[cappuccino]

After submitting my ITA to the Wellington branch a couple of weeks ago, I promptly received a letter advising me that I had not included my original employment contract. I had crossed referenced everything in my covering letter/checklist to the fact that I submitted my original employment paperwork and police report to the London office when I applied for my Work Permit back in January. It seems like they hadn't bothered to read this covering letter (which they ask you to put in so I am a bit surprised!)

After a couple of phone calls and even a visit to the Immigration office, I was advised that the Lodgement clerk who had written the letter to me, doesn't have a telephone or an email address so there was no way they could contact her to say that my original paperwork is still in London.

After yet another phone call, I managed to get the Information clerk to add a note to my computer file to get somebody from immigration to contact me in regard to this matter. Eventually, somebody called me back and said that the lodgement clerk had sent an internal message to London 2 weeks ago but has not yet had a response. I was not happy. I asked what normally happens when paperwork is sitting in one country from an earlier visa application and the applicant is now in NZ applying for PR and they seemed a bit unsure.

Surely I'm not the first person in this situation. I know that Immigration often don't answer applicants emails but now it seems they don't bother to answer internal messages either!!!

Should I email the NZIS in London and ask them to send my paperwork to NZ????

[SNK05]

HI cappuccino

I'd definately chase things! I was far too relaxed when I applied for my Nurse Registration, believing that the time frame was the norm. Then out of curiosity, I rang the Nursing Council to find out that they hadn't even started processing my application as they'd not received any of the references! They had been sent!

Surely it can't hurt to encourage people alpong a bit!!??

Good Luck

Sue n Kev

[M-Squared]

Hey :)

Definitely definitely definitely get on their tails about this. They have the paperwork and you've proven it to them by cross-referencing it. Try to get the name of your case officer (assuming one's been assigned) and their phone and e-mail. Then keep in very very close contact with them, following up every few days, until they get the paperwork from London. Ask them if there's anything you can do to expedite it, and try to get it in writing that this delay won't be held against you for whatever reason.

Best of luck my friend!

[cappuccino]

Thanks for the replies and PMs. I have emailed the case officer from London who dealt with my work visa and asked her to send over the docs to Wellington but so far no reply.

I guess as the last resort, I can get my boss to sign a new copy of my contract and date it same as original.

Will let you know if any progress is made.

[M-Squared]

Best of luck! Let us know how it goes. :)

[liveAdream]

Hi cappuccino,

OH has first hand experience similar to your situation. His medical report was retained by NZIS HK after the local medical practice sent his medical report directly to immigration by mistake (yes, he did ask for collecting it).

On lodging our ITA, we were promptly sent with a letter that our application was incomplete.

The short answer to your question is :

If you PM me, I will give you the lodgement clerk's name in London. If your case officer is unable to help, I hope this person probably is. I can also give you their email address too.

Once you have a name, you have to do the legwork to hook up the parties in London and Wellington.

On receiving the letter, OH asked HK to release the report to London, cc'ed a copy to the London administrative team.

The report was sent via diplomatic bag but took almost 3 weeks to our file.

It was the scariest 3 weeks because we did not know if the situation would mean we had to redo our medical again (due to expired reports).

Hope this helps.

[cappuccino]

Quick update: I just received a reply back from the original case officer in London who confirmed she has received the Wellington email and will be sending my documents in the next diplomatic bag.

[M-Squared]

Woo hoo! Excellent news. :nice1

[JandM]

:nice1