to leave the country but have accepted that this is a very real possibility. After all of this process, we are both regretting that we didn't just apply for a partnership visa as we have lived together over a year now and have plenty of evidence showing that we are indeed in a genuine relationship . It's just that we don't have my name on tenancy (although the landlord knows us both very well and knows that we are both staying here together and would happily verify it if need-be) and have never opened a joint bank account as we always just pay for each other and have been happy doing so without needing to open another bank account. If he wasn't granted the Essential Skills visa and did have to leave the country, would we still be able to apply for the Partnership Visa while he's in his country? Or is there a period of time we would need to wait before being eligible to apply for it?

    Sorry for all of the questions.

    Thank you!!!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    Does that therefore mean that if he did lose his job due to them having to wait while he is unable to work for so long due to his interim, his Essential Skills Visa would then be null and void?
    Yes. That visa is job-specific. But INZ are normally very reasonable to people in an awkward situation, so they would almost certainly not push him to leave the country immediately.
    would we still be able to apply for the Partnership Visa while he's in his country?
    Yes. But you would need to keep very careful evidence of the reasons for his having to leave, and of maintaining contact during his absence, and preferably of financial links, too.

    And if he didn't get the Essential Skills visa but he doesn't have to leave the country, and you decide to go for a partnership work visa as soon as his interim visa is up, remember it would have to be under a Section 61, because an applicant for any NZ visa from within NZ has to be on a valid visa at the time to do it in the normal way.

    Sorry to hear about the bad legal advice you had.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
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    New Zealand
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    Default

    Thanks so much JandM.

    When you say that INZ are quite reasonable and almost certainly not push him to leave the country immediately, would you happen to know the approximate timeframe that INZ give people? In my last job we had a filipino guy that wasn't granted his visa and they only gave him 1 week to leave! I thought that it was quite harsh considering he'd spent the last 5 years or so here and would've had a lot to sort out before leaving, but I did suspect that there may have been a lot of information that he didn't let on with either..

    We have looked into Section 61 after your post and not entirely sure he would be eligible for it as he has to prove why he couldn't go back to his own country. However, he has accepted that he may need to go home and we will apply for partnership from there but how would we be able to prove financial links with him overseas? We would obviously talk multiple times on a daily basis, so we'd keep all of our evidence to show to INZ but as it is, we don't have a joint bank account and never really thought we needed one. Plus I'm a student and opening a joint bank account was going to affect my Studylink and where my payments are made, so instead of go through all the hassle when we were perfectly fine with taking turns paying for one another, we thought we would just leave things how they were. I guess maybe it would be a good time to open a joint account? So many questions... Sorry!

  4. #4
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    Feb 2008
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    Proving your financial interdependence does NOT have to mean having a joint account. If you can show on your separate accounts that each of you paid out for some goods and services that are for the benefit of both of you, or for the other party, then that is proof, too. You can explain about your Studylink - that is perfectly reasonable.

    No, I can't say about a normal reasonable time given. It's not the kind of thing which is made public, for obvious reasons - INZ are going to be dealing with SOME people who are actively or borderline criminal, and are not going to give out any precedent for such types to latch onto, to claim extra time before they are put on the plane. But for an ordinary decent person who has not given any trouble in the past, it would not be usual for there to be just a week.

    Look, I know you must be absolutely on edge with nerves. But you are looking at the worst-case scenario all the time. Try just to live in the moment for this next short while. You may find that the employer is more considerate and patient than you are expecting, particularly if he contacts INZ and hears that the visa is coming.

  5. #5
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    Aug 2016
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    New Zealand
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    Hi JandM, thanks for that! Sorry I appear to be quite cynical, I think that's my partner's frame of thought rubbing off on me

    Actually my partner met with his employer and they gave him until the 26th August. She said even if the visa came a day after, they would still need to terminate his contract due to the fact that it is a very busy period at his work right now and they are definitely struggling to fill in his hours. She did give him 5 weeks however, so that's quite understandable.

    ANYWAY! After everything, Immigration actually called my partner and told him that his lawyers who had originally lodged his application should've applied for an open work visa which is valid a further 2 years. Immigration changed it while we were talking to them and said it had been approved!!

    Happy happy

    Thanks for all your help and sorry for all the worrying!

  6. #6
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    Oct 2013
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    New Zealand
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    and why didnt your partner apply for a partnership based visa? If you have been (living together) for 18 months you should also have a residence application lodged.

  7. #7
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    Feb 2008
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    There we are - if that isn't INZ being reasonable and helpful, I don't know what is! I'm very pleased for you.

    And notice what Chris says - as soon as you can, get that Residence application in, then you won't have any other worries like this in the future.

  8. #8
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    Aug 2016
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    New Zealand
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    Hi Chris, as I mentioned earlier, my partner and I didn't have my name on the tenancy agreement, nor a joint bank account. Plus when we discussed my partner's options with his immigration lawyers, it was their advice to apply for an Essential Skills Visa.

    We are planning on applying for Partnership Residency soon! For now we're just both relieved that he has been granted this visa!

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