General visitor visa or Partnership based visitor visa?

[pengken]

Hi

I have been reading posts here for the past few days whether my partner should apply for a general visitor visa or partnership based visitor visa, but I think every case is different so I decided to post ours.

First, I am a resident visa here in NZ. I lived here for 9 months then went back to my home country for 4 or 5 months, and then back here again. So, my partner and I have been together for more than 3 years now. We have this constant communication through Skype, Viber, Facetime and even sms messages via the internet. We are planning to apply for a visitor's visa this October. However we don't know what kind of visitor visa application should he apply. The thing is, we wanted to apply for a visitor visa first and then probably after 2 months, apply for a work visa based on partnership. We haven't lived together (because of the fact that I was away) that's why we are after for a visitor visa, but I am worried that INZ might give him a limited purpose visa only which would not allow him to apply for another visa once he gets here. The evidences that we have are: timeline, proposed 4 - 5 month itinerary, pictures, invitations sent to us (as a couple), letters from him, screenshots of our communication, receipts of him receiving money from me (2 or 3), and we used to have a joint account but now it is dormant because we haven't been depositing into it and now we cannot reactivate the account since I am away - although we might submit it as well (the card itself) hoping they would consider it. He won't resign on his job too, and we are planning to buy a return ticket. Any opinions? If he is to apply for general visitor visa, would that work? Can we still apply for a partnership based work visa after that? Should we get an immigration adviser for this? I really do not want him to be granted a limited purpose visa - do you think that's possible?

[JandM]

You aren't going to get any visitor's visa based on partnership without evidence of having lived together. INZ are not allowed to take notice of anyone's statement of their emotional attachment or future intentions: partnership, to them, is only proved by the couple having set up home in the same place, with a variety of evidence to show this. Without a long history of sharing a home, and a solid reason for a temporary change, they regard moving away from one another as a break up of the relationship. Your old evidence of former connections would therefore not count.

If he gets an ordinary visitor's visa, for the reason of "look, see and decide" (about whether he can get a job in NZ) and tourism, he would be perfectly entitled to put in a partner-sponsored temporary work visa application from within NZ. Once the application is lodged, INZ would automatically grant an Interim visa to cover him for staying in NZ while the case is being processed, which of course automatically gives you longer to collect evidence. https://www.google.co.uk/#q=site:enz...tnership+proof