Next Step from Partner Based 2yr Work Visa

[Verotten]

Hi all! I posted here a while ago about bringing my British partner to New Zealand with me, as part of our long-term relationship spattered with spells of long-distance.
Happy to say that we went for his 2 yr work visa last year, based on my support as his partner and a citizen, and it was accepted within a few weeks with no further information required!
We got the idea from this forum to include a timeline of our relationship, showing bank statements and transfers, photos and communications between us and between family members/friends referring to us, time stamped social media was particularly helpful. And it worked a treat, so thank you!

We're at a point now where we're talking about settling here for good and looking at what's next... I see INZ have changed their website again and made it all even more confusing... and it seems like some visas have changed?? So I would appreciate some help 'translating' a few things....

Context; he has been here since July 2015 now, and been employed since Jan '16. His 2 yr work visa was granted June '16
For some reason I thought that the residency based on our partnership would be THE END.. but I see it's not so clear cut.

From what I'm understanding, next step is to apply for "Partner of a New Zealander Resident Visa" where I support him, yes?
And after a couple years of that he'd apply for his own Permanent Residency, which I do not have to provide any supporting documents for (as far as I can tell)?
Is the processing time for permanent residency still sitting at something along the lines of 9 months to a year?
It seems a bit remiss that the freedom to re-enter for the resident visa expires after 2 years, but you cannot apply for PR until that time has elapsed...? I suppose if we had to travel to abroad in between those times, say in the case of an emergency involving his family in the UK... there would be some sort of exemption to allow him back into NZ on the basis that his PR application was being processed?

Further to paperwork, for the Partner of NZer Resident Visa, do you think we should re-include our evidence of our relationship spanning the entirety of our relationship, or just fill in the gap since his previous application? INZ appear to have kept our previous evidence on file as it wasn't returned to us (only our important docs, bank statements etc came back), but I've no idea how long they'd hold onto it or whether they'd refer back to it. Or I suppose they could've destroyed it!

Thanks in advance to anyone taking the time to read all that and share their thoughts, we're feeling a bit caught off guard, since we thought we had it all figured out last year!

- Jess and Adam

[JandM]

From what I'm understanding, next step is to apply for "Partner of a New Zealander Resident Visa" where I support him, yes?
And after a couple years of that he'd apply for his own Permanent Residency, which I do not have to provide any supporting documents for (as far as I can tell)?

Correct, I think. But I'm not clear exactly what visa he has, as at one point you mention a work visa, then you also say, "For some reason I thought that the residency based on our partnership would be THE END," which makes it sounds as if he may have had partner-sponsored residence at that time.

Anyway, things aren't as complicated as you thought, even if he has the partner-sponsored work visa. He can apply for the partner-sponsored Residence visa as soon as you can show 12 months' good evidence of living together, which can INCLUDE what has already gone before (so he doesn't need to wait for the present work visa to come to an end in order to do that). See what I said here about re-using the previous evidence. https://www.enz.org/forum/showthread...483#post552483 (I realize it's too late to keep copies of what has already gone in, but the other remarks hold good.)

Partner-sponsored Residence is the visa which is likely to take up to nine months to process (although some come through much more quickly if there is a good chain of evidence).

After that, applying for PR will be the same for him as for someone who has gained residence via SMC. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-...anent-resident See the Check Criteria button near the bottom of that page for the requirements. This is a very quick and straightforward process, particularly for the majority of people who use the 'time spent in New Zealand' criterion for commitment to New Zealand, since their comings and goings are all already recorded on the INZ computer, and the passport comes back with the PR visa in 2 - 4 weeks.

[Verotten]

Thanks JandM, very informative as always.
He is currently on the two year partner-based work visa, in my mind I thought our next application would be our last, but I see there are two more hurdles.

Interesting that the partnership based residence is the tough one, luckily we can reproduce our relationship evidence 'timeline'; thanks for the link. It'll wind up being a fat stack of paper, maybe it will bore our CO into signing off on it...

Great to know the PR is quite straight forward, we definitely won't spend much time outside the country so should achieve the time spent criterion easily.

Thanks again, I'll be back if we have any more troubling questions! So grateful for this forum, it has saved us so many grey hairs