NZ PhD Student Visa, 5 Month Processing time

[gaganmaan]

i had appliied for partner visa 0n march.and my interview is in june.and till now i dont get any responsde.can anyone tell hw much time it will take to process my application

[forevermark]

Hi , Today I got mail from my visa officer. I hope very shortly I'll get my visa. I submitted my visa application for PhD on September 10, 2009. at New Delhi Branch.

Dear XYZ,

Thank you for your email.

I have received your verification and all is clear. I hope to complete the final assessment on your application by the end of next week.



Yours sincerely
Visa Officer

[forevermark]

I submitted my application on september 10, 2009.
September 23, 2009: I got that my application has reached IPG and its in queue.
October 15, 2009: Visa officer was allocated to my applicatiom. On November 3, 2009 She sent me few her documents (attachment) to submit educational history, family details, updated CV and DOB. On the same day I submiteed by mail.
November 9, 2009: she told me that she has sent your documents for verification and as soon as I get return reply she 'll contact me.
December 4, 2009. I got mail from my officer that verification has completed and she 'll complete final assessment by end of next week.

Best wishes to everyone.
I hope very shortly U'll also get your visa .

[doglover]

HI

Nice to hear that, Congrats, I am sure that u will get good news by the end of next week.

God bless u

[doglover]

@ Gagan Mann

SSA BAII JEE

Do u let me know wat is the content and duration of course(PhD/Masters) ur spouse pursuing, cuz the visa application process depends on type of course!

Cheers

[brainxplode]

@forevermark.. first congratulations on your visa success. Your visa officer certainly is diligent and secondly your processing was done in record timespan.

Second, did you have visa stampings from other countries as well??? Do the immigration guys check those stamps??? Cuz that might take more time for verification. Once again, congrats!!! :-)

[forevermark]

@brian...
I don't have visa stamps of other countries.. I think they don't check or verification of previous stamps or trip.. they confirm only about offer letter , and selection criteria from university ( UR Guide). and work experience if visa officer want to confirm. Everything depend on visa officer thinking he/she want verify of which doc. But I am sure 99% they don't verify previous stamps

[brainxplode]

@forevermark, dude... i have confirmed from my undergraduate school, my previous employers, the University abroad, where i went for my internship etc. The embassy, did not contact anywhere. I know that they won't check visa stamps, since they are already stamped on your passport, but what bothers me is that how come you apply on September 10 and you get your visa so quickly within 3 months and me submitting my visa application on May 25, and still verification process on.?? Why so much time gap between our processing??? Dude, can you send me an email to nitjsr_2004@yahoo.com so that i can discuss with you in detail regarding my situation and for a healthy networking.

[vogonpoetry]

Have all of you submitted your birth certificates? I was born before 1987 when it was not mandatory to have a birth certificate and so I dont have any. I don't even think that the hospital where I was born exists anymore. Please advice, I need to submit the documents soon for fast processing.

@forevermark Congrats Great to know atleast one of us has been successful in getting through verification so quickly.

[brainxplode]

@vagonpoetry I have submitted my birth certificate, i too didn't have one.. Got it done from the Municipal Corporation. It took a day. I think, they have computerized records of every birth. I too was born just before 1987 :-)) In case, this doesn't work out, get an affidavit notarized by a First Class Magistrate. Ask a notary public for the content of the affidavit. He would tell you that. I think that also won't take more than a day to wrap up. The only thing that you have to do is to appear personally before a First Class Magistrate with certain required original documentations. A lot of people make affidavits in this way. I hope this helps. Good luck!

[forevermark]

@vagonpoetry Hi , My visa officer also asked proof for date of birth certificate. I submitted my 10th marksheet copy and copy of Passport. and its work. So no need to go anywhere. just send your 10th marksheet copy and passport copy reardin proof of your DOB

[explodesh]

@forevermark

Congrats to you dude.

[RenukaShanmugam]

Hi
I also applied for the student VISA to carry out my egree with full scholarship.
Mid Sep 2009 >>I have submitted the VISA application through EDWISE INTERNATIONAL .
Oct 22,20009 >>I got an email from EDWISE INTERNATIONAL saying that my application has been received by the immigration office on Oct7,2009 and it has been transferred to IPG for processing.
After that I didn’t get any update on my application. I resigned from my job also anticipating that I will get my VISA in December.
My scholarship deadline was December 1st 2009. Still I didn’t get my V ISA.I don’t know long t long they
will hold the scholarship for me. I am so depressed and worried.

