Residence Visa by Partner, we have left the application late

[PSO]

I am writing this on behalf of my Thai partner who currently holds a work visa and wishes to apply for residence by partnership. We meet all of the criteria and I don't believe there will be any problem with the visa being issued but....there is always a but!.....time would seem to be a problem as we appear to have left applying late.

Her work visa expires in the middle of September, a bit under 3 months from now. When the work visa was issued, Immigration included a slip in her passport that stated we should apply for her next visa not less than 4 weeks before her work visa expires. We've just started the preparation of documents today and looking online I see that the expected processing time for a residence visa is 4 months. Given that it will be 3 or 4 weeks, if not longer, before we have the paperwork ready to submit the application for the residence visa (we're awaiting documents from Thailand that we simply cannot speed up the process on - my police clearance and her birth certificate), I am nervous about her work visa expiring before her residence visa is issued. Having lived overseas for long periods myself and being fully aware of the importance of being legal and not overstaying, I am here to ask for advice on how best to do this.

My brief research suggests that there is no way to speed up the process with Immigration and nothing like an express service for which you pay a supplementary fee. If such a service existed we would happily go for it.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how best to proceed? It might be that we don't have all of the documents ready to submit for another month, which would mean we'd be lodging the application for residence visa less than 2 months before her work visa expires. Do we submit the application and hope for the best, and hope that it is processed before her work visa expires? Can we submit the residence application and get an extension of work visa while the residence application is in process? Or should we try to get a work visa extension which gives her, say, another year and keeps her legal and then submit the residence application? What is the best options....and are there any other options?

We would be very grateful for any ideas on how best to approach this. Thanks in advice for any replies!

[mara_visa]

I was in exactly the same situation 2 months ago (i.e. wanted to apply for Residence based on Partnership 3 months before current visa expiry date). And I had all my documents ready. People from INZ call center made it pretty clear to me I should apply for work visa instead or lodge two applications at the same time (work visa and Residence visa). They said there was very little chance that Residence visa would be processed in 3 months, so I would need another visa to keep me legal in the meantime. I decided to apply for work visa only, took them 6 weeks to approve. Will apply for Residence visa soon, with less stress.

[ChrisMwn]

I am writing this on behalf of my Thai partner who currently holds a work visa and wishes to apply for residence by partnership. We meet all of the criteria and I don't believe there will be any problem with the visa being issued but....there is always a but!.....time would seem to be a problem as we appear to have left applying late.

Her work visa expires in the middle of September, a bit under 3 months from now. When the work visa was issued, Immigration included a slip in her passport that stated we should apply for her next visa not less than 4 weeks before her work visa expires. We've just started the preparation of documents today and looking online I see that the expected processing time for a residence visa is 4 months. Given that it will be 3 or 4 weeks, if not longer, before we have the paperwork ready to submit the application for the residence visa (we're awaiting documents from Thailand that we simply cannot speed up the process on - my police clearance and her birth certificate), I am nervous about her work visa expiring before her residence visa is issued. Having lived overseas for long periods myself and being fully aware of the importance of being legal and not overstaying, I am here to ask for advice on how best to do this.

My brief research suggests that there is no way to speed up the process with Immigration and nothing like an express service for which you pay a supplementary fee. If such a service existed we would happily go for it.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how best to proceed? It might be that we don't have all of the documents ready to submit for another month, which would mean we'd be lodging the application for residence visa less than 2 months before her work visa expires. Do we submit the application and hope for the best, and hope that it is processed before her work visa expires? Can we submit the residence application and get an extension of work visa while the residence application is in process? Or should we try to get a work visa extension which gives her, say, another year and keeps her legal and then submit the residence application? What is the best options....and are there any other options?

We would be very grateful for any ideas on how best to approach this. Thanks in advice for any replies!

Your "slip of paper" is just that. A reminder that you should apply for residence as early as you can. There is no INZ instruction(rule) that says that you have too.

You should lodge your residence application just as soon as you can, and to keep your partner lawful; make sure you lodge a further temporary visa application no later than they day on which her current visa expires. if the temporary visa expires and you have lodged a fresh application, an interim visa will be granted.