Hi again,

I’m one of the hopeful people here who submitted their SMC resident visa application last year. Here is a summary of my timeframe and points breakdown:

ITA submitted: 28 March 2018
Payment debited: 12 April 2018
CO first contact, requested for additional docs: 1 June 2018
Submitted requested docs: 5 June 2018
CO emailed employers (Primary applicant & partner) for verification: 16 July 2018
Employers responded: 18 and 20 July 2018
New CO assigned, email introduction received (NOT 2PC): 24 October 2018
Emailed new CO for update: 22 November 2018
CO responded, with no update: 27 November 2018
Months passed since ITA submission: 9.5 months

30 points: Age
50 points: Principal Applicant (me) with skilled job offer
50 points: Recognised qualification
10 points: Bonus - Recognised qualification studied in NZ
20 points: Partner with skilled job offer
Total: 160 points

I know that technically we are still under the specified time frame of INZ (as per the INZ website, 95% of applications are processed within 12 months), but my spouse & I are quite anxious as there might be some changes with his work. His company is currently undergoing a reorganisation, and his manager is considering moving him to a different role ASAP to avoid having the risk of redundancy. But as we are still waiting for the results of our RV application, my partner asked his manager if we can hold it off for a couple more months as we don’t want to complicate things with our application.

Since we are working against the clock here, what would be the best option for us? Should we:
A. Do a fortnightly status follow-up with our CO - though not sure if a constant reminder will be helpful?
B. Just inform our CO that the role of my spouse has changed (should that time come) - will this extend the processing of our application?

Or can anyone (probably Janda or Goodhue) let me know of a smarter option?

Thanks as always!