[Caroline and Dave]

Hi all.
Something our agent has brought up.
We have had all our paperwork submitted including police checks which are O.K, but we are now being told that we have to wait up to 2 months for police checks in New Zealand despite the fact that we have never been to NZ. What is the point of this?
All I can find in the manual is you have to have police checks from your country of citizenship and any country where you have lived for 12 months or more. We have been assured that this is standard practice but to me it seems a bit pointless as we have never been there.
Has anyone else had any experience of this?

Kindest regards

Dave and Caroline

[sarahw]

No - we only had to have UK police checks for residence. I'd phone your case officer to check if this is some new procedure... or a clerical error.

[anna_c]

I'm 95% sure that you don't need to arrange police checks with the NZ police - the immigration service obtains the information themselves. Look in the guide to getting police checks by country under NZ - I think it explains it there.

[wilson182]

I think you are correct Anna, we actually applied whilst we were over here, and NZIS did the NZ police check, we only had to provide the UK ones.

[Caroline and Dave]

Just a bit more info on this backing up what Anna says.
We know that we do not have to get the police checks in NZ and have been told that NZIS do this and this is what can take up to 2 months.
What we find difficult to understand is why do they have to take two months to have police checks when we have never been to New Zealand ?
Our agent says this causes a lot of delay and his last case did take two months for their New Zealand police checks to clear.

Kindest regards

Dave and Caroline

[StevieD]

Don't know about that, as the others have said, it is in your own country that you apply for the checks.

[Caroline and Dave]

Hi all,
We have just had an email from our agent which explains things a bit clearer.
We are coming to NZ on a business investment visa. This visa means we have to stay in NZ for a minimum of 5 years.
Because of this we have to have police checks done in NZ as well as the UK.
Apparently this is only done in investment cases and I apologise for confusing people.
What still I cannot understand is why we have to have them when we have never been to New Zealand.

Kindest regards


Dave and Caroline

[jo-and-jeff]

What still I cannot understand is why we have to have them when we have never been to New Zealand.
You know that. But they don't. I'm sure they insist on the check because they've had people who previously had problems in NZ try to sneak in by saying that they've never been here.

Jo

[veronica]

We came over on a LTBV ( I know its not the investment one) and only needed the UK police check. Think it might be worth a phone call or email to the wellington office here to clarify it for yourselves.

[Jonathon1977]

I check up on this and you don't need a police check from NZ. You only need a police check for each country you have spent more than 12 months in over the last 10 years. You do not meet this requirement since you have never been in NZ. Please check page 5 of this document from the New Zealand Immigration Guide:

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/NR/rdonlyres/4DAD508D-CC26-425A-A57B-D2AF557C8510/0/1003.pdf

Cheers,

Jonathon

[Caroline and Dave]

Hi all,
With all the confusion of this and our agent still insisting we have to wait for the police checks etc in NZ I contacted NZIS directly by email and last night I received a half an hour phone call from an extremely helpful lady from New zealand immigration.
Our Agent is correct and we do have to have a very thorough check which incorporates a NZ police check as well as a thorough look into our background,financial details etc.
This is all because we are going over on an investment visa. They have very few investment visas ( less than 1%).
What this basically means is that you invest money with the NZ government which they keep for 5 years. Because of this they have to know everything about you in case the money has come from dodgy means.
After the 5 years we get the money back and are entitled to apply for citizenship.
We have to prove we have 5 years business experience and will be establishing a business in NZ. In our case we will be buying and renting out properties to migrants.
This process is different from a normal business visa.
So all we have to do now is wait for all these checks to go through.

Hope this clears the matter up and I apologise for worrying anyone

Kindest regards

Dave and Caroline