Recommended too.
Update on my experience : went for our AIMA meeting (450 km away!) to be told its been cancelled. Thereās a printed list of names for the day, and thereās mine, crossed out in biro! Super. Bloke in charge not very interested, thatās just the way it is, but young guy in Security uniform waded in and got my wife and myself new appointments, along with fancy printed, stamped AND WET SIGNED certificates saying so. Woo-hoo! Amid all the discussion (animated but still civil) a woman there assured me I dont need NISS if I dont work (D7 visa). āWhy do you want it if youāre not working?ā "Because the AIMA website says I need it for a D7 residence permit ". Pause. āAh well, thatās just General informationā. āYou mean, wrong information?ā Pause. āGeneral informationā. So, 900km worth of diesel burnt and tolls paid, we start again in 2 weeks time. This time its only 400km away.
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Now if only they could promote the Security Guard to processing applications. They need someone with a brain! 
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In the Good Old Days in the Soviet Union, anywhere the least bit sensitive (and if you had a foreigner, that was sensitive) there was a KGB operative, to avoid āmisunderstandingsā; often working as a secretary or something. Often young, as the young spoke foreign languages; and physically fit. Always calm and polite, listening and asking, saying little. Iām guessing somebody senior in AIMA also remembers the '70s and is using the same staffing model - this young guy was straight out of the Lubyanka.