[lockstock]

We're part way through the 'assigned a case officer within 4 months' wait after submitting our ITA and, having decided to go in January regardless, wanted to let NZIS know without sounding like we were trying to boot them into action (which we technically were but that's not the point) There's been a few threads on about contacting them by phone/fax/whatever and I was beginning to wonder if anyone who dared contact them not 'in an emergency only' capacity ever lived to tell the tale.

Well, I took the plunge and e-mailed them a message with our new temporary
address- emphasis on temporary cos we want to go now- (sort of an emergency isn't it?) and a couple of harmless queries which wouldn't be too demanding. A couple of quips about the rugby and the cricket next year (it's worked on a couple of head teachers) and pressed send.

In less than an hour I had a reply - very extensive too- and a named contact (not a case worker yet but at least it's better that the anonymous e-mail I'd written to in the first place) and we're already on first name terms.

It may not actually do anything towards moving our application nearer the top of the pile but for a little while at least, there was a human face to NZIS and the 'Beware all ye who enter here' sign had gone.

[M&J]

We had a similar experience, when we arrived in NZ we e-mailed our case officer with new contact details. she replied almost instantly and it got the ball rolling as she assessed our case that day.

We contacted our case officer by phone and e-mail and found her to be really helpful.

Lets hope you hear back from them soon.

Jo

[Nick88]

I have helped all of my family emigrate in one form or another and have found only one example of an NZIS employee being unreceptive (she was fired soon after). In each case we made it as easy as possible for the CO to assess the application quickly by giving them all of the info at once and in exactly the form they specified.

Remember they are just civil servants doing a pretty dull job, and have quotas and targets to meet. Make it easy for them, and they will be nice to you.

[Moorf]

Nick - have you sponsored parents over?

[Nick88]

They didn't really need it, they came in as business investors and my wife and I ran the business. They are the ones that put us onto doing things like putting all paperwork into a clearfile in the same order as it comes up in the forms. Plus they did absolutely everything that NZIS could possibly want all up front, so that nothing would have to be requested later.

They made it so easy to asses the application that their provisional PR came through in 7 days. Ours took 10.

[lockstock]

That how it should be done. Agreed. We did all that but, because I haven't got a job offer our ITA isn't on the priority pile - hence we haven't even got a Case Officer yet. We assume everything's in order because we took the ITA to London in person and it was checked off there and then for content. Our difficulty was with trying to get updated information to them and trying to see where we were in the queue without looking as though we were hassling them.

[Nick88]

It's a fine line, that one. Even the most genial CO can be having a bad day.

Do you have a crystal ball handy?

[lockstock]

No, I always walk like this