Although it has been a while since I last used the tag “Visa blabla” the story had not ended yet.
Last year Thomas got a residence visa, after he/we applied for residence for the both of us. We didn’t actually understand that we applied together, but because we used both our education and skills for Thomas' application, I was automatically included in that as well. However, you can’t just apply for a visa as two random people, you have to be in a stable and genuine partnership. To prove you’re in a stable and genuine partnership is not easy, especially if you’ve never lived together, as was the case for us. So Immigration NZ ended up giving Thomas the residence, and told us to live together for a year and then apply for my residence.
(Some people wonder why Thomas got residence before I did, although I had been in NZ longer and held a job here. Fact is that I had a work visa, and Thomas had basically no visa, so it made more sense to give him residence first, and sort out mine later after we’d figured out the partnership thing)
We, shockingly, briefly considered getting married during all the visa hassles last year, but I soon learned from my colleagues and friends in NZ that neither a marriage certificate nor multiple children are sufficient proof for Immigration NZ for a partnership (stable and genuine).
Early December 2011 we wrote to Immigration NZ asking what to send for proof of our living together for a year. We then sent our new tenancy agreement for the house, a note from our bank stating our shared account, an envelope from a Christmas card addressed to both of us, a letter from our Kiwi friend Sophie stating that she knew we were a couple, and … my passport … Never a fun feeling to put your passport in an envelope.
Interestingly I was flying domestic flights within New Zealand during the time that my passport was with immigration. Totally possible in NZ, but a really strange feeling (on a side note, flying domestic in NZ is great, because you can take ANYTHING on board, water bottles, knifes, groceries, fieldwork equipment, bring it all on! And no need for identification at all. You just walk from check-in right into the plane).
In January a lady emailed us she needed extra documents. We had sent just statements from December 2011, but ideally she liked to have a document from every month over the last year somehow stating we’d lived together. In these times when your bills are all online, this is a bit of a problem, also because, since I lived here first, all telephone and electricity bills are in my name only. However, I put together a nice pile of things, ranging from funeral cards to birth cards to insurance claims to holiday letters that people had sent us.
Nevertheless, it still proved too complex a situation, because our original file was still in London, UK, where the whole application process for Thomas had started (Mine had started in Berlin, to make things more complicated yet). So, the lady in Christchurch had the file from London sent over to her and warned us that this would take “several weeks”. Because diplomatic immigration post is obviously not send by airmail?!
Soon after that our friend Sophie told us she had received a call from Immigration NZ, who asked all about us. How did she know us, had she been at our house, how many people were living in our flat, … At this point I almost called the immigration office to ask them if they wanted to come over for a cup of tea and see our living arrangements for themselves .
Anyway, after a month we were awoken by the early morning courier (6:45 am) who brought me back my passport with residence!!! Fantastic!
We celebrated with Sophie and Johannes (and Thomas friend from Freiburg Juergen who happened to be here as well), and according to Thomas one of the first things I realized was that “now we can split up”, we don’t need to stay together because of the visa. Johannes on the other hand noticed that now I could get myself a criminal record.
Well, I’m not planning on either of those things, but it is a nice feeling that now we can stay in NZ for as long as we want independent of a specific job and we don’t need to collect clearly stamped envelopes addressed to both of us anymore… Choice!
Last year Thomas got a residence visa, after he/we applied for residence for the both of us. We didn’t actually understand that we applied together, but because we used both our education and skills for Thomas' application, I was automatically included in that as well. However, you can’t just apply for a visa as two random people, you have to be in a stable and genuine partnership. To prove you’re in a stable and genuine partnership is not easy, especially if you’ve never lived together, as was the case for us. So Immigration NZ ended up giving Thomas the residence, and told us to live together for a year and then apply for my residence.
(Some people wonder why Thomas got residence before I did, although I had been in NZ longer and held a job here. Fact is that I had a work visa, and Thomas had basically no visa, so it made more sense to give him residence first, and sort out mine later after we’d figured out the partnership thing)
We, shockingly, briefly considered getting married during all the visa hassles last year, but I soon learned from my colleagues and friends in NZ that neither a marriage certificate nor multiple children are sufficient proof for Immigration NZ for a partnership (stable and genuine).
Early December 2011 we wrote to Immigration NZ asking what to send for proof of our living together for a year. We then sent our new tenancy agreement for the house, a note from our bank stating our shared account, an envelope from a Christmas card addressed to both of us, a letter from our Kiwi friend Sophie stating that she knew we were a couple, and … my passport … Never a fun feeling to put your passport in an envelope.
Interestingly I was flying domestic flights within New Zealand during the time that my passport was with immigration. Totally possible in NZ, but a really strange feeling (on a side note, flying domestic in NZ is great, because you can take ANYTHING on board, water bottles, knifes, groceries, fieldwork equipment, bring it all on! And no need for identification at all. You just walk from check-in right into the plane).
In January a lady emailed us she needed extra documents. We had sent just statements from December 2011, but ideally she liked to have a document from every month over the last year somehow stating we’d lived together. In these times when your bills are all online, this is a bit of a problem, also because, since I lived here first, all telephone and electricity bills are in my name only. However, I put together a nice pile of things, ranging from funeral cards to birth cards to insurance claims to holiday letters that people had sent us.
Nevertheless, it still proved too complex a situation, because our original file was still in London, UK, where the whole application process for Thomas had started (Mine had started in Berlin, to make things more complicated yet). So, the lady in Christchurch had the file from London sent over to her and warned us that this would take “several weeks”. Because diplomatic immigration post is obviously not send by airmail?!
Soon after that our friend Sophie told us she had received a call from Immigration NZ, who asked all about us. How did she know us, had she been at our house, how many people were living in our flat, … At this point I almost called the immigration office to ask them if they wanted to come over for a cup of tea and see our living arrangements for themselves .
Anyway, after a month we were awoken by the early morning courier (6:45 am) who brought me back my passport with residence!!! Fantastic!
We celebrated with Sophie and Johannes (and Thomas friend from Freiburg Juergen who happened to be here as well), and according to Thomas one of the first things I realized was that “now we can split up”, we don’t need to stay together because of the visa. Johannes on the other hand noticed that now I could get myself a criminal record.
Well, I’m not planning on either of those things, but it is a nice feeling that now we can stay in NZ for as long as we want independent of a specific job and we don’t need to collect clearly stamped envelopes addressed to both of us anymore… Choice!