[RenukaShanmugam]

I also applied for the student VISA to carry out my PhD degree with full scholarship.
Mid Sep 2009 >>I have submitted the VISA application through EDWISE INTERNATIONAL .
Oct 22,20009 >>I got an email from EDWISE INTERNATIONAL saying that my application has been received by the immigration office on Oct7,2009 and it has been transferred to IPG for processing.
After that I didn’t get any update on my application. I resigned from my job also anticipating that I will get my VISA in December.
My scholarship deadline was December 1st 2009. Still I didn’t get my V ISA.I don’t know long t long they
will hold the scholarship for me. I am so depressed and worried.

[doglover]

I also applied for the student VISA to carry out my PhD degree with full scholarship.
Mid Sep 2009 >>I have submitted the VISA application through EDWISE INTERNATIONAL .
Oct 22,20009 >>I got an email from EDWISE INTERNATIONAL saying that my application has been received by the immigration office on Oct7,2009 and it has been transferred to IPG for processing.
After that I didn’t get any update on my application. I resigned from my job also anticipating that I will get my VISA in December.
My scholarship deadline was December 1st 2009. Still I didn’t get my V ISA.I don’t know long t long they
will hold the scholarship for me. I am so depressed and worried.

Don't worry , this delay is not from ur side and is basically due to immigration department side, so just send emails to ur supervisor and international , scholarship OFFICES, they will grant u more time, and will keep the scholarship for long.

In this thread u will find many other students who did the same.

My personal advice to you is to join some temporary job , cuz the whole visa process takes around 6 months in most of the cases. It will help u to stay away from this unnecessary visa botheration.

Cheers

[forevermark]

@RenukaShanmugam Hi I also got PHD with scholarship. Ist thin U should do. Ist to enroll yourself at University as soon as possible. U can enroll urself even from ur country itself. Because after to enroll yourself your position be secure to next 4 month. My supervisor told me this only. my scholarship deadline was October 31, 2009. and U also try to know that Visa officer has been allocated to U or not through NZ immiration online help contact us. Because after to ask you further documents from visa officer they take atleast atleast one month. IF your officer still not be allocated then for your visa it'll take further 2-3 month more. or if your visa officer has been allocated then we can hope.. u can get ur visa end of January. I enrolled myself before Octrober 31, 2009 . I think this information 'll assist U.

[brainxplode]

@Renuka First of all, take my advice, don't worry... Just go through the above posts and you would come to know how to contact Immigration NZ through a proper channel. In this way, they certainly reply. I adviced this to other forum members too and they got replies.

Second, Your visa officer has certainly been allocated. Just follow my above advice, contact them and get to know yourself. When someone's visa officer get's allocated, the INZ don't send the applicant an email. But if you contact them through their Online Help Facility, you can get to know your application's actual status. But i am sure of that.

Third, since this is a public forum, i would avoid giving too much advices in here. Like i advice to all other forum members, why don't you send me an email to my id nitjsr_2004@yahoo.com and we can connect. We can discuss our situations in detail.

And one more advice. I would advise you to conceal your original identity in a public forum like this. I hope you are already aware of identity theft.

Good luck! :-)

[brainxplode]

Guys i got this important document on the student visa success/decline rate from the Immigration NZ, Beijing Website. Check it out!!!! The surprising fact is that i found that a small percentage of applicants who received full scholarship were also declined. This is very surprising indeed.

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/NR/rd...Y30Nov2009.pdf

and click this link for more visa infos.

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/branc...entvisafaq.htm

i hope this helps...

[Triple Citizen]

Those applicants were probably declined either on security or immigrant intent related concerns.

The surprising fact is that i found that a small percentage of applicants who received full scholarship were also declined. This is very surprising indeed.

[brainxplode]

@Triple Citizen, Thanks for your post. I appreciate your clarification on the decline reason. Nevertheless, can you kindly highlight the security and immigration intent related concerns in details in here, so that it would also help other forum members? Thanks for your time, cooperation and support, in advance.

