Most candidates who start the process of seeking a New Zealand visa envisage a simple process. They gather the paperwork as required and post it, they fill in the form and they send it. For a certain number of candidates, all this is enough. For a few, at some point the questions posed by Immigration New Zealand do not match the responses they seem to be giving. For others, they get a refusal letter which appears unjustified. In either case, at this stage it is often appropriate to put aside the original intent and have a good hard look at the reality of the situation.
Immigration Matters is based in Papatoetoe and guides clients through straightforward and more complex cases. Immigration Matters is a licensed immigration advisor in NZ. Prior to establishing the firm, he worked as a documentation officer with Immigration New Zealand and this influences the approach to risk analysis. Job descriptions are carefully analysed for consistency with the actual method employed by officers to determine ANZSCO compliance and wage threshold eligibility. Between dates are examined for the holes that tend to lead to more enquiries. Past refusals and periods of unlawful status are plotted on to the explicit instructions affecting Section 61 requests and tribunal claims rather than being deemed as barriers per se.
Sometimes clients will come to us after initial decision has been declined, or after they have received a Potentially Prejudicial Information letter. In this case the best solution may not be another hurried submission, but a frank assessment of what the decision maker has already accepted, what the issues are, and which of the pathways remain open. Sometimes issues can be addressed by a submission of further evidence and a sound argument. Other times, a formal reconsideration, appeal to the immigration and protection tribunal, or high quality initial request for a special direction, will be needed. The line between these avenues is very technical, and choosing the wrong one may close off previously open pathways.
Partnership cases are a classic example. A genuine relationship can still raise questions if the evidence does not clearly articulate how the couple has lived together, shared the financial load and kept in contact with each other in the periods of separation. Cultural marriage patterns, previous short term visas, or breaks in the time period of living together, are common subjects. Such a selector is able, after seeing how the files have been sifted, to generally recognize those papers that will matter and those that are not likely to affect the judgement. Similar logic applies to work visa variations that involve a change of employment, student visa evidential issues relating to funds and genuine-intent questions, and residence modes under the Skilled Migrant Category and Green List where occupation and salary must match recent set criteria precisely.
The application also takes us into questions of illegal status. With a person in New Zealand illegally, regular application pathways are often closed, and any further application will need to satisfy the criteria for a s.61 or ministerial intervention. Given that this is a discretionary process, the success of the applications will always depend on the full picture of the person’s circumstances, compassionate considerations and a realistic plan for their compliance if the visa is granted. Generic submissions rarely succeed.
As the office is frequently dealing with declined and complex cases, the first conversation can be quite frank. If there is not enough evidence and instructions for a possibility of success, that is pointed out before any fees are paid on an unsuccessful application. If there is a way, I advise what evidence is required in detail, rather than as a ‘homework list’ to be seen on a website. Auckland clients see me face to face, and the other parts of New Zealand and overseas clients are assisted by phone and videolink. All are using the same process: assess against current instructions, evidence plan, lodgement as the representative, and follow-up on any further questions from Immigration New Zealand.
NZ immigration settings are always changing. Wage levels, Green List jobs and points for Skilled Migrant have been revised over the last few years and more revisions are likely. Advice that was relevant 12 months ago may not be relevant to the set of rules that will be applied to a new application. An adviser licensed to give advice on NZ immigration advisor who tracks these changes and has the benefit of experience on the assessment side of the system will generally be able to distinguish between a file that is ready to go and one that is not.
For those who have made it past the phase of the online application there, whether a refusal, a thorough enquiry letter, a lack of partnership evidence, or a long period without legal residence, then the sensible next step is often a knowledgeable examination of the file itself, not a more broad-based attempt. Immigration Matters offers a file review, from its base in Papatoetoe, using both a licensed advisory qualification and previous Immigration NZ experience. The intention is to uncover potential options, and steer clear of actions that make life harder.
