At last, things are moving!

On Monday I got a phone call from NZIS in London. Apparently I do have a case officer, and she emailed me nearly three weeks ago, but I never got the mail. She arranged a telephone interview for me for Tuesday, and forwarded the mail a second time. Once I got it, I realised why it had been junked the first time - the sender name and subject line looked exactly like spam. I wish they had put "NZIS" somewhere in there. Anyway, the email said that I need to get a different type of police certificate. Apparently the PSNI (Northern Ireland police force) don't check the national database, just the local one. And I also need to send a recent payslip from work, as apparently my reference letter didn't have a date on it.

Yesterday lunchtime I had the telephone interview. The woman was very pleasant and didn't ask anything that I had no answer for, but I wish she had been able to tell me how I did. She can't tell me anything until I send in the missing documentation. Still, I can't see how I wouldn't at least get a work-to-residence visa if not full PR straight away.

Skry had his blood tests yesterday, too. At least they're out of the way now - just the ultrasound scan to go - and hopefully he'll soon be able to get going again with his own application.

Skry's medicals

Skry saw the hepatologist today. He didn't say much except that he needs to have more blood tests and an upper body ultrasound scan to rule out anything nasty. The doctor said that if he had to guess at a diagnosis it would be "fatty liver", which is relatively common in young men and not hugely serious. Unfortunately it's hard to test for that, so they have to test for lots of other things and rule them out, instead.

Still waiting - and more blood tests needed.

I haven't heard anything at all from NZIS about my application. That's better than the situation Skry is in, though - he heard back from them about a week ago, and they aren't happy with his medical results and want an explanation or further information before March 30th. The results he got on the liver function test way back in October were way out of line from what would be expected in a normal healthy adult.

This is a bit worrying for us, of course, because the doctor he spoke to last week can't explain what's wrong with him (if anything), which is why he has to have further tests. He has an appointment with a hepatologist next week, more blood tests will probably be needed, and after that we'll just have to wait and see what the expert says. There is something called Gilbert's Syndrome - a harmless genetic condition - which can cause the liver function tests to give strange results, so we're hoping that Skry is diagnosed with that and it's nothing more serious.

Obviously Skry's health is the most important thing in all this. We are both hoping that there is nothing actually wrong with him. But it would be a real blow for both of us if he is diagnosed with something that would stop us getting our visas. I can't think what that might be, because he seems in perfect health and does not seem to be suffering from anything that would be a burden to their health system, but we'll just have to wait and see.