deepfriedbrain

Thanks britsinnz - I know exactly what you're saying, I wish I could believe things are going to fall into place but we've been apart for almost 14 months now and I'm beginning to really struggle with the fact that this could continue indefinitely. I need an end in sight :-/

We both have good career prospects right now, we just can't seem to find them in the same place in the UK. After sharing with him the advice I've already received on here, we're thinking we should carry on with long distance for another year to save as much as we can while we're both in well paid jobs, then he'll relocate to wherever I'll be at that point so we can start accruing time living together. We both really want to emigrate, I'm not sure how others have felt about it but I've been thinking about it for years and basically I see it as something I want to tick off - I can't settle when I have something to work towards and yes at times it's hugely frustrating just as you've said!!

escapetonz - thanks for letting me know re: residence/sponsorship, that rules that out too! I'm not sure how easy he'd find it to get a job offer - we're still struggling to get anywhere in terms of having his skills assessed/recognised and as the building regs etc are no doubt hugely different from the UK, I'm not sure how easy it would be to make the transition? The worry with separate visas would also be that one of us gets in, and the other doesn't. And long distance from Aberdeen to Cornwall is one thing, UK to NZ is quite another!

deepfriedbrain

The 23-month working holiday might be a good back up option if we're struggling for options closer to the time - he's only recently turned 27 so we'd still have almost 3 years to put that one in motion if needs be. I'd only be there on the basis of having a permanent full time pharmacist job so him not being able to work solidly on WHV wouldn't be so much of a problem, not ideal, but not the end of the world.

I've got a day off tomorrow so may give those guys a ring, thanks for the suggestion

tiger mama

Can you go down the Work to Residence visa route? This will mean getting a job offer in advance but it's not insurmountable, especially if you're working in healthcare. The District Health Boards are accredited employers (meaning you can apply for a WTR Talent (accredited employers) visa and not have to worry about proving that no other kiwi could do the job etc) and are very open to skype interviews and employing migrants - I know because my partner has just recently been offered a job at a DHB on this basis.

The WTR visa lasts for up to 30 months, but after 24 months you can apply for a residents visa and on that application you can include your family, ie your partner. It is cheaper than the Skilled Migrants route also.

You could not apply for your partner in on the WTR visa, but if separately he gets a 23 month working holiday visa (if he is less than 30) and moves in with you after you've been there a month, then by the time you came to apply for residency you'd be able to include him on your application. He would be limited to how long he can work for, but once he'd gotten skilled employment there would be nothing to stop him from then applying for a temporary work visa when out there, it's not that expensive.

Failing that you could always have a shot at him applying for jobs from overseas and going on a temp work visa from the outset, but obviously it would need to be in the same place as wherever your job ended up being which would limit you.

As for your original question - you can apply as a couple from the outset and you might be successful; there is space to explain different circumstances and as someone already said, there is room for common sense. However I wouldn't do it without talking to immigration first (or even going in and seeing them) and getting their thoughts. I've had a friend in this boat with a different country and they ended up spending thousands in legal fees and hitting lots of brick walls until they got somewhere after a number of years. So I would proceed down that route with extreme caution.

Don't give up though. If NZ is the dream then you can make it a reality. Failing all else, how would you feel about supporting your partner for a while while you built up the 12 months of history you need? Bearing in mind lots of men support female partners when they finish work to have children for a few years, it would just be the inverse of that, but you don't have the expense of children so you could live in a poky one bed flat if you wanted to to make up for only having one income. In the meantime your partner could try and do freelance work and/or become self employed. I know it would be a shame for him to leave his company after 10 years, but he will have to do so anyway eventually.

PS. Just my tuppence: There is the school of thought that you should back off and wait a few years until a route opens itself up to you naturally (if it ever does). There is also a school of thought that the 'right' time to emigrate is not until your late 30s or 40s when you've got more money, experience etc. That's not 'wrong', it's just a matter of opinion. I am 25 and I have 3 kids aged 0-5, we're on a very tight shoestring budget, things have not been easy and there have been obstacles all along the way. Lots of people said to me "go when you're older" or "don't emigrate with such young children", but I didn't want to uproot teenage children, so for us it was now or never. NZ has always been the dream, and each obstacle we've met we've simply plodded on over them, picked ourselves back up after disappointments, not let stress overwhelm us, and it has been absolutely fine. We are flying in 2.5 weeks after having been planning it for 3 years and we're elated. So I'm just coming from the other side of the table: If you want to go young then go young, you can make it happen if you think outside the box and stay open, honest and committed.

deepfriedbrain

Thanks so much for taking the time to contribute Tiger Mama

I hadn't considered the WTR route before, it looks great for me but wobbly in terms of us having separate visas (that don't last the same period of time) - it's ok for me applying for residence at the end of 2 years as my WTR would still have 6 months validity, but his 23 month WHV would have expired, by which point he would have had to go back to the UK and wait until my residence application is approved? More than happy to be corrected though!

