[Chaz]

Spoke to my CO today to find out what level of English my wife needs as the secondary application.

Basically he pasted an extract from the NZIS guide.

My wife got an E for English at school, higher grade. The document requires a D for South African schools educated people.

Can I motivate this with the following information?

My wife has worked for a 'private' school in South Africa on the ACE (Accelerated Christian Education) for 5 years where the school was an English only school. She would have had various junior roles such as teacher's assistant and sports administrator, all in only English.

Added to this, we are resident in Ireland, speak English on a daily basis and our eldest (nearly 10) goes to an English school. My wife deals with the school, his homework etc so is pretty much English, despite her Afrikaans schooling and upbringing.

Is this going to be an issue? We do not have the time / ability / money to try and get the IELTS completed for her. I do not understand why as a secondary applicant, this is such a big deal. Sure, I can understand if someone understands no English, how this can create issues but this should not have a bearing on the ITA. Then again - who said NZIS thought logically?

Anyone with some practical experience here? Can a decent cover letter cover (excuse the pun) this off?

[Steadybears]

Hi Chaz

We had the same thing with English - even though we have both been educated in Zimbabwe and since been living in SA for 25 yrs. What we did we made an affidavit saying we were educated in Zim and home language is English - so am sure that will be fine . So would suggest in yr affidavit you put down all the details of which you wrote above and am sure that will be fine. If you would like me to forward our affidavit we sent through - just PM and I will forward it to you.

Our CO was so nice - as we sent the affidavit through to her and thenw e called her and once she heard that we could speak English - it seemed as though it wasnt necessary. All a bit of waste of money having to get it signed by Commissioner of Oaths - but we here now.

Good luck and let me know if you want to see our affidavit.

[Jo Jo]

Have you seen this guidance leaflet (http://www.immigration.govt.nz/NR/rdonlyres/F72DF739-2320-4068-BDD9-E041A29FDBD4/0/1060.pdf)? (INZ 1060).

It says:

Showing that you are a competent user of English

If you do not have an English-speaking background, you may show us that you meet the minimum standard for other reasons. For example, you may be able to show us that you are a competent user of English because:

of the country you live in/countries you have lived in previously, and the length of time you lived in each country
of other languages you speak, or your family speaks
you needed English language ability for your current and/or previous employment
you needed English language ability to study for qualifications that you have.



It sounds as if your wife meets these criteria, so you shouldn't need IELTS.

EDIT Steadybears beat me to it.

[Chaz]

Hi Chaz

We had the same thing with English - even though we have both been educated in Zimbabwe and since been living in SA for 25 yrs. What we did we made an affidavit saying we were educated in Zim and home language is English - so am sure that will be fine . So would suggest in yr affidavit you put down all the details of which you wrote above and am sure that will be fine. If you would like me to forward our affidavit we sent through - just PM and I will forward it to you.

Our CO was so nice - as we sent the affidavit through to her and thenw e called her and once she heard that we could speak English - it seemed as though it wasnt necessary. All a bit of waste of money having to get it signed by Commissioner of Oaths - but we here now.

Good luck and let me know if you want to see our affidavit.

Please do, if you dont mind. PM is fine - thanks.

Just stress I dont need at this stage.