How long to get a Residence Visa
 

Hi, I've spent two days looking at all of the posts but can't find one that answers my question so apologies if I've started a new thread where it wasn't needed.
Back story. Selling our house but haven't exchanged contracts. We hope to be able to put the contents of our home in a container to send to NZ between exchanging and completion but as usual the selling process in the UK is protracted and long winded and of course we don't even know if we'll get the sale over the line! .Assuming we are lucky and our sale does go ahead, when we wave bye bye to our stuff we'll go and live with my Mum for as long as it takes for my visa to come thu'. I'd really appreciate some idea of how long this might take.
I'm married to a guy who has an NZ passport, 32 years. I've got the police reports and had the medicals done and apparently they've been submitted.
I've filled in the application, and have included photographs of both of us outside our house with our children as babies right up to this summer with a New Zealand friend. Also holiday photos and the kids birthdays. We've also included old bank statements, recent bank statements. Evidence of a property that we jointly own in New Zealand and BNZ bank account summaries. I'm holding off sending in my application because £820 is a lot of money to loose if we don't sell our house. On the other hand if its going to take 3 months I don't want to be living with my mother for that long! No offence Mum x I know no one can tell me how long it will take but a general idea would be great. It says on the website 25 days? Is that right. Anyway, thank you in advance.

Re: How long to get a Residence Visa
 

My partner just got approved (I'm a Kiwi) and it took three months. Was quite a while before we were even assigned to an officer. We had a very straightforward application. Most of the waiting time was probably due to my NZ police check - Immigration requests that themselves.

Re: How long to get a Residence Visa
 

Wow! Thats what I was afraid I'd hear. Ahh well best get it off tomorrow. Thank you x

Re: How long to get a Residence Visa
 

once you have the visa in your passport you do have 12mth to activate it so you don't have to rush off as soon as it is in the passport

Re: How long to get a Residence Visa
 

Going to send it off today, will keep you informed. Thanks for the info, we would probably have waited 'till at least we'd exchanged contracts.

Re: How long to get a Residence Visa
 

Sent off! Will keep you informed!

Re: How long to get a Residence Visa
 

Thanks for offering to keep us posted, we're going for SMC (once all the dominoes line up) and hope it will only take 3 months as the London office say they will get back to you within ten days of your application being pulled from the EOI pool and they aim to process full apllications within 1-3 months if you have a job offer. It seems to be a similar timescale for family visas.

It's always good to hear other people's timescales and what might have caused a hiccup in the process or what has helped it go smoothly.

I've been looking at the London Branch timescales Welcome to Immigration New Zealand, London

Re: How long to get a Residence Visa
 

So as I said I sent the application off on Saturday morning and according to Royal Mail it arrived this morning. Just had an email at 6.36pm acknowledging receipt of my application.
The e,mail also say's this:''The estimated processing time for your application as advised by the Immigration New Zealand in London office is approximately 2-3 weeks for visitor general/business and approximately 4 weeks for student, work and temporary partnership applications. The actual processing time will depend on the complexity and circumstances of your individual application. Further information regarding processing times for all resident visa categories can be found here.''



2-3 weeks even 4 weeks sounds better than 2-3 months so fingers crossed!

Re: How long to get a Residence Visa
 

Just been reading that I might get a telephone interview from immigration and the post I was reading suggested doing some research 'on here', Ive tried to find a link but haven't been successful. Please could someone post a link to a thread about this or maybe outline the questions they're likely to ask. Thank you in anticipation :thumbsup:

Re: How long to get a Residence Visa
 

I rather optimistically phoned the NZ call centre on Thursday evening to find the status of my RV application. Its still in the queue and hasn't even been looked at. It was suggested I phone back in two weeks which I will, I'll keep you posted.

Re: How long to get a Residence Visa
 

Not seen many people applying under partnership mention they've had a telephone interview. I've only seen it mentioned for those applying as skilled migrants without a job offer in place and it is routine in those cases.

Not to say you won't have one but I can't recall anyone mentioning it under your circumstances. You could start a new thread asking for those that did apply under partnership whether they had one-there are a few on here that could answer you!

Re: How long to get a Residence Visa
 

I have this thread highlighted, as mentioned my wife is a Kiwi (with Dual nationality) and has lived here for 20 years. I am now worried that she will need a New Zealand police check

Re: How long to get a Residence Visa
 

We,l according to 'thebrits' there will be a police check but as they say NZ immigration organise that. Be reet!

Re: How long to get a Residence Visa
 

There is a NZ police check for her, Immigration ask for it directly, you don't need to do anything.

Mine seemed to take about a month if your concern is time.

Re: How long to get a Residence Visa
 

Thats great,thanks