Forced out of work due to VISA expiry, contact immigration lawyer?

[bergice]

Hello all,


I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience/knowledge about getting an immigration lawyer?

I'm currently on an interim VISA without working conditions and I've been told my application (partnership work VISA) might take up to 6-8 months to even start being processed! Obviously this is not very ideal for me as I've already had to terminate my work contract.

My employer wants to get me working for them again ASAP and they have an office in London, so another solution for me would be to go work there instead. But before I do that I want to be 100% sure there is no other way for me to get back to work here in New Zealand quickly.

Also, I want to know how much people generally pay for an immigration lawyer, is it possible to get a free consultation or a call, if so, where would be a good place to start?


Any response would be greatly appreciated.


[EDIT]

I forgot to mention that I've already gotten legal advice and had heaps of calls with immigration support and from what they've told me, it's not possible to get a fastlane or anything, regardless of my situation.

[JandM]

Someone else was told that family stream visas are being treated with lower priority at the moment, because INZ has such a huge backlog of workers' visas to deal with, so it's very unlikely that you can do anything at all to make it faster. Everybody in the queue feels the urgency of their own situation just as keenly.

Is there any way you could apply for a work visa in your own right? That is, do you have qualifications and is this a skilled job that would meet the requirements for an Essential Skills visa? Not that those are going through VERY quickly just now, but, it seems, faster than the family stream ones.

If you eventually decide to take up your employer's suggestion of working in the London office in the meantime, be very careful to keep evidence of all your continuing contacts with your partner during the wait for processing. INZ routinely ask for more evidence just before issuing a visa, to make sure they're not giving it to someone whose relationship has broken down in the meantime.

[gcapd]

Hi bergice.
You are looking at 4,100-9,000 NZ Dollars to hire an immigration lawyer.
All the best.

[ChrisMwn]

Hi bergice.
You are looking at 4,100-9,000 NZ Dollars to hire an immigration lawyer.
All the best.

I beg to differ. I think those numbers are very much at the upper end of the range and for residence, not temporary entry. Expect to pay much less for a work visa application.

[gcapd]

That's what we paid to our lawyer for my partnership temporary work visa towards appealing to the tribunal.

[bergice]

Just a small update, we called immigration a few days ago and they said my application has started being processed. Of course, by now I'm already working in London, but at least it's progressing.

Might be useful to know if anyone else gets told they have to wait 9 months for their application being processed, it's a load of bull and from what people we know who have worked in the immigration Auckland branch and as immigration lawyers, some of the people there may very well be corrupt which is why we did not decide to pay for an immigration lawyer.

[Jinkello]

That does sound like the upper end of the scale for the cost of an immigration lawyer for a partnership visa- I paid $3k for mine in total for an offshore application through Washington (includes application and dispute of declined outcome)

[bergice]

Just a quick update. I did get my VISA without any fuss on the 10th of August 2017. So it took around 4 months for the application to get processed, if that's of any interested to anyone else.

[JandM]

That's very good news - congratulations.