Wife's residency permit
 

Hi, any help would be appreciated. I am an NZ citizen been in the uk for the past 9 years but moving back next April with my wife who is a brit'. We are thinking of applying for her residency when we get to NZ, mainly because we have to leave no later than 1st week in April & may not have enough time to do it from here because we can't start the process before end of January, (another story) So what we need to know is, I will be returning on a one way ticket & my wife on a return, what should she tell immigration when she arrives in NZ?
Thanks.

Re: Wife's residency permit
 

I would personally start the application in UK, it can always be transferred over to NZ as we did that. I think spouse visa's are quicker than the skilled visa's. I think having the application in the system will show immigration that you are not trying to skip getting the visa and with the return flight I can see no reason why there would be a problem, unless of course there are criminal convictions or possibly bad health problems.

Re: Wife's residency permit
 

Hi MrsFychan, Thank you so much for that, so just to clarify, we can start the application here, then still leave in April even if my wife's application has not at that time been approved? If that is so, how do we go about that?

Thanks again.

Re: Wife's residency permit
 

as you said your wife would need a return ticket and be able to prove that she has somewhere to return to just in case the visa is not approved.
Time frame for partnership visa seems to be within 3 months but obviously if you have all you paperwork in order and ready to go it should be fairly straight forward unless the medical comes back for further investigation or the police cert comes back unclear.
Don't send your original passport in with the application, get a certified copy as you will need to travel on it if the visa approval has not come back when you need to go, but have you application details available at the airport.

When we came over husband was on a temp work visa and myself and the kids came over on a visitors visa with return after 6mths as our application took over 3 months and also had the added complication of Christmas holidays to contend with.

We did check with the CO if they were able to transfer the application to NZ if/when it got approved and she agreed it could. so as soon as the second check came back to the CO she arranged to have the file transferred to Wellington and we just took our passports in to them and had the visas stamped in them.

The CO then posted all the documents to us in NZ.

Re: Wife's residency permit
 

Like MrsFychan has stated, I would personally start the application now, the process has been pretty straight forward for us, and also quite a straight forward process.

Re: Wife's residency permit
 

Thanks again, hugely helpful.

Re: Wife's residency permit
 

Thanks Andy, really appreciate your help.