BritishDutchKiwi

Hello,

I have seen some useful information on here but nothing quite addresses my specific situation so I'm hoping someone can help.

I am a kiwi and have been living in the UK for 7 years (now British too). A year ago I met a Dutch man in the Netherlands and we would like to move to NZ to start our life together properly.

I am worried about the requirement to show we are living together for the visa application. Here is our timeline...

- June 13, met in Netherlands - since then we see each other roughly every second weekend and communicate most days
- November 13, planning to moving to Netherlands but I realise moving from the UK to the Netherlands will mean a 30% drop in pay, otherwise would have immediately transferred with work. I have been moving my things into his place in the Netherlands and am living in temp accommodation in London (a friend's spare room).
- January 14, in NZ for a month and decide to move there if we can
- Feb 14, he drives to London to collect the rest of my things. I'm still working in London so we can save money seriously but living out of a suitcase.
- May 14, I register as a resident in Utrecht and change my address with banks etc to be his address
- June 14 (now), I finish work next week and will be full time in Utrecht. I'm not working over there but will do a summer school course to learn Dutch.

Ideally we would like to have the visa approved by October so we can travel for a couple of months before arriving in NZ in December.

Is this realistic?
How long should we be living together in the Netherlands before submitting the application?

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks very much

Toodles23

Hi

I can only go by our experience... My partner and I had been living together for 3 years when we applied and we had to supply bills and other proof that we were living together as well as 'softer' evidence such as photos, joint invitations and evidence of travel. Although you guys can probably provide the second lot you'll struggle with the evidence of living together for 12 months until May 2015 so I'd be inclined to wait until then.

We then went a step further and got pregnant and had a baby while we waited for them to process our application but I wouldn't push that as an agenda ;-P

Edit: I should have said we made our application under SMC not partnership but I think it would be similar.

MrsFychan

my understanding is you do not physically have to be living together to prove the 12mth requirement but you do need to show that you are in a committed relationship, so transfer of money to each others bank accounts or a joint one. joint holidays, invites, photo's, fb chats, skype chats, mobile phone records etc

Persephone

You only need to have lived together for 12 months or more if you're applying for residency in NZ.
You can apply for a temporary partnership based work visa if you've lived together <12m
Family Stream

BritishDutchKiwi

Thanks all for your contributions! I have read all of the guidance and understand the difference between the residency and temp visa applications.

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/NR/rd.../0/INZ1199.pdf

MrsFychan - This document includes living together as part of the definition of partnership so I'm pretty sure that it is a requirement... if you have experience to show otherwise I'd love to hear more!

Does anyone have any information or personal experience that could provide guidance on whether it is safe to put in the application if we have only been living together full time for a month?

For around 6 months before this I was commuting to London for work and spending every second weekend in the Netherlands. Most of my belongings were in the Netherlands but everything official in the UK still had me living there. We have plenty of evidence for financial interdependence other than living together such as paying for holidays, me purchasing things for his house, and whatsapp conversations about money. I can get a letter from who I was staying with in London to show that it was considered a temporary arrangement.

Persephone

You do have to be living together for any sort of partnership based visa however the amount of time is a bit vague for the temporary visa application. I presume that's deliberate to allow for discretion on the part of NZIS.
NZIS can use discretion with the 12 month requirement to allow for those who have partners that work abroad etc as long as you can account for any absences.

You have a long history of travelling to see each other regularly and now have residence in Utrecht, also a relationship of over a year with some effort put into maintaining it. Have you kept all your boarding passes or tickets? Keep any post to his address, add in photos together etc. In fact keep anything that puts you as a couple.

None of us are experts so cannot say for certain what the outcome of any application will be. It does sound like you have a good case from what you've written. It will however be a case of applying and finding out.

Another option would be to drop into NZ House when you're in London. They were always very helpful and never very busy when I went in.

BritishDutchKiwi

That's really helpful. Thanks very much!