arthurfowler

I applied for a temporary partnership visa (approved!), however the visa stated that I could only stay up to 12 months (the visa docs state that you can stay for up to 24 months in all the documentation).

One of the requests in the submission was that I should give some kind of proof that we intend to be together whilst in Nz. Well because of this I gave a background of our situation (my partner has a one year contract). And I said I would be with my partner for the duration of this contract.

The plan was that if we liked it we would stay over there and both look for other work (although I did not state this).

From this they assumed that I only intended to be there for 12 months and therefore only offered me a 12 month visa. in order for this to be amended I will have to pay a further £85. This is a lot of money for me at he moment

They require no further evidence, but need the money to amend the visa.

My query is that if everything that I submitted was correct and they need no further evidence, then shouldn't I have been allowed to stay for up to 24 months off the bat and not pay a further £85?

I don't want to cause a fuss because I am terrified that they will reject my application for some reason and I don't want to delay going to Nz any longer (my partner has been over there for nearly 6 weeks now waiting for me).

Any advice? Can I contest the charge or is it my fault? The documentation at no point asked me to state how long I wanted to stay in NZ so the fact a temp partnership visa lets you stay for up to 24 months meant I would be granted this in my mind. Obviously I was wrong?

Thank you

MrsFychan

what duration does your partner have on their visa?
and what type is visa ?

arthurfowler

They are an Nz passport holder - born in Nz plus a British passport too!

MrsFychan

ahh ok. not sure what you can do at this stage apart from speak to the person dealing with your application and state that from your understanding you would get the 24 mths as stated on the site. If that person isn't helpful then maybe ask to speak to a manager but make sure that you did read the small print and it wasn't a mistake on your part. Only other option would be to see if you can change it whilst you are over here and see if that is cheaper.

arthurfowler

I have just found this tick box in the form!

http://postimg.org/image/9yx09n5cb/

The tick box asks you whether you intend to stay in Nz for 12 months or longer. I ticked the box because I also provided a chest x ray and medical certificate. If I wanted to stay for up to 12 months, I did not have to provide a chest x ray or medical cert.

Can I use this to argue my case? Can they withdraw my application for any reason?

Edit: I also think the worker knows she did something wrong. This was in her email response:

"In your application section D4 you have ticked that you are not planning to be in New Zealand for more than 24 months"

This has no relevance because at this moment I DON'T intend to be there for longer than 24 months but I do intend to stay UP to 24 months and I ticked the correct box for this.

If I ask to speak to a manager will they allow this to be changed?

MrsFychan

No idea if they will still charge you but it does look like they are at fault. So I would speak to the person concerned and point out that you did in fact apply for the 24mth which is why you paid the extra cost for medicals and submitted them with your application.
I'm not sure if it is still up to them how long you are allowed to stay but if you get no where with that person then I would escalate it up to a Manager and ask them to explain why they have only given you a 12mth. It could be because your partner only has a 1 yr contract but again I'm not sure on that.

arthurfowler

Yep thanks for that. I am now armed with more info. They asked for no evidence of my partner's job situation or whether it was contract work/how long etc, so hopefully that should have no relevance especially when my OH has an Nz passport. We will see I guess.

BEVS

They have made an error and there is a duty of care policy.

Lay it all out as simply as possible and ask them to waive the fee.

arthurfowler

She isn't budging, but she has passed it on to another colleague. What a mess I'm so tired from all this

arthurfowler

I can't actually believe what is going on at the moment. I have just been told that the office has compared what her colleague would do and her colleague would have done the same. She keeps mentioning Police Certificates if I want to stay for 24 months.

And every time she says that, I explain that I do not need a police certificate because I am not planning on staying for 24 months or longer at the moment. She then said that she could have 'rejected the application' because I didn't provide police certificates. I quizzed this and again had to explain that I did not apply for a visa for longer than 24 months. She then back-tracked.

I asked to speak to a manager and she said she would ask one to call me but couldn't guarantee whether they would speak to me or email me or when they would get back to me.

I am shocked by all of this and have no clue as to what to do

Persephone

Sorry to hear that
I have to go out now but will have a think about it

Persephone

I've had a read round and I'm not sure what you can do apart from take it higher.
Note it does say 'up to' so there is some discretion. However I could find no regulations as to how to decide on length of visa.
I suspect this is the reason, if you gave no indication of wanting to stay for more than the duration of your partner's contract. But as you said, why would you get a medical cert if you were only planning on staying for 12months, that should have made them think a little.
You do need a police cert if you intend to stay in NZ for 24 months or longer so it looks like you would need that in order to get a 2 year visa:
Do they only issue thus type of visa in whole years? I mean, can you only get visas of either 1 or 2 years duration? In which case it may be that you need police and health certs for a 2y visa but neither of these for a 1y visa and there is no inbetween [you said you were not planning on staying for 24m or longer]

Hmmm a complicated mess as you say. Take it higher and try writing to them if you get no luck from the phone call. I think you should tell them of your plans in full, that if you like it then you intend to stay longer and apply for residency. That shows that you have a plan already decided upon for staying longer than your partner's contract and that you understand the process involved. It shows that you understand that you cannot just stay in NZ longer than your visa duration. I am not inferring that you would but it is NZIS's job to make sure of that.
That's all I can think of and others may disagree

Wishing you luck and hope you get some good news soon
P

ps I wrote a complaint letter to NZIS whilst my SMC application was being messed around with. It had no ill effect on anything and probably speeded up my application given the time scale from then on!. So don't worry about stating your case-as long as you stay calm and polite

arthurfowler

Thank you so much for your detailed response

I just feel deflated after all the hard work of getting the medical certs, deciding on the visa etc, it has come down to that one thing I said (which I thought wold help).

On the temp partnership visa there is an option which asks to be ticked asking if you want to be in NZ for over 12 months (and less than 24). This is the option I ticked and this is the option which states you need a medical cert and x-ray. Nowhere in the application did it say that I should state exactly how long I wish t be there etc so I didn't think that would even be a consideration.

Nothing's going right with any part of the move at the moment. Argh it's the night to feel sorry for myself lol

arthurfowler

This type of visa has three options -

1/ I plan to be in New Zealand for less than six months. You do not need to provide a medical certificate or chest X-ray certificate.
Go to Section D: Character.

2/ I plan to be in New Zealand for between six and 12 months.

3/ I plan to be in New Zealand for 12 months or longer (this includes any time you have already spent in New Zealand). You must provide a Chest X-ray Certificate (INZ 1096) and a medical certificate, unless the notes below indicate that you are not required to at this stage.


The third option is the one I ticked so they just ignored it it seems.

MrsFychan

I would ask them why they ignored it?