happynz

Why would they need to hold on to your passports? We turned in our passports with our ITA on a Wednesday and I got a call to pick them up the next day. My first thought was 'Oh shit...that's a quick turn down!' I went down to their office and the person handing them back smiled and told me that our application was well-ordered and that everything was okay, here are your passports, good day. Of course this was in Christchurch so I don't know how it would work for you outside of New Zealand.

I think you ought to give the NZIS a ring and see what sort of protocol they have in place. Perhaps notarised copies would suffice. I dunno, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

mark and kim

Fantastic news we're in the same boat now! Good luck.

Happy NZ says passports returned pretty quickly. I was thinking of sending certified copies as the form say we can as we too are off to France. Anyone got any comments on that (certified copies not France!)? Then I presume NZIS send stickers to us or we forward passports at a later date.

Our problem at the moment seems to be selling our house and the interest rate rise isn't going to help with that

sirplug

We're off to the Dordogne, if we bump into you on the boat, then I'm phoning the X Files!!!

The coincidences are too much, one of us is a stalker

happynz

No, NZIS won't mail you your stickers. They will send you a letter informing you that your application has been successful. You would then have six months to send in your migrant levy along with your passports. Once they have recieved your migrant levy the residence visas will be pasted into your passports. You then have a year to get to New Zealand.

All the best to all of you.