Viv,

I think LTBV should take 3-6 months end to end. This assumes everything is in order.

If you have been allocated a case officer then it shouldn't be too long - and they will normally communicate via email.

I went for the Business Investor visa which is essentially the same process as LTBV. Before submitting the paperwork I went down to Wellington to meet the NZIS Business Migration dept who process the applications to discuss what they require... and also read the manual used by the NZIS to assess applications.

I sent a stack of paperwork with my application and London sat on it for almost two months before it was sent to Wellington. They managed to miss some photocopies along the way too and this required some last minute faxing from my end...

However, we got the 'green light' within 48 hours of the (excellent) case officer being allocated our application. All queries were dealt with via email/fax and the NZIS Business Migration branch in Wellington did a great job.

In my case the timescales from date of mailing the application to NZIS London to confirmation from Wellington took a few days short of three months.

I suspect your problem lies with NZIS London. This is where your basic paperwork (passports, certs etc.) is assessed and once they've done the preliminary work they will mail everything down to Wellington (once they have photcopied orginals etc.).

If *anything* is out of place they will rightly question it... so it does pay, I think, to double-check absolutely everything before it goes.

Hopefully once allocated it will be really quick. I would suggest a call to London to establish where your physical paperwork currently resides... if not on its way to Wellington then I would give NZIS London a sore ear...

NZIS publish world wide processing times for all visa types on the web and you can download Excel spreadsheets with all the gory detail... LTBV typically averages up to 6 months if all paperwork in order. 9 months+ if not...

Processing times do vary throughout the year in response to targets and number of applicants. The stats on the Web tell the entire story.

If timing is getting acute I would even suggest a call to Wellington to explain the situation - I found the people there very helpful and eager to assist.


Alan.