A week ago Grant was at the computer and saw an email come in from NZ Immigration. It was an automated email notifying him that our online status had changed. He logged into our account and saw that it said APPROVED.
We both kind of looked at each other going ... ooooookay ...? So Grant went onto the British Expats forum to do a search of past threads where this situation has come up to see what exactly it meant and everyone was like, "Congratulations! It means you have PR! You'll receive the confirmation paperwork in the post within a day or two." (PR = Permanent Residency)
It was so weird though, because nobody had actually told us we have residency. So we decided to wait for the paperwork to arrive before telling everyone.
And we waited and we waited.
Eventually yesterday Grant emailed to ask what was up. Today, a full week later, we got an email saying that yes, our application has been decided and we've been approved, so congratulations! We now have to pay the £620 to get the stickers put into our passports. Do not ask me why we were not told this a week ago because I might have a breakdown. What would have happened if Grant hadn't actually emailed to ask what was going on? We'd still be waiting.
So that's actually great news although by this point I am so depressed and fed up that I just burst into tears when the email came through.
The next step, after receiving our passports back, is to provide a scan of the visas to Grant's NZ recruitment officer to prove residency so they can give him a start date. Then, finally, things will be more in our own hands and we can do things like book the shipping company and flights.
We have the job offer. We have residency. If we had any savings to live off we'd go over now and just wait there for the start date, but alas, we have to stick around here until we know when Grant's going to start receiving a NZ wage before going.
