MeganPU18

Hi All

Any help with the below would be hugely appreciated as I am feeling particularly swamped with this:


I am a UK citizen. My boyfriend of 20 months is a NZ citizen. My sister has recently acquired NZ residency. i went to visit her in Jan 2012, and met my boyfriend there. I moved in with him in May 2012 and paid him rent until Nov 2012 when I flew home for 5 weeks for christmas. I was not put on the lease as there was not much point as I was going home for xmas etc. Boxing Day – 1st March we went travelling together (he flew out from NZ and i flew out from the UK and met up) and then both flew back to the UK after we had finished travelling. (my boyfriend was eligable for a UK passport and now has one which is why we are able to live here together). We have had a joint bank account and savings account since March and have taken out a loan in his name of which my father is the guarantor but my boyfriend and I are paying back the loan. We live together with my parents and therefore do not pay rent as we are saving up to move back to NZ (hopefully!!) we also bought a car together in NZ and here in the UK and have insurance in both our names here.
We have been together for 20 months, and have lived together since last May however we have not lived together for 12 straight months, but have lived together for at least 12 months; we have only been apart for 5 weeks since we were together (when i went home for Xmas). we have inches and inches of proof, bank statements, personal statements from ourselves and friends and family, wedding invites, skype and facebook messages from when we were apart, birthday cards, next of kin on passports and doctors surgerys etc etc etc. this is a very vague and quick summary of the proof we have, but i am wondering if we have enough proof for our living together situation? we can account for every single day we have been together.
after having read alot of info online, i am starting to panic -

Does my partner need to be living in NZ at the time of my application? we are both currently living in the UK as stated but it is temporary.

Catchafire

Hi Megan

Welcome to the New Zealand branch.

Now, are you trying to apply for residency? But are worried about the partnership rules? When are you wanting to head back to NZ? Could you apply for a WHV?

As far as I am aware, your boyfriend does not have to living in NZ at the time of your application.

Sorry, lots of questions!

BEVS

Hi there MeganPU18 and welcome to our NZ forum.

We'll try and help if we can. Bear with me whilst I try to get this straight in my head.

So. You went to NZ Jan 2012 and met your BF.
Stayed with him in his home from May to Nov 2012 paying him rent as a boarder. No joint bills and not on rental agreement.
Had 5 weeks in the UK with your family.
You then went travelling together Jan 2013/March 2013
Ended up back in the UK March 2013.
From March 2013 to now Sept 2013 you both live with your parents.

--------------------

From this I would say you will have a hard job proving a long standing lasting relationship. Your application would be rather bitty and disjointed and NZIS might well not see your relationship as you do.
I would counsell you against applying as it stands now but that is only my opinion.

As you know it really needs to be 12 months of joint living together and really that also means independently. Also, being married or engaged is not proof in itself of a commited relationship. Crikey , it seems even having children together is not proof enough.

I'm not sure what the panic is but I'm not you nor your partner. There seems to be no immediate need for you to be applying for a partnership visa.

No. Your BF doesn't need to be living in NZ for you to apply for a visa under the partnership category.

You have a few options.

You move out of your parents home and set up house together in the UK for a good year. Join at the hip with joint everything from rent to bills to loan to toothbrushes. You then apply.

Your BF returns to NZ. You apply for a Working Holiday Visa ( we can explain this further). You land in New Zealand and you and your BF immediately set up home. Joint rent, joint bills etc.
You can work under this visa so that will help with the bills.
If you apply for a 1 yr WHV then you may need to extend in order to get the 12 months well and truly wrapped up before applying.

With either of the above you present the complete 12 months of proof + your previous bits and bobs which would show you've been around each other prior to setting up home together. Either of the above would make for a better quality application.

Come back with your thoughts .............

MeganPU18

Hello Bevs and thank you very very much for your reply, hugely appreciated.

your summary of my situation was correct - i lived with him in his rented flat with his flatmates for 6 months and paid him rent, i went home to the UK on my own in november until boxing day for a pre-planned family Xmas and then met my boyfriend in Thailand for travelling for 9 weeks ( we have plane tickets etc to prove this and paid for accommodation together - although i am aware that immigration do not see travelling as co-habitation). we then flew back to the UK to live with my parents in march ( we have bought a car together, have a joint bank account and savings account, have insurance together and a loan together but are not paying my parents rent because we are trying to save money and they are happy for us to live there rent-free! lucky us :P )

there is no real NEED to go back to NZ but it is simply that we both so desperately miss it and want to live there, we just want to get back ASAP because we are not enjoying living in the UK and miss NZ and our friends there

However, applying for a WHV for 12 months and extending it for another year while we set up camp DOES sound like a good idea in theory....however...
i have already had a WHV (for when i first visited NZ)....i was under the impression that i could only ever be granted one WHV in a lifetime? i.e. i cannot be granted another one as per your idea?

is there any other visa option that would give me a decent amount of time in NZ in order for me to then apply for a partnership visa?
thank you so much for your help

MeganPU18

hi Catchafire and thank you for your reply !!

yes thats correct i am hoping to apply for a partnership visa for permanent residency but i am quite concerned about being able to prove 12 months cohabition as it is quite dis-jointed as we have been travelling and i flew back to the UK on my own for 5 weeks to see family etc etc

in a perfect world i would love it if everyone replied to me saying yeah dont worry go ahead you will be fine! but i would really appreciate honest opinions as to whether you think i would likely be granted a partnership visa based on my situation

i have previously been granted a WHV for 12 months and was under the impression i could only ever be granted one WHV in a lifetime?

thank you!

