Work Visa Foreign Police certificate delayed due to covid

[skadsuh]

Hello Everyone. With current status of immigration due to Covid19 I am a bit worried on my mom's application for work visa. She applied for another work visa under my father's partnership. She is here in NZ. After applying, the immigration emailed her and told her that the police certificate she provided was expired. Now, the immigration officer gave a due date of 26 of march. Thing is, on our home country the services are closed. The application for police certificate there is suspended for about a month or two depending on the current status of COVID19. Will the immigration officer be considerate and give her an interim and extend the due date? She already emailed the officer and so far no reply from her yet. This is worrying because her visa is expiring soon. On INZ I read that interim visa will automatically be provided but not sure about her current case. Has anyone had this problem? Did you have an automatic interim visa? I am really worried.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe.

[JandM]

In normal circumstances, with an application made from within NZ, while the previous visa was valid, for a further temporary visa, an Interim visa would be issued when the present one expired. The applicant wouldn't get notification immediately - it could take several weeks for the email to come through - but the Interim visa would be in place and the INZ call answerers could confirm that.

Nobody yet knows how much normal work is going to be done by INZ during the present emergency, so there's no way to tell what to expect in her particular case.

HOWEVER, see what EGoodhue has recently posted. It looks as if it will apply to your mother, and she need not worry. https://www.enz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=56355 Things will all be sorted out AFTER the emergency.

[Kelerei]

Nobody yet knows how much normal work is going to be done by INZ during the present emergency, so there's no way to tell what to expect in her particular case.

I may have an answer to this -- or at least, my former LIA does. Based on the "out of office" replies from INZ managers, he's strongly suspecting that all visa processing has ceased, and that only the border control division of INZ remains operational.

Here's his blog post, where he shares his rather critical views on the matter.

There's no doubt in his mind either that all temporary class visas will be extended due to the epidemic notice.

[JandM]

Thanks, Kelerei.

[Kelerei]

Hello Everyone. With current status of immigration due to Covid19 I am a bit worried on my mom's application for work visa. She applied for another work visa under my father's partnership. She is here in NZ. After applying, the immigration emailed her and told her that the police certificate she provided was expired. Now, the immigration officer gave a due date of 26 of march. Thing is, on our home country the services are closed. The application for police certificate there is suspended for about a month or two depending on the current status of COVID19. Will the immigration officer be considerate and give her an interim and extend the due date? She already emailed the officer and so far no reply from her yet. This is worrying because her visa is expiring soon. On INZ I read that interim visa will automatically be provided but not sure about her current case. Has anyone had this problem? Did you have an automatic interim visa? I am really worried.

Thanks for reading. Stay safe.

I can't say what will happen -- or even if anything will happen right now with the current situation. Some things to keep in mind:

• Under normal circumstances, an Interim Visa would be issued to keep your mother in the country legally. Right now, with the epidemic notice, your mother's visa is automatically extended until the epidemic notice expires (see Section 78 of the Immigration Act, and E3.10(d)), so the Interim Visa won't come into play until that happens.
• INZ can waive the requirement for a police certificate if they determine that they are unavailable or unduly difficult to obtain: see A5.10.1. The onus would be on your mother to satisfy INZ that police certificates are not available or are unduly difficult to obtain.

[skadsuh]

In normal circumstances, with an application made from within NZ, while the previous visa was valid, for a further temporary visa, an Interim visa would be issued when the present one expired. The applicant wouldn't get notification immediately - it could take several weeks for the email to come through - but the Interim visa would be in place and the INZ call answerers could confirm that.

Nobody yet knows how much normal work is going to be done by INZ during the present emergency, so there's no way to tell what to expect in her particular case.

HOWEVER, see what EGoodhue has recently posted. It looks as if it will apply to your mother, and she need not worry. https://www.enz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=56355 Things will all be sorted out AFTER the emergency.

Thanks JandM

[skadsuh]

I can't say what will happen -- or even if anything will happen right now with the current situation. Some things to keep in mind:

• Under normal circumstances, an Interim Visa would be issued to keep your mother in the country legally. Right now, with the epidemic notice, your mother's visa is automatically extended until the epidemic notice expires (see Section 78 of the Immigration Act, and E3.10(d)), so the Interim Visa won't come into play until that happens.
• INZ can waive the requirement for a police certificate if they determine that they are unavailable or unduly difficult to obtain: see A5.10.1. The onus would be on your mother to satisfy INZ that police certificates are not available or are unduly difficult to obtain.

Thanks for the link Kelerei

[skadsuh]

I may have an answer to this -- or at least, my former LIA does. Based on the "out of office" replies from INZ managers, he's strongly suspecting that all visa processing has ceased, and that only the border control division of INZ remains operational.

Here's his blog post, where he shares his rather critical views on the matter.

There's no doubt in his mind either that all temporary class visas will be extended due to the epidemic notice.

Thanks for this new information