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Thread: Partnership Work Visa - Wellington

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2019
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    7

    Default Partnership Work Visa - Wellington

    Hi all,

    I'm an American applying for a partnership work visa to be with my Kiwi partner. We've been together for 10 months, we traveled together through Japan and have many people who recognize our relationship and are writing letters. However, the pre-submission anxiety is kicking in and I wanted to lay out my information and see if everyone thinks it will be enough.

    We do not have a joint bank account but I have highlighted the thousands of dollars transferred between us. We have tickets to Japan and Korea, travel back, several months of social media conversations, many pictures of us together, email's, and a joint utility account. My worry is that although we've been living together for a month, my partner only signed onto the lease recently. By time I submit an application we will have been living together only a few weeks. There's this, and that our only documents of financial interdependence are joint utility and phone bills, plane tickets, and the money transferred between us.

    Is this enough? My working holiday visa expires at the end of April and reading some posts here have me worried that I will have to leave the country. My partner and I are clearly in a relationship and living together but will they claim it hasn't been for long enough or that we are not financially interdependent enough? Any information would be a great help.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Christchurch, New Zealand
    Posts
    208

    Default

    Unfortunately, one month of cohabitation will probably not be enough. According to my LIA, INZ will require you to be living together for at least three months for a Partner of a New Zealander Work Visa, although they do not specify any minimum time on the website. This is also what other people have reported to be the case.

    Your evidence also appears to be a bit light by INZ standards. Read more here about how INZ defines partnership: https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-...ly/partnership

    That being said, my partner and I did not have joint tenancy, as he owned our home outright before I moved in. We did, however, have 3 months of joint bank statements, joint phone bill, and joint electric bill. We had correspondence addressed to both of us at the same address, both from friends and official sources, like VTNZ.

    But I really think the big problem will be that it's only 1 month. One suggestion I have is to wait as long as possible to apply, and do it just short of your WHV expiry. You will then be on an interim visa that keeps you legal in NZ. This will give you more time to accumulate proof. Unfortunately, you will not be able to work on the interim visa. (Disclaimer: I have not done this myself, but I am sharing information others have shared with me. Hopefully others with experience will add more.)

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2019
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    7

    Default

    Thanks for the advice. I had figured early on that since no duration was ever specified online for living together that the timeline didn't matter, but after reading through the forums unfortunately I think you're right. We do have a few months phone and electric bills and mail addressed to both at our apartment, but who knows if that will be enough. Although I'm eager to submit in order to figure out my plans, I think you're right to say wait and get the interim visa, as long as submitting to close to a deadline doesn't piss them off or make me look lazy haha.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    15

    Default

    I agree about waiting to submit as long as possible. Just to let you know, though, I had a LIA and applied with about 9 weeks of living together and was granted a 1 year work visa. I would not at all assume this is the norm, but it does happen. We opened our joint bank account weeks after moving in together, so there was not a long history with that but I did print out all of my bank statements and highlighted where money was transferred between us before our joint bank account was opened. All of the joint bills we had (electricity, internet, gas) had both of our names on it.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37,824

    Default

    See these old threads https://www.google.com/search?source...10.DyqAATjbslc for discussion and examples of what people have used for evidence of partnership. From what we have seen on the forum, it seems that INZ takes applications seriously with two to three months GOOD evidence. Particularly notice that you and your partner can deliberately generate evidence by writing with queries by post to various organizations (e.g. asking about different services from banks or government departments, etc.), thereby getting replies through the mail to your shared home, and ordering things to be delivered, being careful to SAVE the paperwork and packaging.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    902

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by number125 View Post
    Thanks for the advice. I had figured early on that since no duration was ever specified online for living together that the timeline didn't matter, but after reading through the forums unfortunately I think you're right. We do have a few months phone and electric bills and mail addressed to both at our apartment, but who knows if that will be enough. Although I'm eager to submit in order to figure out my plans, I think you're right to say wait and get the interim visa, as long as submitting to close to a deadline doesn't piss them off or make me look lazy haha.
    It's a good idea to wait as long as you can get gather as much evidence as possible before submitting - if your current visa expires at the end of April, it would be prudent to lodge in early April. Submitting close to your visa expiry isn't going to "piss them off or make you look lazy" - if anything, the fact that they have a system that involves an Interim visa makes INZ look lazy...it was basically implemented because INZ admitted they are so bloodly slow with everything and that's not likely to change any time soon so here's a free visa to cover the looooong time it takes them to process an application

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2019
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    7

    Default

    Thanks for all the help!

    Does anyone know under what conditions INZ would be likely to issue a temporary 6 month partnership work visa? The tenancy agreement and joint bank account me and my partner have will be about 7-8 weeks old by the time of submission. Is it possible they will grant more time to gather documents, or is that usually issued for different reasons? Any help would be great.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    15

    Default

    At the time I submitted my partnership work visa application, our joint tenancy agreement was around 8-9 weeks old and our joint bank account was even less than that. I was granted a 1 year partnership work visa. I had an immigration adviser who wrote a cover letter requesting a 1 year work visa due to the high quality of my application/proven partnership. Just make sure you provide as much documentation as possible (joint bank account statements, letters/invitations in the mail addressed to the both of you, social media documentation of your relationship if applicable, letters of support from both sides, etc) and provide it in a clear and concise manner. Good luck!!

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