Trying to apply was hard enough.
22.12.04
Our house sells after 9 months on the market. We walked away with about £35,000 to start our new life and buy a home in New Zealand.
31.12.04
Hubby and myself (Daughter and son in law), enter New Zealand as residents under the Skilled Migrant Category after 2 years of research and application. Hubby has a job with Telecom New Zealand, which sped up the process considerably once we got to the ITA stage.
March 2005
Mum and Dad sell their house after only a few weeks on the market and walk away with a lot more money than we did. They knew they were going to emigrate and didn’t want to be held up by a house sale. They intended to live in New Zealand for 6 months each year, and in the meantime buy a static caravan to live in during the UK summers. They send some of the money to us in New Zealand and we use that, and the proceeds from our house to buy one big family home in the Wairarapa, which we settled on in September.
October 2005
The family arrives for the first time in New Zealand to live. They all have 6-month visitor visas, and move into the new family home. We enjoy our fist summer owning a swimming pool.
From then on, my parents and brother spend roughly October to April in New Zealand, building a life here, and spend the rest of the time in the UK. They do this on 6 month visitor Visas.
17.10.07
Original Medical carried out for my Parents
(Test 1)
Dads results are:
BMI 30
No protein in Urine on Dipstick
Creatinine / Microalbumin described as “Marginally abnormal”.
ACR = 3.4 (2.5-30 is considered Microalbuminuria – a measure of renal problems).
Box ticked for No significant or abnormal findings
Extra Reports included:
Haematology
Retinopathy – Shows NO Diabetic Retinopathy
Fasting Glucose high @ 14.4 mmol/ l (2.5-6)
4.1.08
Residency application lodged with INZ Wellington via Family Sponsorship (mum and dad are currently in New Zealand)
Helen and Hubby apply for Citizenship. ( Because we arrived before April 2005, we were eligible to apply for this after 3 years. It now takes 5 years living as a resident before you apply for citizenship).
8.1.08
Receipt from NZIS for $610.00 (Mum and dad get a reduced fee (from $700) because they have previously applied for residency via the Long Term Business Visa (LTBV). This is found in the Guide To fees which says:
x Any residence applicant who, on or after 1 July 2003, has paid the fee specified in
the table above for a long-term business visa or permit, Talent (Accredited Employers),
Talent (Arts, Culture, and Sports), or Long Term Skill Shortage List (formerly Priority
Occupations List) application is entitled to a $90 reduction of their residence application
fee. No one to whom this applies is entitled to more than a $90 fee reduction on any
single application.
16.1.08
Email From INZ Wellington saying the fee paid was incorrect.
Email to INZ Wellington explaining that the fee is correct and due to a discount applied for Previous Applicant (as noted in the Guide to fees booklet).
LTBV Application Number sent in, along with a copy of the guide to fees with the relevant section highlighted. (this information was supplied in the application – but it seems no one actually read it!)
18.1.08
Email to INZ Wellington to chase up fee Situation as we have not heard back from them.
Email from INZ Wellington saying it was passed to the Immigration Manager at Wellington to be “waived”.
23.1.08
Emailed INZ Wellington to ask why we haven’t heard anything further.
25.1.08
Email from Case Officer @ Wellington , saying that the fee has been “waived”.
There is no admittance from NZIS Wellington that the fee we paid was correct and that they were in error.
Email to Case Officer asking for clarification that fee was correct and explaining that we would be in this position again once we apply for my brother. No reply was ever received.
1.2.08
Letter from INZ Wellington confirming that the application has been accepted.
28.2.08
Letter from Case Officer Wellington requesting a second set of Medicals.
Request for HbA1c, Creatinine Microalbumin, ECG, GFR.
(Test 2)
10.3.08
Letter to Case Officer with the 2nd set of medical tests included.
Tests carried out in New Zealand by Local GP.
Creatinine is in acceptable levels.
GFR (Kidney function) is a bit low (59ml/min when levels should be 80-100)
There is a Note in the test results that GFR declines at 1ml/min/year over 40.
Dad is 65 allowing a reduction of 25ml per minute per year giving an expected level of 55 ml/min/year which means this test result is normal for age.
25.3.08
Email to Case Officer trying to find out what we should do with the application once Parents leave for the UK. The family are due to return to the UK at the end of April, and we were hoping that we would have things sorted by then, but at this stage it appears unlikely.
8.4.08
Email to Case Officer chasing this as no reply.
10.4.08
Email to Case Officer following a phone call as she would not respond to repeated email or phone massages. Case officer confirms that application must be transferred to London as branches cannot process applications form people who are not in the country.
This completely negates information we were given about 18 months before by the then Branch Manager at Wellington who told us that we could have the application still processed in Wellington if my parents chose to go back home to the UK before the application was finalised.
Email confirms that Parents are leaving for the UK on 26th April and asking for application to be transferred to London.
No response or acknowledgement was ever received to this email.
23.4.08
Contacted NZIS through the Online Help facility as we have heard nothing from NZIS regarding the transfer of the application
24.4.08
Letter from NZIS Wellington saying that application has been sent to London.
29.4.08
Email from Head of the Family Residence Team (HFRT): London Branch confirming that the application has been transferred from Wellington in response to our Online Help Query. It seems that the application get sent to London in a diplomatic bag and won’t be there for three weeks.
THREE WEEKS – does it go by carrier pigeon??? For crying out loud – this has to be joke – but no – it was entirely serious as it turned out.
1.5.08
I send a thank you email to the HFRT. I actually comment on the helpfulness of the reply and that I wished Wellington had been as responsive and helpful.
If only I had known then what this person would put me through.
Coming soon: Tests, tests and more flamin’ tests.
