Need suggestions regarding SMC

[Faith]

Hi all, thanks for coming in.

I have just been asked by my employer why my smc has not been approved. He was asking if everything alright and thought it unbelievable.
He seems to be keen to ask INZ re the case for me. I told my employer that I called several times and all I know is my case is being processed. And then he did not say anything and just left.

Should I allow him to call and push the co?
I have no idea should I get my employer involved in my case.......
Any suggestion will be helpful. Thanks in advance!

[EGoodhue]

Hi all, thanks for coming in.

I have just been asked by my employer why my smc has not been approved. He was asking if everything alright and thought it unbelievable.
He seems to be keen to ask INZ re the case for me. I told my employer that I called several times and all I know is my case is being processed. And then he did not say anything and just left.

Should I allow him to call and push the co?
I have no idea should I get my employer involved in my case.......
Any suggestion will be helpful. Thanks in advance!

I don't think it would help for your employer to call your CO. For one, the CO isn't able to discuss details of your application with your employer due to privacy laws. And the CO is unlikely to be influenced to make their assessment any faster because of your employer's demands (just speaking from personal experience as an ex-CO). It does seem like your case is taking longer than it perhaps should, but I'm sure there's a good reason for that. A shame your CO hasn't communicated that to you - you have a right to contact your CO yourself and ask for an update. Particularly if it's been 3 months since your employer responded to the CO.

[JandM]

Should I allow him to call and push the co?
I have no idea should I get my employer involved in my case.......

I don't think it sounds as though you have much choice about "allowing" your employer to try to involve himself, but when he tries, as EGoodhue has just said, your CO will most likely tell him that he isn't allowed discuss the case, because it's not HIS (the employer's) case.

EGoodhue, when you were with INZ, you evidently ran to a best-case scenario of communication, which most of the posters here don't actually get to experience. It is the experience of most forum members we hear from that their CO doesn't contact them unless and until more information is required. Cases nevertheless eventually get successfully processed, despite the lack of interim progress reports.

[Gaida]

Should I allow him to call and push the co?

Faith - My experiences with INZ do not reflect the general advice I have seen written on the forum. Contrary to much of what has been posted, one person I have talked to, and myself as well, have experienced that our cases have been moved forward immediately after contacting INZ with a well-written letter. I am not saying your case WILL be moved along quickly, only that I have observed this directly in other cases.

You may wish to think about YOU yorself sending a letter from your employer to your CO at INZ. Have your employer write a letter -- well-written, one that expresses concern about the delays in processing your SMC, and asks that the CO give you a timeline update that you can pass on to your employer. Have your employer mention THEIR deadlines, and why your delay is causing them problems.

Then, send an email to your CO, asking for an update on progress, and ask them to review the employer's letter as well. The employer letter can be sent as an attachment.

I don't know if this will work -- I don't know how long you have been waiting. In my experience, calling INZ does nothing. The information I have gotten from phone calls has never been precise, and has sometimes been inaccurate. However, I know of two instances where this letter writing produced immediate responses -- it was after a long wait (months and months). Regardless of what you do, the letter option is a documented attempt to share the difficulties delays have cause for your employer. A phone call doesn't have the same weight.

Note I don't mean this as immigration advice. I'm just sharing a few letter-writing experiences I am familiar with and how the letter-writing could be accomplished. I have no insider information on how or why INZ does what it does.

[Faith]

Thank you for all your information...
Each piece of information makes me feel clear of the process of this application.
At least I can convince my employer that he cannot contact INZ re my case if he will ask again.

Maybe the safe way is to wait until end of this month, five and half months by then, and I will definitely email my co directly.

[nzcoolfor]

Hi Everyone,
In my case, present employer replied questioner on 1st of December? After that CO email to my previous employers for reference check in 1st February and afterward asked me to submit my IRD statement, bank, payslip. Meantime I got a phone call from COO regarding some queries related to my work. After that, one month is over but no reply from CO.
I don’t know is it the last step to process my application?

[EGoodhue]

There may be other third party checks that your CO is undertaking or waiting for results of - they may have further questions for your employer, verifying a qualification, waiting for a medical referral to the Medical Assessor, waiting for a NZ police certificate or the results of a National Security Check. Many of these things are outside of the CO's control so they may not be able to give you an update on a timeframe for when all the checks will be finished. Then they have to write up their final assessment (a long written report - often up to 4 or 5 pages long) and pass it to a colleague for a second person check.

[nzalpaca]

There may be other third party checks that your CO is undertaking or waiting for results of - they may have further questions for your employer, verifying a qualification, waiting for a medical referral to the Medical Assessor, waiting for a NZ police certificate or the results of a National Security Check. Many of these things are outside of the CO's control so they may not be able to give you an update on a timeframe for when all the checks will be finished. Then they have to write up their final assessment (a long written report - often up to 4 or 5 pages long) and pass it to a colleague for a second person check.

hi EGoodhue,

my previous co was resigned on 9 Feb and assigned to a new one who sent out a second questionnaire to my employer and asked me to provide work evidence to her . as i have two job titles ,marketing and store manager (but we apply SMC under the main occupation of marketing ). she also asked my employer how my time split (% ratio of my marketing time).

i have submitted my marketing work evidence on 19 Feb ,but have not heard anything back . dunno its good news or bad news . could you please share your insight about my current status ? so nervous. thanks

[EGoodhue]

I'm sorry nzalpaca, I really don't know why your CO is taking so long to move your application along to the next step. Aside from the third party checks that I've mentioned above that are often outside of the CO's control, a CO should ideally be moving your application to the next step within a week of more information being provided to them. Such a shame to hear that CO's aren't keeping to the best practice timeframes. It really is best to contact your CO and ask for an update - you have a right to know what is happening.

[nzalpaca]

I'm sorry nzalpaca, I really don't know why your CO is taking so long to move your application along to the next step. Aside from the third party checks that I've mentioned above that are often outside of the CO's control, a CO should ideally be moving your application to the next step within a week of more information being provided to them. Such a shame to hear that CO's aren't keeping to the best practice timeframes. It really is best to contact your CO and ask for an update - you have a right to know what is happening.

thank you very much for your reply and time . my NSC got cleared on 7 Feb and provided documents corresponding she requested . maybe i would ask my immigration advisor to get an update from her.

thanks for that and appreciate it