Residency based on Partnership - Comment on cultural differences

[Cods4]

My partner who is from Kiribati in the pacific has recently applied for residency based on partnership (I am New Zealand European). We have been living together in New Zealand for about 15 months now and have provided all the evidence etc. A couple of weeks ago we got an email asking for a letter commenting on cultural differences between us and how this may affect the relationship. The email also asked for a relationship chronology, how we met and future plans. We wrote a bit of an essay and commented on cultural differences such as food, family life (they are a bit more family oriented there just like in most of the pacific islands), friends and how she is integrating into the New Zealand culture.

Just today she got another email asking the same question - provide comment regarding the cultural differences between you and your partner and how this may affect your relationship.

Has anyone had this question before? We want to reply back to the CO and ask for more details about the question but I don't want to negatively affect the application. All I can think of doing is trying to come up with a few more cultural differences between us and extending our previous response. The CO did not comment on the response we made previously so we don't know what was wrong with it.

[JandM]

I doubt there is anything WRONG as such.

It may be that your previous reply got tucked under another piece of paper, so the CO didn't realize she'd already had this reply she was asking for.

Or it may be that the CO felt the previous reply was from YOU, and she wanted to hear what your partner thought.

In your place, I would contact the CO, resending your previous answer, and quite simply state, 'We are resending our previous answer to this question, in case it has gone astray and you haven't seen it. If you did, and you feel there are points that we did not cover and you have more questions that need answering, please explain.' Just ask the question - it won't do any harm.

[Cods4]

Thanks very much for your reply JandM. I'll give that a go.