You can get a Work to Residence visa if you have a job offer from an accredited company and the annual salary must be more than $45k. After 2 years with that company if you are still on more than $45k you are entitled to apply for permanent residence. ?With the WRT via the Long Term Skills Shortage route your occupation must be on the Long Term Skills Shortages List. ?After 2 years your WTR is converted to PR.
With a Work Permit (WP), if you get one for a year, it should hopefully give you sufficient time to apply and be granted PR without having to go through the medical and police certificate thing twice, which you?d have to do if you?re going on to apply for PR. ?You can put in your EOI about the same time so that it can be under way while you start work under the WP. ?The WP tends to tie you to one employer which is fine if you enjoy the job, but not so good if it goes belly up. You will need a copy of your contract to show NZIS.
It appears the WP route is the easier and probably the quickest as the WTR one has more strings attached. ?It can happen in some cases that, instead of offering PR, NZIS may give you WTR anyway. ?This usually occurs when they feel they need you to prove that you can make a go of your job and will settle happily in NZ. ?If your salary isn't going to hit the $45,000+ bracket it doesn't look like the WTR will be a goer anyway. ?I'll post this
quick check for WTR anyway in case you want to look through it.
The amount you should have in your account should be in the region of $10-12k which would give you approx. $1,000 per month to live on.