berdorian

We applied 10 months ago and are patiently awaiting a call from Immigration.
We would be interested to hear of anyone who has applied under the Family/Parent Policy within the last 18-24 months. We imagine that like us you were told 18-24 months wait for a Case Officer - has anyone made any progress - is it really 18-24 months or may we hope to be allocated a Case Officer any sooner?

Our only family live in Auckland and have been NZ Residents for 4 years.

BEVS

JayandBill are going through this process Click HERE

Here is an old thread about this Click HERE Hippygran now lives in New Zealand

Paula2007 is also applying under the policy Click HERE

Hopefully someone will be along soon to keep you company.

Paula2007

Hello Berdorian

I am Paula 2007.

I am in touch with a few Parent Visa guys that are waiting to hear just like you, and one of them has just been allocated a Case Officer and they had waited approximately 18 months. They live in the UK. So it looks like it has been extended a little from the year we had to wait. I heard in March 2010.

After that, my medical report was referred to a Medical Assessor and I was asked for further information on two health problems I have. My GP duly did a report for me which I sent back to my Case Officer - about MAY 2010 I heard that my husband and myself had been granted permanent residency in NZ.

Then we had 6 months (November 2010) to send our passport back to New Zealand Emigration in London to get the visas put in them. We held onto them until the last moment as we had put our house up for sale in August 2010 and wanted to gain some extra time trying to sell our property.

We received our passports back with the blue visas stuck in them and we have until 24 November 2011 to arrive in New Zealand. After that, you have to spend 6 months of the following 2 years in New Zealand to show your comittment to the country.(184 days) it does not have to be in one block.

So fingers crossed that someone will love our house as much as we have - we have lived in it for over 30 years. We have had about 6 viewings but things have gone a bit quite now as Christmas is approaching and also we have a foot of snow outside our front door at the moment!! You cannot get up our road in a car as we live on a hill, it is like an ice rink!! -18 degrees last night and huge icicles hanging off the gutters!!

At least we know that next year we WILL be in New Zealand and having our Christmas Dinner with our two children, at last.

simonmarkellis

It's also as an option if waiting those 12-18 months for a case officer, applying for the grand parent multiply entry visa at the same time. For an extra 65 quid, you can enjoy up to 18 months out of three years in NZ and you only need to pop over to Oz for a long weekend to get extend each six month stay...

berdorian

Thanks for those responses. makes us realise we are not alone.
We are going to look more closely at the grandparent multiple entry route .

We have sold our house and are staying in rental property so could pack up and be ready to move once we got the visa.

Paula we hope you soon find a buyer for your property and then join your family in NZ. What part of NZ are you heading for?

Best wishes for a Happy and Healhy 2011.

jayandbill

This is exactly what we're doing. Unfortunately that little trip to OZ every 6 months for a few days costs $3000 for a modest break, money we could be spending here in NZ. But rules are rules so I'm not complaining, just doing as I'm told. We've been waiting 13 months now and hoping it won't be for much longer. But we were told 18/24 months so maybe that's how long we'll have to wait.

simonmarkellis

Fingers crossed for you XXXXX

jayandbill

Thank you for that, we have everything crossed. I do think it's taking longer now because we know of people in the same situation who got residency whilst on a parents/grandparents visitor visa within 10 months, and they had fairly serious health problems. That was 3 years ago.

jayandbill

I don't know if you've seen my previous post but we are in a similar situation having been waiting for 11 months. We're here in NZ on a parent/grandparents Visitor Visa and applied from here on Nov 6 09. Both of our children live here with their offspring. As soon as we break out the champagne I'll post the good news but still expect it to be at least 18 months

BEVS

Have some karma and a Happy New Year to you both.

jayandbill

Bear in mind that with parent/grandparent visa you have to go through pretty much the same procedure as for PR visa, full medicals by a NZ approved Doctor in the UK and sponsorship by a child with 3 years residency. I don't think that a Police check was required but we did that anyway. The good news is that getting that visa is fairly quick and much cheaper, we paid 50GBP, I think, in 2009, although the medicals are very expensive. We took our application to NZ house and were given a Case Oficer within days and got our Visa within 5 weeks, which was just as well because we'd booked flights for our usual winter escape from the UK and had surrendered our passports. The Visa arrived 5 days before departure. The Visa is valid for 3 years during which you can come and go as often as you like but cannot exceed a total stay of more than 18 months and have to leave every 6 months for a few days. It's worth doing but there are drawbacks, which are explained on the NZ Immigration website. My entire family, 14 in number, 3 generations, are here in NZ and this option is better than the usual 3 months here and 9 in the UK which is what we've been doing since 2004 when they all came here.
Hope this helps anyone who's comsidering this option. It also gives you the chance to find out if you really want to live here, but why wouldn't you!

berdorian

An update of our situation - it may give hope to those applying under the Parent Policy.

We got a case officer after 14 months and had to go through more medical checks and confirmation of our son's ability to sponsor us but have now got a residency visa with travel conditions- which seems to be standard nowadays. The whole application process took 16 months so this may give some encouragement to others. Our case officer was helpful and kept us informed throughout the process.
Pickfords booked for removal this week and if all goes to plan we will be in NZ at the end of July.

We know it is midwinter there but that just about matches some of the 'summer' weather we have had in Scotland.

We have found this site very useful for information about NZ and have read with interest the views of people who have already made the move to a new life in NZ.

Gail5

I'm hoping someone can advise - I'm a bit confused. My mum has just had her x-ray and medical for the Parent and Grandparent Multiple Entry Visitor Visa - she's 81 and very spritely so we're hoping everything will be ok. We're leaving on Tuesday (19th) and she's hoping to follow us when she can. How long does it take for her to get her visa, presuming her medical is ok and how long before she can visit us? Anyone in the same boat?

Thanks

Gay x

simonmarkellis

Took less than a month for my Mum...

Pagan

We arrived in New Zealand on a P & G visa, after being told by NZIS in London that applications for the sponsored parent residency visa were taking about 9 months. Then after lodging our application in September 2009 in Christchurch, we were given a time frame of 12 to 18 months. Shortly before the 12 month point a letter arrived to say the time frame would now be nearer the 18 month limit, this letter was also sent to a neighbours Mum who had applied a month after us.

February 22 occurred and all documents were stuck in the red zone, but although the NZIS building had not been badly damaged the adjoining building posed a problem. We have since been told that most of the documents were brought out when the premises were entered on May 27.

As we understand it the majority of the information on application documents is held in hard copy files - only the basic information had been transferred to computer, hence applicant from the Christchurch office are in limbo as we are still unable to speak to staff in Christchurch and the other offices have minimal information.

The concern is that we and many like us are being pushed down the list as places are allocated to applicants being dealt with by other offices. Its quite a worrying time.