I've not long come off to the phone to NZ house - avoided the 090 number - what a cheek charging £1 a minute! She didn't seem surprised by our situation, didn't make it sound impossible for him to get a visa without us physically living together first, but obviously it would take a lot of explaining/evidence. The easiest option would be for us to live together for 6 months, then they're almost certain to offer him a provisional/temporary work visa to allow us to live together for the remaining 6 months in NZ. I think I'm more comfortable with this scenario as basically everything else will have been ticked and checked before my visa is approved, and the only thing standing in the way of him coming out as my partner is living together for the additional 6 months.

With regards to supporting him, I have no issue with that whatsoever, he helped me out plenty when I was a student and we always knew that finding skilled work abroad would be harder for him than it would be for me. Pending the outcome of an interview I have in a couple of weeks, we've decided that we'll continue long distance until next Christmas, save as much as we can then he'll move in with me and we can start the job search for me.

On that note - does anyone know if the living together criteria (in this case 6 months) has to have been fulfilled at the point of application (EOI or ITA) or at the point of the visa being issued? Job offer is going to have to come first regardless, but I don't know if I will be ok to submit EOI straightaway if we haven't quite done the 6 months by that stage.

Tiger Mama - how long has is taken from your other half receiving the job offer to the visa being issued? That's something I'm concerned about, hard enough getting a job offer, worse when they might have to wait a considerable period of time for you to start!

Thanks again for all the advice, it's really appreciated.

Amy

tiger mama

It's not a problem!

Yes if you went the WTR route I think you would either need to leave a month or so between you going and him going so that you'd be able to apply for a the residency before his expires. Either that or have him go out on a WHV at the same time as you but apply for a temporary work visa when he got skilled employment.

There is no easy answer. All I can say is in your shoes I think I would personally try and get a solid six months of living together history built up, build plenty of financial and demonstrable social ties over that time and keep all evidence of everything, and then apply for a WTR visa for you and partnership work visa for him. That doesn't mean it's the right thing to do but is just how I think I'd personally approach it.

I've no idea if it has to be at the time of application or visa issue. If hazarding a guess I'd guess that the case officer would want to see the six months of history by the time s/he was considering your case, so in other words at the time of application, but that really is only a guess.

As for your last question, actually the WTR visa is quite quick. I have very recent posts on this forum panicking about the same thing but it all turned out right in the end! It did take a couple of months BUT the vast majority of that time was spent twiddling thumbs waiting for the HR at his new work to send over the documentation to us, it would have been a lot sooner had that of been prompt. If I remember rightly, we posted the forms on the 28th Aug, they arrived on the 30th, and we got it back on the 10th Sept, which bearing in mind there were 2 weekends in there was only a few working days really.

This is the primary reason we ended up going for the WTR visa, because we couldn't guarantee that the SM visa would be back in time. We initially said we'd apply for the SM visa as soon as we get out there as we want to be residents sooner, but now thinking we might just sit back and wait the 2yrs as it's a much more cost effective option.

Good luck whatever you decide!

shadowedlitany

hello!

i'm a kiwi living in the UK with my english partner and we're moving back to NZ in the next few months. i've got a scottish friend that i worked with in NZ who got together with a colleague when she was over there. they never officially lived together, and were only together about a year before her initial visa expired and she had to return to aberdeen. they continued their relationship long-distance, and applied for a visa for her to return to NZ based on their being together - and that visa was granted. so i think there is definitely hope for you.

i found this info on the immigration NZ website:and this:
our application was a bit out of the ordinary as well. we've lived with my partner's parents for the entire time i've been in the country, so have no utility bills or rental agreements etc with our names on them. the evidence that we provided was joint bank account statements (opened in Nov 2012 and our application was filed in June 2012), photographs of us on holiday and at social events with family and friends, letters of evidence from family and friends, emails (we did long-distance for the first five months of our relationship), photos of engravings on gifts we'd bought each other, boarding passes, wedding invites, thank you cards etc. we were assigned a case worker once our initial application had been processed, and she was easy to contact and happy to answer any questions we had. she also ensured our passports were returned to us within two weeks of the application being received so that we could travel to paris with my parents.

although you don't tick all the boxes for the visa, i don't think they would flat-out refuse your application because you're not living together. there's many things that make a relationship and sometimes living together is just not an option for you both to earn a living. and you've lived together in the past! i also know of a couple who are applying to move to aussie (she's aussie, he's english), and they sent their application through in july because that's when they became a couple (meeting when she was on holiday here), though they didn't start living together until she moved here in october.

i'm not sure if i've been at all helpful at all, but hopefully i haven't confused you even more!