[Triple Citizen]

What I meant was basically this. Applicants with full scholarships have been denied student visas. In other words, their visas were not denied for the fear that they might not be able to provide for themselves. The most likely reasons were either security or immigrant intent related. In other words, either the consul was not convinced that the scholarship student will leave NZ after his/her studies are over. Or the applicant's name appeared on some security watch list.

Nevertheless, can you kindly highlight the security and immigration intent related concerns in details in here

[brainxplode]

@Triple Citizen.. Is that possible that a full scholarship student's name can be found on a security database?? I mean, those guys, heaven's forbid are all like geeks, i really doubt if they would partake in these kind of security breaches. But, again, i never know. I am an inexperienced kid in this and there might be, that they are connected to some organizations. BTW, you have any idea if there is any Universal rule for the Embassies of different countries to check which databases??? Also, i had one more query. Do Embassies of different countries share immigration/non-immigration visa informations with each other? say US and UK or UK and Australia etc. Isn't it against data protection and privacy act???

[Triple Citizen]

A specific geek may not be in the database, but a person with the same (or very similar name) may be. For example, suppose John Smith wins a scholarship and applies for a student visa. Also suppose that there is a different John Smith on a watchlist. Next step would be to check other facts, like DOB, height, place of birth, etc to rule out that the student is not the person on the watch list. However at times, it may not be possible to rule that person out simply because the watchlist only has a name and nothing else. In that case, rather than risk his/her country's security, the consul will simply deny the visa.

@Triple Citizen.. Is that possible that a full scholarship student's name can be found on a security database?? I mean, those guys, heaven's forbid are all like geeks, i really doubt if they would partake in these kind of security breaches.

Yes. Canada and US share all such information. The EU members share their watchlists and blacklists. These days, security comes above data protection and privacy rights!!!

Do Embassies of different countries share immigration/non-immigration visa informations with each other? say US and UK or UK and Australia etc. Isn't it against data protection and privacy act???

[brainxplode]

@Triple Citizen, got it. Thanks, BTW, do they share infos regarding all visas or just some specific cases, like refugees/ some other critical cases? Cuz on August, there was a common treaty involving US, UK, Canada, Australia that they would share biometric/fingerprint infos of certain visa categories eg. refugees etc and not all and that too, these records would be destroyed once the checking is done. As far as i am concerned this is the closest that some of the major countries have come across sharing personal infos of visa applicants. Do you know specific instances or cases, based on which you can say that this info sharing stuff is actually legal. I don't think, that's legal. Its against privacy policies, albeit it helps avoids security breaches.

[Triple Citizen]

Speaking based on personal experience, Canada and the US share a lot of information. This includes even car registrations

Do you know specific instances or cases, based on which you can say that this info sharing stuff is actually legal. I don't think, that's legal. Its against privacy policies, albeit it helps avoids security breaches.

[brainxplode]

Immigration NZ, Wellington Branch has just updated their Processing Time Webpage, but unfortunately it is for Student Permit and not Visas. There is no proper and authenticated information on student visa processing timeline available anywhere on the web. :-(

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/branc...ocessingtimes/

[brainxplode]

@Triple Citizen, Thanks for sharing the infos. BTW, do UK and US/Canada share infos. Any idea?? I think, they don't except a few watchlists and blacklists. You got any idea on this???

[Triple Citizen]

I am pretty sure they do. However I have not witnessed it in my own experience. Canada/US sharing of information I witness everytime I cross the border, usually 3-4 times a year.
Just for those waiting for visas, remember, regardless how long it takes, there will always be someone else whose wait will be longer. I once had to wait 22 months for a visit visa.

BTW, do UK and US/Canada share infos. Any idea?? I think, they don't except a few watchlists and blacklists. You got any idea on this???

[explodesh]

I am still waiting for the completion of verification. What about others?

@Forevermark. I hope that you have got Visa till now and will be preparing to go to NZ. Good luck !!

[brainxplode]

@Triple Citizen, you waited for 22 months for a visitor visa??? gosh! for which country? Do you mind sharing your experience of it in here, citing the reason for which the delay took place? I am so sorry for that delay, anyway.