AEWV partnership PPI overturned in 9 days

A South Korean couple in their late twenties had been living together in Auckland for sixteen months, with the partner applying for a partnership-based work visa based on the principal applicant’s AEWV. INZ issued a Potentially Prejudicial Information letter raising four specific concerns: limited overlap of names on tenancy documents in the first six months of the relationship, separate bank accounts, gaps in joint travel history, and what the case officer described as inconsistent statements about how the couple met. The applicants had ten working days to respond before INZ would proceed to a likely decline.

We started by mapping each of the four concerns against the immigration instructions to understand exactly what evidentiary threshold needed to be met. The couple had more documentation than they realised – they just hadn’t presented it in a way that addressed the case officer’s specific concerns. We gathered 42 exhibits including the full tenancy history showing the partner was added to the lease at the earliest opportunity permitted by the landlord, joint expenses tracked through a shared budgeting app, photographs with timestamps and location metadata across the full sixteen-month period, sworn statements from four friends and the partner’s employer, and a detailed timeline reconciling the perceived inconsistency about how they met (a translation issue in the original interview, not a contradiction). The legal response addressed each PPI point in turn, with cross-references to the supporting exhibits.

INZ accepted the response without requesting further information. Both visas were granted nine days after submission. The couple is now on the residence pathway through the partner’s accredited employer.