Originally Posted by
Aramis
Plus, if you apply for the 2nd visa after 12 months, you are granted an interim visa with work permission - which you don´t get on the residency visa.
Just take note of
WF2.1(a): there is a 24 month limit that one may be on a Partner of a New Zealander Work Visa, measured from either the day the first visa was granted (if that visa was granted onshore), or the day that the visa holder first entered New Zealand on the first visa (if that visa was granted offshore). INZ expects holders of a Partner of a New Zealander Work Visa to apply for, and be granted, a Partner of a New Zealander Resident Visa within those 24 months -- in fact, your Work Visa will not be granted if INZ determines that your partner will not be able to support an application for the Partner of a New Zealander Resident Visa within 12 months of the Work Visa being granted (
WF2.5).
There has been recent evidence on this forum that, due to INZ's own processing delays, they are (on a case-by-case basis) extending that 24 month limit and allowing one final subsequent Work Visa application contrary to instructions, if there's a Partner of a New Zealander Resident Visa application being processed. I would not expect this to continue indefinitely though.
From reading both WF2.1 and WF2.5, one may reasonably deduce that one should, in ideal circumstances, be prepared to lodge an application for a Partner of a New Zealander Resident Visa as soon as one meets the criteria under the relevant immigration instructions (and those are over at
F2).