NZ police report

Another quick update:

Recieved another email from the handler, just advising that they have recieved the pages I sent back in, and that they have requested and are waiting for Sarah's NZ police report (that is something they take care of, we did not need to send it in!).

Lost in transit

A quick update:

I received a friendly email last Friday from  the person handling my application at the NZ embassy. Apparently I had forgotten to include about 6 pages of the application form, and incorrectly filled 1 page out, they very helpfully included a pdf form for me to print and re-fill these bits out.

Now, I know for certain that I did include those pages as I triple checked the application and they were all attached with a paper clip. Interestingly, the pages that were misisng were pages that did not apply to my application so were blank. I can only assume that the form was pre-processed before being passed to the handler, and that person decided to remove these 'blank' pages. Very annoying.

So I reprinted these pages, and made sure I wrote N/A next to every part. I did, as mentioned, fill out one part incorrectly, which was asking me to list how many countries I'd lived in for over a year. I assumed I did not need to put in the UK, but apparently I do!

The forms have now been sent off again, directly to the handler, so hopefully it will all be processed quickly and there will be no more hiccups.

Partner Support Application

OK, this is the biggy, the main application form.

The Partner Support Application form is a massive 28 pages, fortunately there are a few sections that you can skip. Again the form is pretty straight forward, the worst part is the amount of writing and listing all of mine and Sarah’s family’s details. The form requires yet another 2 passport photos of me and 2 of Sarah.

As well as the main form, Sarah also had to complete her own Partner SupportForm, this form is not too long though. However with this form her signature needs to be witnessed by solicitor or Justice of the Peace. We made an appointment with our local solicitor, who did this the next day for a £5 fee. Sarah had to read the declaration out loud and swear on the bible!

With the application we have to send proof of our relationship, the onus is on us to provide enough. So we sent in things like a past rent agreement, utility bills, nursery bills, bank letters, flight bookings (from previous holidays), as well as Amelia’s birth certificate and 2 pages of printed photos. We tried our best to cover all of these over as many years as we could, so hopefully we have done enough.

Additionally we both sent in our passports, full birth certificates, police reports and I included my medical report. The fee for this a whoping £720, for which we included a cheque. We carefully sealed all of this up in a nice padded and envelope and send it recorded delivery to the London office.

The stated process time for this category of application is 1-3 months. It does seem we will be able to check how it’s going on-line, so I’ll have to see how good the on-line service is.

Wish us luck.

UPDATE

We posted the form on Monday and today (Thursday) we have received a confirmation letter and receipt for the cheque.   

Dual Nationality

Instead of applying for my residency straight away, we decided that the first thing to apply for was Amelia’s dual nationality, as it should only take a month. We couldn’t apply for everything at the same time as we needed to use some of the documents for both applications, Sarah’s passport. We also realised that we couldn't travel abroad until we had it back!

The Application for Registration of New Zealand Citizenship by Descent form is pretty straight forward to fill out. It does require 2 passport photos of the person, which can be fun to get if that person is a child, luckily Amelia was really good. We also needed to send in Amelia’s passport, birth certificate as well as Sarah’s NZ passport and birth certificate.

We then posted if off with a cheque for £94 to the London office.

It actually came back quicker than we thought and we had it back within 3 weeks! Amelia is now an official citizen of New Zealand!

So now I need to pull my finger out and fill out the beast that is the main application form.

The Police Report

a quick update... 

A week after my medical, the Doctor called and said I had the all clear, and then posted the results to me. They arrived quickly and were placed in a sealed envelope, which I am not allowed to open, I just have to send them in with my emigration application. All very secretive! As the doctor said, he doesn't make the decision, they do. So hopefully they will agree that its all OK too.

So the next thing to do were the police reports. Even through Sarah is a Kiwi, she needs to have one too as she is ‘supporting’ my application. I think this is to make sure we haven’t been leading lives of crime in the UK!

The form can be found here, it’s fairly simple, its mostly your basic details and your address‘s for the last 10 years. You also have to enclose a passport photo with this, which you have to get endorsed by someone who has known you for over 2 years and who’s vocation appears on their ‘approved’ list. In our case, our good friend Tim who is a manager, endorsed ours. This involved filling out a page of the form and writing some details on the back of the photo. This is then all sent off with a cheque for £35 for each application. We’re not anticipating any issues with this, but lets see what happens...

In the meantime, Kai has also had a second trip to the vets for booster vaccinations and a blood test, costing £85 this time.

The Medical

I had my medical on Friday. And it was absolutely fine!

I had to fast for 12 hours before my appointment, which was at 10am. So I was able to fast over night at least,  not too bad really. No breakfast, and only water to drink, although black tea and coffee was allowed.

The closest approved surgery was 25 miles away, and it was only two years old, so was pretty nice and spacious. I had to take the rest of the paperwork with me, my passport and my glasses (as I was wearing contact lenses).

When I first got there I went to reception and paid my £260 for the exam, the receptionist then pointed me in the direction of the toilets and gave me a small pot to pee in for the urine test.

The whole appointment was 40 mins long and everything was done by the one doctor, a semi-retired gentlemen who was very professional, friendly and reassuring.

He filled out the rest of the medical form, reading out the questions as he went. These were mostly along the lines of if I suffered from any conditions and if I smoke, drink take drugs etc. I was then asked to strip to my boxers, keeping my t-shirt on, he then weighed me, and took my height and waist measurements. Next up I had to hop onto the bed where he took my blood pressure, listened to my heart and checked my ears, mouth and stomach. Whilst I was there, he took about five viles of blood for the many test that they do, like liver, kidneys, syphilis, HIV, hepatitis and cholesterol. The extraction of the blood was fine, just a little sting in the arm and you don't notice anything after that.

Overall it was pretty quick and painless. He said he should have the results in about a week, where he will then call me to advise the outcome. He will also send me a sealed envelope containing the results, which I enclose with the rest of the application.

My fingers are crossed until next week.

And we're off...

OK, so we have started to get the ball rolling properly now.

We are doing everything ourselves instead of using any companies to do it all for us. So we are using the NZ immigration site.

As Sarah is from NZ, we are applying through the Partner Programme.

Kai has had his first rabies jab (even though both NZ and the UK are rabies free!) which cost £55.

I have to have a medical check up for the application, here’s the form, and attach 3 passport photos to it. You have to pay for the tests and use their approved panel doctors.

We booked the medicals last week, which consists of a chest x-ray, physical examination, blood and urine tests. Because of the variety of the tests, I have to have the x-ray at a hospital and the examination at a doctor’s surgery. I managed to get the X-ray booked in for the following Monday and the exam for the Friday of the same week. So I did not have to wait long at all for appointments.

I actually had the first part of my medical yesterday, a chest X-ray at hospital (unfortunately it’s not my nearest one). The cost £92.26 and was pretty quick and simple, my parking charges were just under an hour!

I had to take a few parts of the form with me along with a photocopy of my main passport page, the passport itself and of course a cheque for the fee (yes, they are still in the nineties!).

I had to put a gown on my top half, stand against a X-ray board with my shoulders forward and breath in. The doctor took the X-ray which took only a second and that was that. I signed the application form in front of her and they send the paper work to the doctors for my exam on Friday.

I just have to remember to keep my cholesterol down until Friday, and fast for 12 house before.

I’ll post again about the experience. Hopefully it's not too unpleasant!

Alex