[BoP]

I've got a question relating to residence from work. I have worked for an accredited employer for 24 months and am in the process of applying for PR. In order to work in NZ for those 24 months, I was given a work permit/visa. This expires in Jan 2008.

My 24 months ended in Sept and by the time I had pulled everything together for my PR application, it was Oct.

I have now been told that I will need to aquire another work visa from Jan 2008 as my PR application will take up to 6 months (6 months from Oct is March). This seems ludicrous, especially as I have just had to pay 0ver $1000 all up for the PR application. Has anyone ever come across this before? It seems crazy not to have the original work visa cover the period up to gaining PR, especially as this takes up to 6 months to process?

[IanW99]

Sorry can't be much help, we decided not to wait the 24 months before applying for PR so put in the application early. Our application from start to finish took approx 7 months.

I can say that others on the forum managed to have it all processed in approx. 2 months so it may be much quicker.

We were also told it would take six months, so this may just be a stock answer.

One thing that we did though, the PR was taking too long, so we went into the Wellington office of NZIS and told them that we needed our PR processing ASAP and were granted it the following day. So would definitely recommend visiting them in person.

Ian

[galvinp2]

Hello BOP,
I had a work colleague who recently was in the same predicament as you except he left his application until 2 weeks prior to his visa expiring. He submitted his PR application to the buisness immigration office in wellington (apparently a friend of his told him about them) and they issued him with a free one year work permit/visa while they processed his application which incidently only took 5 weeks start to finish!
Im on a work to residency permit too and decided i would go the EOI process as I couldnt wait (Cant get a morgage without PR). I collected all my documents from my ITA at the wellington main branch this morn and was told to expect a processing time of up to 12 months!! I almost started to cry (which incidently the person made a chinese student do before talking to me). I dont know:confused: with all the money it costs one would expect a better service especially as it affects peoples lives so much. Please excuse the rant its just all so frustrating.:no

[BoP]

Thanks IanW99/galvinp2 - in hindsight I should have started the PR process much earlier - I din't actually know I could have done this - if only I had known, would have saved heaps!

Oh well. I have to say that the application process so far has been a nightmare! I sent off all the important documents via courier to my nearest immigration office, Hamilton. I got a phone call the day after to say that they hadn't received my birth certificate, and that I needed a UK police ceritificate and not an NZ one!! This was a complete mystery to me as I hadn't even applied for an NZ police certificate and was 100% positive the UK one and my birth certificate had been included. After various frustrating telephone conversations and brick walls, I finally went to the office personally to pick everything up and to get to the bottom of it. And guess what - they were looking at the wrong application! I couldn't believe it - totally incompetant.

I have now been advised that all is well and everything is with the Wellington office for processing. What they forget to include was the name and contact details of my case officer! What I would really like to do is to call my case officer and see what can be done abour my work visa. I have managed to get his name (Ranu Allardyce) but the Hamilton office won't give me his email/telephone number. I've tried the 0508 number but I'm always informed that I've called during a busy time and to try later. Does anyone have his number????????????????????????

Nightmare.

[andrewandjane]

most accredited organisations have a contact in imigration who normally helps them with imigration issues, may be worth finding out who that rep is who deals with your employer and get them to sort it as after all its in your employers intersts to keep you in nz legally! from speaking to the person in my organisation a while ago they are able to cut through a lot of the red tape.



good luck

[Timbo]

galvinp2, who told you you cant get a mortgage without PR? This is rubbish.Just ask around this forum and I am sure it is not only us who have secured a mortgage whilst on temp. work permits.