ITA September 2018

[Evanamy]

Hello Everyone,

I have been a silent observer of this forum for a while already, and even though I have not made any contributions as my case didn't seem to be among the lucky ones, I have been following all the posts, and even if it was hard to face the truth of the situation with immigration at the moment, it helped a lot having some reference of what was happening to others.

I just got a approval yesterday, after almost one year processing, and I am extremely happy and relieved for it. My case didn't seem to have any complications, however, I noticed my time frame was very different to others that submitted around the same date. My case went to Quality check three times, as it was returned twice to my case officer after she made a decision, it was really hard thinking that it might be approved soon and then realizing that something else was missing, because that increased a lot the time of processing and therefore, the stress. Even if is not the best case scenario, below is my timeline as it might be useful for some of you in a similar situation:

SMC visa-Onshore (partner included)
ITA submitted: September 7, 2018
CO assigned: 17 January, 2019
No contact from CO for 2 months, so I decided to call immigration and ask who my case officer was, I emailed her and she called me within a week to set up a time for a phone interview.
Phone interview (She said she will contact me very soon requesting some more documents): 15 March, 2019,
Emailed CO to follow up as there was no contact for a month: 15 April, 2019
Received a call from CO requesting IRD Tax summary: 23 April, 2019
Submitted IRD Tax Summary: 26 April, 2019
CO made a decision and sent to 2PC: 29 April, 2019
Case returned to case officer as it needed more work (She never requested anything from my current employer, and it seems that this was necessary): 8 June, 2019
CO called informing me that she was going on holidays for 2 weeks so the case will be on hold: 12 June, 2019
Emailed CO as there was no contact from her after returning from holidays: 10 July, 2019
CO contacted my employer on the phone asking my duties and responsibilities: 22 July, 2019
CO made a decision and sent to 2PC for the second time: 23 July, 2019
Case returned to CO again as it needed more work (apparently, the phone interview with my employer was not enough): 23 July, 2019
Case officer Emailed my employer with questionnaire: 24 July, 2019
My employer replied the questionnaire: 24 July, 2019
Emailed CO to follow up as there was no contact from her after a couple of weeks and I was growing impatient of course (No response this time): 7 August, 2019
Status changed to Approved Online: August 20, 2019
Received letter from Immigration on my email with the resident visa for me and my partner: 21 August, 2019

I know my case is quite different to what normally happens, but maybe someone that has been in my situation might find the post useful!

Also, I have seen that some people are requested to send their passports, however in the E-mail they sent me, there is no such request, and I actually got the visa with travel conditions already, so I am guessing I don't need to send my passport, has this happened to anybody else here??

Thanks everyone for all the information, this forum was extremely useful to understand how the process goes!... Good luck to everyone else, I really know how very difficult this is, but once it happens peace comes with it!!

[JandM]

Welcome, Evanamy, and thank you for sharing what happened to you. Reading between the lines, I have the impression that your CO was maybe a recently trained one, and the repeated referrals from 2pc were correcting her errors and omissions. Here's hoping for other people that she's learning fast...

[Evanamy]

Hi JandM,

Thanks for the welcome message, and for all your posts!! everything was really helpful. That is a good explanation for my case I never considered actually, but it makes a lot of sense. It was really hard to see other cases from September and after resolved and mine still on the line, but thankfully it all ended up well!!

By the way, do you happened to know if it is normal not to be asked to send your passport at the end??.. I have read many cases here where the application is approved in principle until they send their passports for inspection, but it seems I received the resident visa already, we didn't get any requests, I guess I will give a call, but I just want to make sure I am not missing anything!!

Thanks again!!

[JandM]

Yes, it's normal. Some people get asked for a sight of their passport at the very last stage, and some don't. As you're onshore, I'm guessing that they've already seen your passport for a previous visa, so they know it's genuine with no problems.

[Kelerei]

Yes, it seems largely based on whether INZ has previously sighted the passport or not. If they haven't, they'll want to; if they have, they usually won't want to see it again.

We saw first-hand evidence of this with our own Resident Visa application. My partner is South African by birth and British by descent, and thus holds two passports. She entered NZ on her South African passport as her British passport was still in her maiden name (not her married name), but while our Resident Visa application was being process, renewed her British passport into her married name, then (because it's generally a lot easier to travel on a British passport than a South African one) asked our case officer if her Resident Visa could be placed in her British passport, rather than her South African one as originally requested. The CO agreed to this after receiving a certified copy, but told us that if our application was successful, we would need to send that passport in for sighting. It therefore came as no surprise when, after processing was complete, we received an Approved in Principle letter and had to send her British passport (hitherto unsighted by INZ) for sighting before our Resident Visas were actually granted. As I myself wasn't in the same situation, and INZ had previously sighted my passport with an earlier visa application, no such request was made to me.