[mattford]

Just thought I would start things off on the new forum with some good news - PR approval arrived through the post this weekend so all I gotta do now is go down to NZ house and get my passport stamped. YAY! :D

After fretting about not hearing from them for a while, they responded pretty quickly to an email we sent and the approval letter arrived 2 days later - So it's taken just over 3 weeks from the day we handed our application in to the day the approval letter came.

I thought the £460 fee payable at the time we handed in our app was all we had to pay though, but to get the stamp costs another £155 - Migrant levy to fund research into immigration according to the letter.

Anyway thanks to everyone for advice posted on the forums + good luck to everyone else with their apps too :) We are flying out on Nov 10th via Hong Kong and will be arriving in Auck on the 14th... Not sure what I'm going to do when we get there but it's going to involve a long holiday first!

Matt

[Raeven]

Hi, Matt,

Congratulations on your success!!! Such great news!!!

I sometimes wish we'd pursued the partnership PR scheme initially instead of doing as we were advised by NZ Consulate in Los Angeles... however, we were told that to process PR from here in the States would take up to 9 months, and we had expected we'd be out of here looooonnnnnnngggg before that. I'm still hopeful we can get out to NZ by the end of October and will apply for PR as soon as our feet touch the ground. I'd like to avoid waiting 5 years to apply for citizenship, if possible!

Good luck to you and your family in your new adventures -- don't stop posting, please!! We'll need to hear from you more than ever, once you're an old pro at the actual migration process!!!

All the best, Rae

[mattford]

This forum's been great so I'm definitely here to stay + post more :D

9 months is an incredibly long time to process an application! I thought they were making it harder for people to get IN to the US, not get out of it :shock:

[markkellaway]

Hi Matt,

Congratulations, you must be so excited!

Did you have a job lined up to get PR? If not did you have an interview before getting the PR through?

Cheers,

Mark.

[mattford]

I went the partnership route as my wife is a New Zealander, so having a job lined up was not required. However I have heard that a "Mr and Mrs" style interview can take place if they suspect that a couple are not genuine!

How are your plans progressing?

[markkellaway]

Matt,

We have submitted our EOI and been selected but no job as yet, just waiting for the next phase. I had a job that I thought would come off, reference checks were successfully completed and everything. Unfortunately the company put a freeze on all recruitment so no offer ever came through. :(

Good luck with the move though, I hope it all goes well for you! :P

Cheers,

Mark. :)

[Moorf]

:D :D

Yay, well done matt - keep us posted on how the move goes :lol:

Moorf & Woz

[Tara Sage]

Congratulation!!!

Well done Matt

Good Luck to you all, enjoy your new life in NZ

[Wahine]

I thought the £460 fee payable at the time we handed in our app was all we had to pay though, but to get the stamp costs another £155 - Migrant levy to fund research into immigration according to the letter.

You're not the only one who missed the Migrant Levy payable - however, small price to pay to finally get that stamp, eh?! Maybe, it was a case of selective reading on the NZIS website.

We're off to Auckland in November too - staying with my folks a wee while, enjoy a few weeks off and after Christmas we'll start looking for work.

Congrats and good luck!

[Dave & Sandra]

That was a good, positive way to start off the new forum.

Congrats - Sandra :D

[karltsmith]

Good on ya Matt!

YAY :P

[mattford]

We're off to Auckland in November too - staying with my folks a wee while, enjoy a few weeks off and after Christmas we'll start looking for work.

Almost exactly our plan too. Looking forward to a good few weeks holiday after the craziness of this year :D

[Dinnaefash]

Whew! :P :shock: Made it back here at last!

Matt, congrats! We are going the partnership route too, hubbie is a Kiwi. I'm getting all my docs etc together now; just waiting for my police certificate to come back then I can actually apply.

I'd be really interested to hear:
- whether you sent your application in or took it in person (if so, what happened?)
- what all docs etc did you provide
- how did you present your application, eg box full of loose docs / collated into envelopes etc

3 weeks sounds great, I thought it might take longer than that :)

[mattford]

For supporting documentation we sent:


Copies of old travel itineraries from travel agent showing holidays together
4 photos of us on holiday together
8 letters of support from family and friends
Tenancy agreements from the whole time we've lived together
Council tax bills in joint name
Utility bills showing proof of address
Letter from parents sent to us at our current address a year ago


and we also jumped through all the hoops to send medical, police, sponsorship forms etc. All the passport, birth, marriage certs we sent were certified copies which we had done for £5 a pop at a local solicitor.

We took 2 photocopies of everything we sent, then we went to NZIS London and handed in two pocket folders: One with all the originals, and the other with a set of photocopies. We kept the other photocopies for ourselves. Going there in person is no big deal - We waited about 10 mins for someone to see us + they went through the folder checking everything was there. We paid our £460 application fee by cheque and they told us the current processing time was a month. We didn't hear anything for two weeks, then they sent a letter to say it was being held by a "file manager" awaiting a case officer. A week later we emailed them to ask about it and two days later we got the approval letter!

There are some notes on the NZIS London website about putting together a partnership application here:

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/Branch/LondonBranchHome/Checklists/

Nothing to it! Good luck!

Matt :)

[Tanya]

I thought the £460 fee payable at the time we handed in our app was all we had to pay though, but to get the stamp costs another £155 - Migrant levy to fund research into immigration according to the letter.

Matt

Wow Matt - that has gone up - when we paid it in May this year the Migrant levy was only £50.00 :eek

Tanya

[mattford]

I misquoted - It actually says £115 on the letter. Still that's a lot more that £50!

[Tanya]

Mattford

It is still a hell of a jump in fees! You'd think they would be rolling in it with the amount of us going there!!

Tanya