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Thread: Online Permanent Residence Visa Application - Partner of Expat NZ Citizen

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    2

    Default Online Permanent Residence Visa Application - Partner of Expat NZ Citizen

    Firstly, a huge thank you to all posters, especially JandM and ChrisMwn, plus all the many forum members whose posts I’ve been reading daily for what seems like months….
    We gained a huge amount of encouragement and reassurance reading this forum, so we thought it might be useful to share our experience in case this is helpful to others. Please excuse the length of this post..

    I’m an expat Kiwi and have lived in the UK since 1981, married to and living with my British husband since 1989. We’ve been collecting what seemed like a huge amount of evidence over the past year or two, including some documents going back to 1989. Luckily for us, the INZ online system was extended in late May 2018 allowing partners of NZers to apply online, saving courier costs, time and paper.

    Relevant dates and costs were as follows:

    14.06.18: Limited medical including xray for husband at Plymouth, UK = £281
    16.06.18: UK Police certificates obtained for myself and husband = £90 for both
    11.07.18: Local lawyer - Statutory Declaration witnessed for my INZ1179 Application Support Form = £15 (including 4 certified copies of birth cert.marriage cert etc)
    21.07.18: Submitted application online, acknowledgement received same day
    24.07.18: Credit card debited = NZ$1950 (amounted to £1,023.43 GBP)
    25.07.18: Email from Case Officer, Hamilton Branch, with a brief query, answered by email and acknowledged by CO the following day
    20.08.18: Email received: Approved in Principle (only 30 days later and on my husband’s birthday as well!)
    28.08.18: Husband’s passport and copy of AIP letter posted to London Visa Centre as instructed
    04.09.18: Letter received confirming Resident Visa: valid immediately, no travel conditions, indefinite expiry etc. Passport returned by courier the same day.

    Total cost = UK£ 1,439.73

    We found the whole process a bit stressful - were we sending enough info/too much info?? The online system seemed to work well - you just have to work your way through each section, and depending on the answers you give, more questions may pop up. It was good to be able to save the application and return to it to add more info as necessary before finally hitting submit!

    We did not assume it would all be OK just because we have been married so long, and submitted a variety of evidence as well as the requested official documents. Our evidence included joint bank statements, motor insurance documents, utility bills, credit card statements, a support letter from two friends (who happened to be the witnesses on our marriage certificate 29 years ago), copies of past joint travel documents (including annual trip to NZ every year for past 5 years), relationship timeline, cover letter etc. We limited the evidence submitted to cover the last 6 years, but offered to send more historic details if required.

    Wishing the best of luck to future applicants, and thank you to everyone who has taken the time to share their experiences - this forum and it's members really helped us prepare well, and succeed!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37,822

    Default

    Welcome to the forum, and thanks very much for sharing details of your process.

    And congratulations!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    163

    Default

    Delighted to hear that you're through the process! It sounds like it's much simpler (and cheaper!) with the new online application process. I spent around 500€ just on courier expenses when working through my application.

    What is the process for submitting the evidence under the new scheme? Do you scan copies in, or are they still requesting originals or certified copies be sent in by post separate from the application?

    And yes, congratulations!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    2

    Default

    Thanks JandM and diallta for the welcome and the bananas!

    I found the process of applying online a bit tedious, but simple enough if you work through it slowly and systematically, know your way around a computer and have access to a decent scanner - fast internet for all the uploading is also helpful

    I had certified copies of our marriage cert/birth certs done by a local lawyer, then scanned them and uploaded them. The only paper document was the INZ1179 Application Support form, which I had to print out, fill in and have my signature witnessed by the lawyer (the StatutoryDeclaration part). I then had to scan all 8 pages of the form, convert to PDF and upload it. Likewise police certs, copies of my husbands passport etc.

    Everything else I just scanned and grouped into Word documents - one document for cover letter, one for relationship timeline, one for financial info (bank/credit card etc), one for living together evidence/support letter etc etc. Also did one for photos of us together and past travel info: this document had four A4 pages with 6 small photos per page and about 10 pages of scanned tickets/boarding passes/rental car agreements etc going back 5 years.

    Once I'd made all the Word documents, I compressed the photos and converted the documents to PDFs - each PDF must be under their maximum file size limit explained in the online help. It took me a bit of trial and error but if you are persistent and don't rush, you get there in the end. All the pdfs were eventually uploaded into the online application - in the upload section you can pick a suitable category for each pdf (including "other evidence").

    In our joint cover letter we offered to submit more historical evidence if required, and to send original documents but this was not necessary. Perhaps the fact we are "mature" folks, who still to this day have the same joint bank account we opened in 1989, counted in our favour, who knows?

    We also had to experiment a bit with the required ID photo of my husband - the guidelines give good tips for getting the photo right but if you upload one that is not quite right (ie too much background showing) the system will reject it each time. We got there with version 3!

    I think we just struck lucky with the opening of the online system for Partner applications - certainly for us it meant no courier fees for and no delays

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    163

    Default

    Well I'm glad to hear they've improved the system...and I'm just a little jealous of your experience compared to mine. By far the most stressful part of the process when I went through it was posting all of the documentation and paying crazy amounts to get it there on time. And, a few documents, including the original lease for the flat we're in now, are lost because I sent them to INZ and I never got them back! It would have been so much easier and cheaper to do it online!

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