Rrv Nz
 

Hi Everyone,
I have just had a horrible thought.. and I’m hoping someone can put me out of my quandary..
Basically me and the missus have been living in NZ since August 2002. We entered on a working holiday visa.. and within 3 days of getting here the other half had secured a job and we had applied for permanent residency..
This arrived in October (I think) and everything is cool.
However I have had a sudden thought… do we have to re enter the country with our new residency permit to validate it.. or start it off for the citizenship stamp.. should we choose to go down that route? Or is this all done automatic.. we had to send our passports to London to have the new permit put in.. so presumably they would have seen the working hol visa.. and the stamp saying we were in country in august?

Can anyone help please?

Paul

Hi Paul

Check the PR label in your passport - does it say Residence VISA or PERMIT ? If it says Visa, then NZIS assumed you were out of NZ when residence was granted (as a residence Visa allows you to travel to NZ for the purposes of taking up permanent residence). A residence visa is valid for one year from the date your PR appln was approved, if you don't enter NZ before the 'must not arrive after xx/xx/xx' date then your PR effectively expires. I'm a bit puzzled as to how this has happened, as you were onshore when PR was granted. did you lodge your PR application to the London office before you left, or somewhere in NZ? In either case, you shouldn't have had to post your passports back to London (quite a risky thing to do) as NZIS here in NZ would have evidenced your passports. If you do have a residence visa in your passport which was granted when you were physically in NZ, then something has gone wrong and you'll need to speak to NZIS.

If it say's Permit, then you don't have to do anything - the label states "The holder of this permit may remain in NZ indefinitely" you can remain in NZ for as long as you like, although if you leave NZ you need a valid Returning Residents Visa in order to come back into the country. The point at which you get your RRV varies - if you apply for PR in New Zealand (ie onshore) your residence permit and RRV are put in your passport the date PR is granted (ie after you have paid migrant levies etc). If you apply outside of NZ and are given a residence Visa, once you have arrived in the country you should go to any NZIS office who will put the 2 year RRV label in your passport. It will be valid for 2 years from the date you entered the country. Again, check your passport to see if you have one.

As for citizenship, the clock starts from the day you arrive in NZ, so assuming you don't spend more than a year out of NZ in total over the next three years, and no single trip is longer than 6 months plus you keep your nose clean (ie no criminal convictions!) then you'll be eligible to apply for NZ Citizenship in August 2005.

hope that helps

Russ

Hi Britboy,

thanks for the advice, that takes a big worry away from me. We do have a permit as well as a rrv valid for 2 yrs. I think it was just the fact that the rrv said it was only valid for 2 yrs that threw me out... but you know how it goes.. once you start to panic.. the incident pit gets deeper and pthump. In reference to a point you made.... we applied using an agent which sorted out our working holiday visa and all the paperwork for full residency and so when we arrived in NZ all we had to do was find jobs and pass the info back to the UK agent. Thats the reason why passports were sent back and forth... yes it was a tad nerve racking to package up passports... but you pays yer money....


so thanks for all the help... roll on Aug 2005 when we can take up full citizenship and so not have to worry that this visa or that permit is up to date

cheers

Paul

Russ - in our case (and I assume for everyone applying outside NZ these days) NZIS London issued a RRV sticker at the same time as the PR visa was stickered in our passports. It had notation stating that it would be valid for 2 years from the date we got our PR permits (ie when we entered NZ for the first time as PR visa holders and converted PR visa to PR permit). So there was no need to go to a NZIS office in NZ.

Cheers - Don