AEWV (Accredited Employer Work Visa)
A lot has happened since I wrote my last blog because this morning I’m writing you from a beautiful and sunny Dunedin NZ!
We’ll go back to mid-July when me and my family came home from our holiday in The Netherlands. A few days before we drove back to Norway Mireille and I had our health examination done as requirement for the visa application. I had to apply first because I was the main applicant. I received a token, a link by e-mail from the hospital to start the application and after 1,5 week I received a notification that my AEWV had been approved. I’ve been told that’s unusual fast. Now we could do the group (family) application for Mireille and Eva. But first we had to drive to Oslo, a 5 hour drive, because we assumed that children do not need a health examination for their visa application but they do…. We needed a Partner of AEWV for Mireille and a Dependent Child Student Visa for Eva. These visas allow Mireille to work and Eva to go to school like any other child in NZ. Because Mireille will work 0,6 FTE was she not eligible to receive a token like me. Nurses who work at least 0,7 FTE are eligible to apply for an AEWV but we decided that, being on the other side of the world without having a network to fall back on, it will be better for Eva that at least one of her parents is home before and after school. We could've applied directly for a resident visa, because we as nurses, are on the green list but the application process would take approximately 3 months and cost us EUR 2500,-. Therefor we decided to go for the AEWV, the cheapest and fastest way, and apply for the resident visa after arrival in NZ.
Group application
Full of confidence and the expectation that Mireille and Eva would get their visas soon did we receive an email from an immigration officer, two weeks after we did their application. The officer had completed an initial assessment but needed further information to continue assessing the application. We were being asked to upload all the requirements listed below prior to the deadline of 1 week. All documents provided had to clearly show our name/s, address and the date issued. Individual documents had to provide evidence for Mireille and me as supporting partner:
· Joint or individual bank accounts/statements, credit cards, loans or hire purchases
· Joint or individual homeownership or residential tenancy agreement
· Joint or individual utility accounts such as electricity, rates, internet connection and telephone bills
· Joint or individual assets such as major household furniture, appliances, computers, cars etc.
· Joint or individual wills or insurance policies for you and your partner
· Joint or individual correspondence sent to home address
· Support letters (about your relationship together) from both you and your partner’s family and friends. Please note that if English translation is required this should be obtained from authorised English translation service.
· Photos of me and Mireille, with family and friends
This list was non-exhaustive and we did not had to submit every document on this list, additionally if we had supporting documents, not listed, we could submit these as well.
Relationship Chronology
We had to write a chronology of our relationship which detailed (dates and places) how, when and where we met, how our relationship developed, when we began living together and what our immediate and future plans as a couple and family would look like.
Once we had uploaded and returned all the requested evidence, the hospital recruitment team wrote an email to the immigration officer to escalate the application requesting that the process be expedited. Finally, on 04-09-2023, 1,5 month after we received the request to provide more evidence, Mireille and Eva received their long-awaited visas as well!
Stress!
From the 4th of September we had exactly one month left until my first shift on the Emergency Department in Dunedin. We had to start to organize things quickly. We notified our travel agent in Dunedin to book our airfare tickets from Amsterdam, had to book an Airbnb for the first 4 weeks in Dunedin after arrival, we had to let the relocation company know that our household had to be collected soon, we had to plan a garage sale, say goodbye to our friends in Lyngdal and Flekkefjord and book a flight to The Netherlands to be able to say goodbye to family and friends there.
Totally exhausted but ready for a new adventure we flew from Amsterdam on the 25th of September and arrived on Wednesday the 27th in Dunedin NZ at 9:00 am local time. We did it!
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