LeonUKtoNZ

Hello


My girlfriend is a NZ citizen and we met in London April 2015 and we were in a relationship a month later and moved in together in January of this year on a joint tenancy and all bills are in both our names. She has been trying to get sponsorship with a UK employer but has not been successful and her working holiday visa expires at the end of Sept this year, so we will have lived together eight months. So we are now planning on being in NZ next year for a 1.5 years before coming back to the UK under a de-facto visa or possibly even married! We intend to leave London end of Sept and then travel India and Nepal together on the way back to NZ so will probably arrive in NZ late October/early November. She is 28, a lawyer and I'm 31 and an IT Consultant. Not too worried about our evidence of being a couple as we have been keeping lots of pictures, boarding passes, bills, whatsapp (600K words!), tenancy agreements, letters from parents.

1. Looking around I think the temporary partner work visa will be the easiest to obtain?
2. Looks like I will only get an initial one year working visa as we have been living together less than 12 months, does anyone have experience of how complex the process is of upgrading the visa in NZ to get the second year?
3. Temporary working visa's are issued at an estimated 25 days by UK VAC and the four months processing time is for residence partnership visas?
4. When a visa is granted is it a)valid from the date it was issued in the UK or b) is it activated on arrival in NZ? Option b would be better for us so we can activate our initial year temporary partner work visa on arrival in NZ and get the full use of our year and not have it running from getting the visa in London in September when we are still there.
5. Is there any harm getting the police certificate now (required for stays of over 12 months) and including this with my chest x-ray which is required? Will this all still be valid when we apply for the second year visa?

Thanks for taking a look and giving any feedback?

janiejones

I can't help you much on the partner visa, but just want to point out that being in a committed relationship is no guarantee that your girlfriend would be allowed back to the UK with you. There's a minimum income requirement, have a look at the Moving Back section of the forums for more info. Good luck with your plans.

LeonUKtoNZ

In case anyone is interested I applied for my Temporary Work Visa (Partnership) at UK VAC on Friday 12th August and was awarded my visa on Tuesday 23rd August so it took 11 days in total. I was awarded a one year visa.

The 12 months visa start from when I arrive in New Zealand (activated on arrival) and I have until February 2017 to do this.

So now to pack up London life to depart end of Sept to Nepal and India and then arrive in NZ in November! Exciting!

BEVS

Congratulations and well done.

Is it NZ wedding bells ?