Likeliness of getting residency on low salary scale

[ZaPats]

My ex wife has been living in New Zealand since 2015 and has worked as a Hairdresser for two years now. She submitted her EOI for Residency last year and received her ITA in early January 2017. She was assigned a CO and is now in the process of completing her application.

Our three minor children (12, 9 and 8 years of age) live with her in Wellington and are on Student Visas currently. They are also included in her Residency application.

My ex was initially on a two year Work Visa and it was extended by a year in March 2017. She currently earns $45000 a year and does not have a formal qualification. She lives with her new partner in Wellington. She is claiming points as follows:

Skilled Employment - 60
Region outside Auckland - 30
Work experience - 20
Age (30-39) - 25
Close Family in New Zealand - 10
Bonus Points for work experience in New Zealand - 10
Partner Employment - 20
Partner Qualifications - 10

In total, she is claiming 185 points.

My fear is the following: According to https://www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/mo...nce-work-visas, she needs a minimum of $55000 a year as her occupation is not listed on the Long Term Skills Shortage List. Will this impact her application because she does support our three kids on her $45000 salary?

Earlier this week, her CO requested that she undergo further medical tests. Is this normal? How far into the process do they review the medicals?

Is there a chance that her residency might be declined, even if she meets the points requirements? I fear they might have to leave the country and return home under the new VISA rules.

[JandM]

She's applying for Residence under the Skilled Migrant Category. The link you found relates to the Residence from Work category, which is totally different.

The regulations about skilled employment, relating to residence under SMC are given here. http://onlineservices.immigration.go...nual/30545.htm

A CO can require a new medical at any stage of processing. The standard procedure is for medicals to be scanned by computer as soon as they are submitted, and any with abnormalities noted by the examining doctor, or (we think) having certain key words are referred to the MA straight away, however. Did the CO say why they want a new one? Sometimes it can happen if they think an applicant has been spending time in an unhealthy environment.

I fear they might have to leave the country and return home under the new VISA rules.

The new visa rules will NOT apply to her case. Every case is processed according to the regulations that were in force at the time the EOI was submitted and selected.

[sameer456]

Hello everyone, My friend started working as a chef and also joined diploma in culinary arts level 5. And as of july 2017 he will have 2 years of work experience on student visa which will be counted as one year of fulltime work experience. Can he include that experience when applies for his Eoi? Or he cant use that experience as he didnt complete his cooking studies?
Thank you

[JandM]

He will need to check with the detailed regulations. I can't give you a link because the INZ operational manual isn't opening at the moment - I think they must be doing maintenance and/or updates. He will need to Google "INZ SM2", then go to the heading Skilled Employment, where there are several sections.

From memory, in almost all cases, work has to be post-qualification. The exceptions come when someone already had some qualification, then worked part-time while studying for a higher level, so the work can be argued to be part of their career and skills development.

[ZaPats]

Thank you all for your responses.

Does INZ look at affordability? Will they look at whether my ex can afford to keep the kids in NZ on her own?

[JandM]

I don't know. I've never seen it mentioned that they did, in any case mentioned on here. It comes down to meeting the regulations, or not.