Partner Visa requirements

[dave3]

Hi!

me and my partner are planning to apply for a temporary work visa in New Zealand, however, we want to be prepared in case only one of us can get it, and apply for visa based on partnership.
According to govt.nz, we either need to be married, or in a registered partnership:

"Immigration New Zealand defines partnership as two people of the opposite or same sex, who live together in a genuine and stable relationship in any of the following:

a legal marriage
a civil union
a de facto relationship"

We do not have any of the 3 above mentioned unions, however, we've been together for 2 years, and can provide proof of relationship, such as photos, email conversations, proof of living together/tenancy agreements with our names, letters from our family/friends testifying we live in a stable&genuine relationship etc.
Is this considered as enough, or do we also need to be married or have a registered partnership in order to apply for the partner visa?

Thank you for any help or advice on this subject!

[JandM]

It sounds as though you pretty much DO have a de facto relationship - see lawyer's opinion here http://www.smithpartners.co.nz/libra...-relationship/ - and the situation you describe would be fine for putting in an application for a partner-sponsored visa.

INZ look at evidence that a couple have been living together as partners immediately before the application (and still are). For a partner-sponsored work visa, they don't specify a length of time, but we know from experience that they take applications seriously when they can see two to three months' evidence at least, and for a partner-sponsored residence visa, there has to be at least 12 months' evidence at the time of application.

Notice that for any partner-sponsored application, INZ routinely ask for MORE evidence just before granting the visa, making sure they're not giving it to someone whose relationship has broken down in the meantime, so keep on collecting even after you've applied. If you apply first for a work visa, keep collecting even after it's granted, because you'll need to show 12 months' evidence later, in the run-up to residence, and STILL keep collecting while that application is being processed.

Here https://www.google.com/search?source...10.Z6wNQxBjmPY are old threads with discussion of evidence, and examples of what people have used.

[redbells]

Hi Dave3,

JandM is right. INZ look at evidence that a couple have been LIVING together. My partner applied for partnership visa of a worker visa. We have been together for 1.5 years before we applied for the partnership visa in April 2018.


We provided the below documents
1) A letter outlining our relationship, from how we met, to where we have been, how and when did we meet each other's families, if we have common interests, and our future goals such as starting a family.
2) Flat Share tenancy Agreements
3) Bank Statements - to show that we are financially interdependent on each other. Highlighted Incoming(Salary), outging (Rent, utility bills, grocery shopping)
4) Our facebook messages, not all of it, however it is to show communication between us from the start to current status
5) Photos of us in different countries, with our families - We have written the country, the month and year the photo it was taken
6) Bus tickets, flight tickets etc to different countries
7) References from his family, my family, his friends and my friends - to show that our relationship has been recognized by them that we are in a stable and genuine relationship
8)Screenshots of our facebook/instagram to show that we have publicly recorded our relationship
9) Assortment of birthday cards/Valentine day cards/Christmas/Anniversary cards during our relationship


Hope these helps!