Gill84

Hi Megan,

I was in a similar situation to you. I'm from Scotland, moved to Hong Kong in August 2011 to work, then met my boyfriend (a NZ citizen) out there in Jan 2012. We were together (but living separately) for 3 months, before he had to return to NZ for work at the start of April 2012.

We then spent 3 months apart (me in Hong Kong, him in NZ) but we were in daily contact via email, Skype and texts.

I returned to the UK in July 2012 for a holiday and he flew out for 6 weeks to be with me there.

We then both returned to Hong Kong together in August 2012, and moved in together a month later. Unfortunately the flat lease was only in my name as I had the more stable job there (and at this point I didn't realise I'd need this evidence for a future move to NZ!). We had no joint utility bills, but luckily the Internet and tv bills were in his name, and the lease and electricity in my name (all to same address). Anyway, at this point we'd only been in a relationship for 9 months when we moved in together. We lived together like this in Hong Kong for 4 months, and went on a couple of weekends away during this time (both our names on flight and hotel bookings).

In December 2012 we both flew to NZ for 2 weeks to visit his family and spend Xmas and new year with them (lots of photos together with his family for evidence!).

We then both returned to Hong Kong after the New Year and continued living together for 3 more months.

Due to his visa expiring and being unable to find work, my partner was forced to return to NZ at the start if April 2013. We then had ANOTHER 3 months apart while I finished my contract in Hong Kong and he got set up in NZ.

I applied for a 'partnership based work visa' in May 2013, it was approved in July 2013, and I flew out to join him in the same week!

This visa means I don't need a job offer to be here, as he is technically like my 'sponsor'. But it allows me to work if I want to, an luckily I've found work in my field. This type of visa allows me to stay here for 1 year, and can be renewed for a second year. It's cheaper than the residency visa too. However, our aim now is to continue gathering evidence of our relationship (have now got our rented house here in both our names, lots of photos, joint car insurance, some bills in his name, some in mine, etc), and apply for residency a bit further down the line.

If I was you, I'd go down the partnership based work visa route, get out here, then apply for residency in a years time when you have more evidence.

Goodluck!!

MeganPU18

Hi Gill84 and thanks very much for your helpful reply!!
I was not aware of a partnership base work visa -- please could you tell me some more about this? i.e. what sort of evidence is required to apply? is it as strict as the residency partnership visa? and you say I can extend it for another year? that would be ideal as all we need is 1 full year of living together and I believe we will be ok for our partnership visa!
how much is this visa?
thank you!

Gill84

No problem! I know how stressful it was when I was trying to find a way into NZ, so I know what you're going through!
The immigration Nz website appears to be down at the mo, so I can't copy the URL to take you to the page (will try later). But it's through the 'family stream' on their website. It's called the 'partership based temporary work visa'. It's not as strict in terms of evidence as the straight residency route. Obviously your other half has to be a NZ citizen - and have no criminal records, run-ins with the police, etc!

You don't have to have lived together for 12 months, but you do need to prove that you're both in a "stable, loving and genuine relationship" (their words, not mine!) - I basically printed out every email, Facebook and Skype message we'd ever sent each other (minus the 'inappropriate' ones! Haha! We've all got them!) - did this by screen-capturing them on my iPad, emailing them to myself, then printing them at work. I also photographed every text message we'd ever sent each other and printed them too. I also printed out almost every photograph that we had together (got them off my own and other people's Facebook pages, and those I had on my own camera) and wrote the date it was taken and where it was, e.g. Christmas 2012 at his Dad's house.

It also suggests on the immigration Nz website that evidence of financial interdependence is good. So I printed off 2 flight bookings with both our names, and a hotel receipt that had both our names on it. I also printed off a booking that I'd made on his behalf, with his name on it, but my debit card details.

I also included cards that he'd sent me (which luckily I'd kept - typical bloke, he didn't keep the ones I sent to him!) for valentines, my birthday and our one year anniversary. You can ask immigration to return these to you.

Obviously, the longer you can prove you've been in a relationship together, the better. I managed to show we'd been together for 1 year and 3 months (even though in reality we'd been together a bit longer than this). I also managed to prove we'd been living together for 6 months - but again, this was only proved through a few Internet bills in his name, and a few electricity bills in my name - both to the same address (we didn't have a joint lease).

I can't remember the exact cost of this visa, but it's a hell of a lot cheaper than the residency. If you've travelled to certain countries, you'll have to get a full medical done (including chest x-ray) which can bump the price up. But you'd need to check on the NZ immigration website.

Hope it works out for you!

Catchafire

Yes, you can only hold a WHV for a particular country once. However there is a Bunac visa, which is pretty much a WHV available, although in limited numbers and is available to previous WHV holders.

http://www.bunac.org/uk/work-abroad/...-zealand/visas

I met my wife, whilst backpacking and was able to use our passport stamps of arriving and departing the same countries at the same time as part of our proof of relationship.

BEVS

Do you know something Gill84. I loves you I does.

MeganPU18

Hey Catchafire, thanks for your reply

this BUNAC visa does look good - is it just 12 months or are you able to extend it? Thanks for letting me know about it!
Also my partner is convinced you are not able to apply for a Partnership Residency Visa whilst living in NZ - would I have to leave NZ in order to eventually apply for my residency visa? He thinks he has read this somewhere and I have no idea!

I am considering a Partnership-based Temporary Visa Application whereby we do not have to have lived together for 12 months - we just have to have lived together for some amount of time. much cheaper and less strict visa but only gives me a year in NZ - if anyone has any info on this visa, please can you let me know if this visa is extendable also or if it is just 1 year?


THANKS