Partner of a New Zealander work visa, with children

[kiwistan]

Hi all,

I meet my fiancée on a Christian dating site in April 2016. We quickly hit it off, even though neither of us spoke the other's language much at all – but thanks Google Translate we communicated very well! I visited her in December for Christmas and New Year, which confirmed all the direction of our conversations to date for our dreams and hopes for the future of our relationship, and after meeting face to face and spending time together, we become engaged, with a wedding to come in November, in the Dominican Republic, where she is from.

She has since visited me here in NZ for a wonderful but short 8 days, and I am about to go back to see her for 3 weeks.
So once we are married we plan to come to live in New Zealand, with her 3 children, probably in December this year or January 2018, with the children starting school at the beginning of the school year 2018.

We would like to get a 2 year Work Visa as a Partner of a New Zealander, but as we have no history of living together, I understand this is unlikely, and we may only get a 1 year visa. (Due to our Christian beliefs, and how we hold marriage, we wouldn’t live together before marriage anyway)
Has anyone had experience with a situation like ours? Will the children to be treated as domestic students on a one year visa? I understand the will need to have their own student visas, linked to their mom’s work visa. She will apply through the Washington office, do they process applications quickly? I have read that some people applying in NZ are waiting months!

I am currently in Los Angeles airport as I write, on my second visit - November is still too long away without a visit!!

Any feedback much appreciated!

[JandM]

I'm sorry, but I'm going to be telling you some points about your plans that you won't like to hear.

We would like to get a 2 year Work Visa as a Partner of a New Zealander, but as we have no history of living together, I understand this is unlikely, and we may only get a 1 year visa.

There is NO chance of getting any partner-sponsored visa (work or visitor), for any length of time at all, without being able to show evidence of having lived together. INZ's definition of partnership is entirely founded on living together. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-...on/partnership

So the matter of visas for the children can't arise until you have gathered that evidence. Given what you have said about your beliefs, this will have to be after you are married. It may be that you will have to make arrangements to go and live with her for the necessary length of time. We know from experience that INZ take applications seriously with two to three months'-worth of evidence. Here are some old threads with discussion and examples of partnership evidence. https://www.google.co.uk/#q=site:enz...tnership+proof

But about the children, yes, they would have student visas linked to their mother's, when she gets one. And yes, they would count as domestic students.

INZ processing anywhere in the world works on the system of date-order queues, so every application waits in line behind the ones that were submitted earlier, and there is a lot of waiting involved during processing. All COs have to work their allocation of cases (about 100 at a time) in rotation. They take the first, do everything they can for the time (sending out queries, or ticking off replies), then put that to the back and take the next, then the next, then the next, and so on. They don't take any file out of order. Any replies go to your file wherever it is in the queue, and the CO won't see them until it's your file's turn to be looked at again. So much of the time spent during processing till you hear any answer isn't to do with your own affairs at all.

[Jinkello]

Hey Kiwistan,
I went through something similar, my partner being from Chile.

We were advised by multiple consultants that immigration take relationships seriously while living overseas for a period of 12 months or more. If they are in NZ they can be approved with as little as 3 months evidence but are more stringent with overseas applications (they tend to see it as an extended holiday not so much a commitment to living together) Washington in particular is notorious for taking a hard line.

I spent over 2 years living in Chile whilst compiling a huge amount of evidence. We applied late last year and had been together for 4 years at the time of application. We were declined even with our mountain of evidence. 'non bona fide' -they couldnt back this up it was based on nothing (has heavy family and friend ties with his country, had a good job, we had lived there for over 2 years). We faught the decision with our lawyer and finally got the answer we were waiting for.

Applications are not easy when applying from overseas- it is possible just be aware it will not happen overnight. A lot of past experience with friends etc show its easier for them to come on a visitor visa, build up evidence and apply while your partner is in NZ.

Good luck!

[kiwistan]

Thanks JandM and Jinkello

So going for a Visitor Visa for my fiancee and the children then making up the 3 months needed living together (after the weeks we plan to spend in her country after the wedding) in order to apply for a Partner Work Visa, or even a Partner Visitor Visa could be the best option. It will mean the the children will have to be foreign student fee payers for a period, I guess, but we are totally committed to each other and to making NZ home.
From what I understand the children will be entitled to 2 weeks of schooling free then we pay for the rest. We hope to be in NZ for Christmas, so as soon as we have near enough to 3 months of marriage together we will go for the Partner Work Visa, though my wife to be will need to up-skill her English. I see we can apply for the Work Visa while she is in NZ on the Visitor visa,I have that right, yes?

[kiwistan]

Further to my earlier post, my fiancee visited at Easter and will need to apply for another Visitor Visa - her earlier one was has expired. Does she need to submit all the previous information a second time?

[JandM]

Don't forget you can begin to collect evidence that you are living together straight away after the wedding. As long as you are living together, this can be anywhere in the world, so your honeymoon weeks can count. And if she is granted the visitor's visa in the first place, then yes, she can apply for the partner-sponsored temporary work visa from within NZ.

Look at the Criteria tab here. https://onlineservices.immigration.g...nual/44863.htm There is NO requirement for proof of English.

Your partner will have to apply for the visitor's visa with all the evidence, as if there had been no previous contact, yes.