Living together requirement 12 Months

[gayyanm]

Hi everyone,

For partnership residence visa, how do INZ count the time spent "living together"?

If a couple has (say) lived together for 1.5 years in all but there have been periods spent apart (due to university level study/employment commitments of one partner), then will the immigration say that time spent living together is actually= 1.5 years-days spent living apart? Or will INZ be willing to acknowledge that even when one person was away, their residence was actually the same as their partner's (thus acknowledging the full 1.5 years )?

What if the answer to the literal number of days spent together in person comes to <365 days in all, will the partnership based residence be rejected? What if, as the Ops Manual says, time spent apart is corroborated with sufficient proof of sustained regular contact and evidence of the fact that this was no break in the partnership but just some regular business of one's career pursuits.

Basically my question is, is the living together for 12 months requirement stringent in the very literal sense of being physically present at the same address for 365 days or is it more about the spirit of the partnership being adhered to and maintained for at least 12 months?

Thanks in advance!

[Spiderman]

From my understanding, for example, if a couple has lived together for 1.5 yrs, and during this 1.5 yrs, they didn't sleep together for 10 days. That's normal. You don't need to explain to INZ as normal couple one may visit his parents or other things causing they can't sleep together that night.

But if you spent more than HALF YEAR in this 1.5 yrs living separated, That's looks not normal. If you really did, you should explain to INZ why you two can't live together ( as you say, may be study or work reasons) and submit your evidence that you two still keep in touch during that separated days.

Correct me if I am wrong. Good luck ;-D

[gayyanm]

Thanks, Spiderman. Well, the period of separation in my case is not continuous 6 months but scattered (~10 days each month) because my partner is a researcher and has to travel to libraries/archives/conferences for her research. But I am not sure how INZ will view the time spent apart in terms of calculating the "12 months" spent living together.

[JandM]

more about the spirit of the partnership being adhered to and maintained for at least 12 months?

It's that. When people have a sound reason (work/study/care of a sick relative etc.) to stay some of the time in temporary accommodation away from their shared home, but they show evidence that their mail goes to the home, they have full contact with their partner while they are away, there is a sharing of financials and decision-making about their home and their activities, the time is all counted as partnership. See near the bottom of this page. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-...ly/partnership

[scottynz]

We had a similar situation where I was accepted to study overseas but my wife couldn't join due to the length of time our dogs would need to be in quarantine. The period spanned nearly 12 months, but we explained the background to INZ and also included the receipts for our air tickets (in addition to our other evidence) to show that we each traveled back-and-forth during the period and we were approved without issue or further question. I believe that they look at the substance of the relationship and COs are trained to detect real partnerships from those designed for immigration purposes.

[jeffrey.stwn]

Just would like to share my experience when applying for smc resident visa. When we submitted our EOI, my partner had been studying and I working in different cities for several months. Though our relationship started more than a year before we moved to NZ, we were really worried about what this would do to our application.

After we submitted our ITA, our CO asked about our living arrangement as they had our then-current visas as a student and a worker in different cities. Fortunately for us was the fact that these cities are within driving distance, so I always drive to where she lived at the time during the weekends and holidays. She would also visit me at times.

Based on this, I submitted a printout of my driving history over 10 months where I drove up every friday and back every sunday. This is possible through google maps as it tracked your every movement if you allows it, complete with timestamps and all. We also asked our respective landlords for a support letter as further proofs that they had seen us visit each other.

After these were submitted, there were no further questions from the CO so he/she must be satisfied that our relationship has substance even though it might not fulfil the criteria of 100% physically living together.