INZ Christmas ‘downtime’ & Partner Work Visa duration

[BananaFace]

Hi all,
Any idea when this starts? I am hoping to submit my Partner Work Visa by the end of this week, with the view of (hopefully) having my Visa before we travel to Auckland on 29 January. Is this unrealistic?

The Partner Work Visa application is slightly confusing, specifically the duration question. I initially selected ‘over 24 months’, which requires me to produce 3 x police certificates (2 with translations, one UK), and the X-Ray (which again I wasn’t sure whether I need the full medical or limited plus X-ray; didn’t understand the physician submission question. Back to the duration, I played with it and realised that if I select 6-up to 12 months it considerably reduces the documentation requirements - only need my Kiwi partner’s UK police certificate but not for me, and no X-ray or medical. Would it make sense to go for this shorter Visa option?

I am currently job-hunting from the UK and spite of a very promosing start (ok, started only two weeks ago; three Skype interviews since and an online personality assessment which had me in major panic!), no actual job offer so far. We can be flexible with whether we stay when we travel, or come back and keep on trying remotely.

In case anyone is wondering, job-hunting was only supposed to be a testing the water activity, and trip in January a ‘recce’ prior to a final move to Auckland.

Thank you in advance!

[JandM]

I can't immediately find the exact dates when the INZ offices will be CLOSED (usually around the week of Christmas Day to New Year's Day), but that's only half the story - this being the time of summer holidays, many staff will be wanting to take leave while their children are out of school, so, like in many NZ businesses, the tempo at INZ is likely to slow from just before Christmas till after the start of the new school year around the beginning of February. There's no way to predict exactly how long your visa will take to process, and/but this page https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-...sa-application "guesses" at between one month to three months.

I think you need to be careful about not giving a mixed message. You're thinking of telling INZ you want to have a work visa and to be with your partner for UNDER A YEAR, and yet you're telling them you have a stable partnership, and you're engaging with NZ employers about getting the offer of a permanent job - ??? You need to focus away from merely the convenience or otherwise of this initial application. The whole basis of the family stream visas is that there is a provable partnership which the two people envisage continuing into the future. See here https://www.google.com/search?ei=ZdT...10.KMsX9tyzs8w for old threads with discussion and examples of what is needed to prove partnership successfully to INZ's satisfaction. Anything that can be interpreted as meaning that you are not wholeheartedly committed can sink the application.

Also, bear in mind that an application to INZ is a legal document. Submission of that application is taken to be your warranting to everything on it being the truth, and if INZ discover later that something was NOT the truth, that can be viewed as fraud, which impacts any and all future visa applications for anywhere.

A4.25 e i here https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/#46507.htm tells you about the requirement for an X-ray and what kind of medical you would need.

[BananaFace]

Thank you very much, *JandM*

I totally see what you are saying about my actions potentially being interpreted as deceitful. I honestly thought that the Partner Work Visa (and with that, the different durations) existed as a stepping stone should one decide to apply for residence (which can take months to get). I saw it as no different from those that go with a Partner Work Visa but only start looking for work once they are there - if they secure permanent employment and decide to stay, then they will also need a visa extension or residency - or that’s how I interpreted it, seeing that I don’t have a job offer as yet.

Would it be best to call INZ and clarify it? And ask about the X-ray as the question about practitioner submitting it (and with that medical certificate that pops up if you select ‘no’) seems confusing...

Time really isn’t in our favour!

[JandM]

Testing, testing... I've tried putting a meaningful reply here, and am just getting an error message when I try to post it.

[JandM]

Well, that is strange. I'll try sending you a PM - you should get it because I'm an admin, though normally, you won't be able to send and receive PMs until after you've made five posts on any threads, then after about half an hour, the site automatically switches on your permissions. Watch for a PM.

[JandM]

Okay, it won't go through as a PM either. I'm starting to wonder if there is something in the content that is being picked on by a bot. I'll try a paragraph at a time.

Partner-sponsored visas are all about the partnership - they don't require any proof of qualifications and/or work experience and therefore these visas are targeted by crooks paying people to lie for them to get them a visa. The partnership either does or doesn't genuinely exist. INZ require a high level of proof for ALL partner-sponsored visas, and examine the evidence carefully for consistency and likelihood, just as carefully for the first visa as for residence further down the line.

[JandM]

Aha... that was all right. Next!

Having a partner-sponsored work visa doesn't mean the partner HAS to have a job; it just gives him/her permission to work, if and when offered.

[JandM]

INZ don't give advice. Their web pages and the operational manual set out the requirements, and it's up to individual applicants to set out their personal situation in such a way as to allow an INZ CO to tick off the points as they find that the requirements are met, so as to be able to recommend issuing a visa at the end of the process.

[JandM]

Also, you talk about phoning INZ to get clarification. Sorry to disappoint you, but the INZ telephone answerers are NOT trained case workers.

[JandM]

If you don't yourself understand what the online "paperwork" sets out, and you need someone to TELL you what to do, you would need to employ a Licensed Immigration Adviser (because NZ law forbids any private person to give immigration advice).

That said, there are many people on the forum who have gone through the process that you are just starting out on, so if you spell out what you are wondering about, they will almost certainly be able to tell you what THEY did, that worked.

So can you quote the wording that pops up about the X-ray which is confusing you? - then someone may be able to help. (Or have you looked at that link I sent to the operational manual page about the requirement for medicals? Is the question not answered there, if you read all the small print?)