Hi all,
My wife now has her permanent residence, but immigration have not put a new sticker in her passport, I thought they would replace the residence sticker they gave her with travel conditions on it so she could come and go from NZ on here passport as she pleases.
Instead they have left the first residence sticker in her passport (the one that has the date in which the travel conditions expire) and provided a letter on an A4 piece of paper that says she must carry that with her passport when traveling so she can get back into the country.
To me this seems a bit backwards, its like an E-Visa for NZ which she has to carry along with her passport, the reason it seems a bit backwards is because I was expecting the practical thing to have done would be to put a new residence sticker in her passport with no travel conditions on it, allowing her to leave and return to NZ as she pleases. Carrying an A4 piece of paper around (even if folded up) seems a bit of a hassle and the chance of loosing it would be a lot higher than loosing a passport (I can imagine it getting mixed up with other travel prints out such as accommodation and then thrown out with them).
So is this the norm and has anyone ever lost this bit of paper while out of the country on holiday and had trouble boarding their flight home?