smileypigface

My husband has accepted a job in Auckland - starting 20 January.

We have spent the last couple of weeks in a flurry of passport applications (eldest son's had expired!), medicals and chest x-rays.

Finally, yesterday, we posted off our visa applications - 1 x WTR, 1 x partner, 1 x student and 1 x visitor (younger son is 3). E-mails have just arrived to confirm delivery of the applications.

Now we are biting our nails while we await the response. Of course I'm now sat here doing what I probably shouldn't be doing .. looking at expat forums etc and starting to worry about whether we included enough information with our applications.

We are all very straightforward - healthy etc - except for the thing that is now worry me ......

My 15 year old son is from my first marriage - I didn't include any explanation to cover the situation with his father - I must admit I just assumed that because of his age it would be straightforward that he is old enough to choose to come with us.

Should I have included more information about this?

Persephone

Congratulations on the job offer!

This is a link to the section on dependent children from the operation manual, residence section:
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/46504.htm

You may need permission from the father to remove him from the UK but this depends on your circumstances. NZIS will need proof that either the father allows it or that you don't need his permission. Hopefully someone with more knowledge and experience will come along and give you more advice, I'm reluctant to weigh in because I don't know much about this sort of thing!. Have a search on here for step children, there have been many posts about this subject.

Good luck
P

To add: search for 'father child' or 'step children' in the main forum for some useful advice.

smileypigface

Thank you for your reply.

I'm feeling a bit stupid - that I should have looked into this aspect of our move more closely.

Our plan is that my husband leaves UK in January (visa allowing) to take up his new job. Me and the boys visit in April for a 2 week holiday during the UK school holiday. Then, at the end of my current contract (I work in a school) in July, we fly out to join my husband permanently. This timescale also gives us time for our dogs to follow their programme of jabs and tests to enable them to have minimum quarantine on arrival.

As my son is 16 at the end of September it looks like we might have to delay our departure until then - as I assume he can sign his own paperwork at that point and we would be able to re-submit his visa application as a dependant.

As we have submitted our applications together will they all be rejected if one of them has insufficient evidence (which it appears my son's has!)?

j19fmm

Without you having to spill it all here, can you get permission from your sons biological father to take him from the country? Or do you have sole custody and a Court Order to show that? Once he gets to 16 he can make his own choice and he will still be a student if he's going to carry on at school here.
I suspect you will get some kind of contact from the Immigration service asking you to clarify your right to remove. It will probably delay things until it's sorted. By the way check your spam/junk mail as sometimes emails from INZ end up there!
Good luck x

Persephone

I was hoping j19fmm would pop in to answer that!

BEVS

So was I.

j19fmm

And I did!!

lardyl

Doubt this applies but...... *If* the WTR or other residence Visa is waiting on some additional issue, medical for example, you can always do what we ended up doing - get a work visa application in to get you in and working and wait for the rest to sort itself out.

Our PR visas were delayed by the primary applicant's medical blood work which was delayed by a lab failing to do one of the tests and then asking for more blood - weeks later. So I had to high tail it down to NZ House and submit results in person with additional applications for work, work partner, student and visitor visas for MrsL/me/Lardy Mk II and Lardy Mk III respectively. This was on Case Officer's advice, as we were (like you) looking to start in January, the worst time of the year to get your immigration paperwork done.

Luckily employer was understanding and let MrsL start work a week later but this cost another 500 quid and flights had to be changed.

But we got there in the end.

Good luck.

BEVS

How is it all going

smileypigface

Hi,

Thanks for all the info - very helpful.

An update ......

We had a call from our Case Officer at Immigration - she had a long chat with my husband about his new job and his skills - and the upshot is that he is now proceeding with a Level 1 Essential Skills Visa application instead of WTR - she seemed to think that this would be more straightforward, in terms of his work situation.

As far as my son is concerned ... it looks like it will be most straightforward if he completes Year 10 at his UK school and comes out at the end of September, after his 16th birthday and can sign his own application. These things are never straightforward are they If he comes back from our holiday in April and is absolutely desperate to come out with me in July then we will face the battle then - but for the sake of waiting an extra 2 months it doesn't really seem worth rocking the boat (and potentially spending more money!).

So, we are tentatively sorting our house into "stuff that's coming" and "stuff that isn't" and keeping our fingers crossed that our visas come through without any further hassle.

One thing that is helpful - the Case Officer said that if we delay my son's student visa application until September then they will hold his medical etc on file so that we don't have to do that again. That's something at least!

Appreciate the info and help. Will let you know as soon as we hear anything more - hoping it won't be too long now!

smileypigface

Update:

Got an e-mail today to tell us that our Visas (except for older son ) are done and in the post back to us!!

Crikey - looks like it's going to be a manic Christmas holiday full of packing boxes!!!!

MrsFychan

Congrats - enjoy your last few weeks of normality over the Christmas period.

BEVS

How did I miss this.

Congrats SPF. Not long now then.

smileypigface

Many thanks.

Removal company coming on 27th December to give my husband's company a quote for packing up our house contents (which have grown considerably over the last week or so! ).

Hubby flies on 14th January ....