British Expats - Update - Residence Visa for 23 year old Dependant Child

Hi

It's been a while!!

The last time I posted I was asking for advice regarding applying for a Residence Visa for my 23 year old daughter under the Dependant Child category.

I was very grateful the advice and pointers I received when I posted about this - about a year ago now.

So, my update - for the benefit of anyone else who finds themselves in a similar position:

We have just, in the last couple of days, received my daughter's shiny new Residence Visa. It was a hairy, up to the wire, thing ... but luckily it's all gone through OK.

She arrived in the Country last July (on a standard UK Visitor Visa) and we continued on the fitness and healthy eating regime she had started in UK - as we knew/hoped the only potential medical issue could be her weight.

By the end of October we felt her weight and fitness had reached a comfortable enough level to submit her Visa application. The health check and chest x-ray were straightforward and easy to find a suitable medical practitioner close to us in Auckland. The cost was, if I remember correctly, less than we had paid when we had ours done in UK at the end of 2013.

Due to a high volume of applications at that time, INZ weren't able to log her application for processing until December - a delay that we hadn't expected. Again, due to volume of applications, it was a further 3 months before she was allocated an Immigration Officer.

Her original departure date was January 2018 - so we were asked, by INZ, to apply for a Visitor Visa to push her 'expiry' date out to 9 months - so that would be tomorrow (25th April). The Visitor Visa was very easy and straightforward to arrange, all online, because she had already submitted her chest x-ray and medical information.

Everything jogged along, taking the expected amount of time - we were asked for additional information from me to demonstrate that she is dependant and then, the curve ball right at the end hit us about a fortnight ago, when she was asked to provide school reports from age 5 upwards! The Immigration Officer said this was due to a change in the evidence that they are required to ask for that had come into action since her original application.

It took a couple of days for her father in UK to go through his loft and find some, not all, of her school reports and for him to scan and e-mail them to us before putting the originals in the post - her College in UK also, helpfully, e-mailed to confirm when she was enrolled there as a full time student too! A mad run to hand over the originals when they arrived last Friday ... and finally, passport returned over the weekend complete with the all important Residence Visa enclosed.

PHEW!!

So, thanks again for the assistance a year ago - I'm pleased to say that despite being quite stressful at times (as deadlines to leave the country approached) it was all well worth the effort :thumbsup: