Temp work visa application pending, resident visa to be submitted and passport about to expire

[mara_visa]

Would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this one:

Applied for temp work visa (partnership with a kiwi) in April 2017. In fact, wanted to apply for resident as we've been together for 2 years but was told better to go for temp work as they are processed faster (My current NZ visa expires end of July). Currently awaiting decision on temp work visa. Also, in the process of collecting documents for resident visa, will only apply when temp work visa decided. Now: my passport expires mid next year...

1. Do they ever grant temp work visa for longer than the expiry date on your passport?

2. When do you think is best time to apply for a new passport? (the process with my country takes a lot of time, up to 3 months to have it done while I'm in NZ)
(a) could do this after temp work visa approved and before applying for resident visa. But then...am I able to continue working ? Or do I need to stop working and need to wait for new passport and transfer of visa label?
(b)could do this after I apply for resident visa...but can you apply with one passport and change the passport while they process the visa?

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[nrlfth]

Hi mara_visa.

1) I was in a similar position as yours before. I enquired with immigration and they advised that visa will not be granted longer than expiry date in passport.

2a) I think you'll be fine as you are technically allowed to work in their system as it's just transfer of visa label onto new passport.

2b) I'm not too sure about updating passport while visa is in progress.

Hope it helps and all the best!

[JandM]

a) Yes, you can, no problem. You have been granted the visa and that is on record in the INZ system. It doesn't go away just because of transferring bits of paper.

b) This is also no problem. You put in the number of your current passport on the orginal application. If a new passport comes through part way through processing, you can notify the CO at that point. Or if the new passport comes right at the last minute, when you've been told you have been granted residence and all that needs to happen is for the label to be put in your passport, you can send in a cover letter explaining, with the new one, and a photocopy of the old one, to prove this is 'still you'. (That last isn't a procedure written up - it's what someone on the forum reported having done without any difficulty.)

[mara_visa]

Thanks guys! Very helpful. It's a good news you can continue working while in the process of renewing passport.

Now, this is kind of contradictory to what INZ told me 5 months ago about entering NZ... I was in my country of origin and wanted to renew my passport then (to avoid hiccups). I didnt have enough time to renew the passport AND transfer visa label to new passport (through London office). I asked INZ if I'd be allowed to enter with a new passport (with valid visa "in the system", but visa label not transferred yet). They said no... What do you think? (I understand this is a different issue, i.e. entering the country). Many thanks!

P.S. Sometimes I do get different responses from INZ, depending who I talk to. Even the processing times seem to vary significantly from one day to another... (or from one officer to another So great to get second opinion here.

[JandM]

Now, this is kind of contradictory to what INZ told me 5 months ago about entering NZ... I was in my country of origin and wanted to renew my passport then (to avoid hiccups). I didnt have enough time to renew the passport AND transfer visa label to new passport (through London office). I asked INZ if I'd be allowed to enter with a new passport (with valid visa "in the system", but visa label not transferred yet). They said no... What do you think? (I understand this is a different issue, i.e. entering the country). Many thanks!

No, it's not a contradiction, because that is a different situation. Nobody is allowed to travel on a new passport when their visa is in an old one, and only linked to that old passport in the computer.

In the present case, you aren't trying to use your passport to travel.

Many people have reported the same thing, that what they are told by INZ can be different on different occasions. INZ telephone answerers are a kind of human FAQ working from a database. They're not qualified case-workers. As you know yourself, you can get different answers from a database depending on which areas you access, which in turn depends on what key words you enter.