Partner based visit or work visa?

[mmacd]

Hi, my girlfriend was here in NZ on a 3 month partner visit visa. We then applied for a partner work visa just before the visit visa expired. She got an interim visa while we waited .

Her dad then took Ill and we decided it would be better if she was back in Thailand with her dad so we withdrew her work visa application and she went back. Now that her dad is better we both want to carry on living together in NZ.

My question is, do we need to apply for another 3 month visit visa or can we go straight in with a new partner based work visa? We lived together for almost 4 months in NZ before she went back and by the time we apply we will have been apart for approx 2-3 month.

If we apply for a partner work visa will it be dismissed immediately because we have spent a couple of months apart and/or we are not living together when she applies?

We dont really want to have a refused application on her record so maybe would be a lot easier just to go for a visit visa again then go for work visa after another 3 months?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

[JandM]

See Time Spent Living Apart here. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-...ly/partnership

It is possible to submit an application for a partner-sponsored visa including some absence from one another, if you have good evidence of living together beforehand, had a good solid reason for one person leaving and can prove that, and good evidence that you kept in contact while you were away.

I think it is quite possible your partner would not now be granted an ordinary visitor's visa, because it is not long since she was in NZ as a visitor, at the end of which time she submitted an application for a partner-sponsored visa (even though she then withdrew it). Visitor visas are ONLY meant for a stay of a limited time in NZ, after which the person honestly intends to go back to live and work in another country (see Bona Fide requirements https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-...na-fide/slider). So INZ know that she doesn't actually want or intend to leave again if once she gets back into NZ. It certainly wouldn't be 'easier' to go for a visit visa, and INZ would possibly consider she was committing fraud by not stating her true intention.

If INZ have reservations about granting a partner-sponsored work visa applied for when one partner is overseas, they sometimes offer a partner-sponsored visitor visa, to give a chance for the couple to build up more evidence of living together.

[mmacd]

Thanks JandM, I've got a feeling that this visa won't be as easy as her last one.

She went back for genuine reasons but we didn't think at the time how it would affect future applications.

Cheers