Family Quota

I wonder if anyone can help! I am almost ready to take my ITA to London so that my family can live in NZ asap. My brother lives there already and has had residence for 3 years. My mum and dad want to come out to live in about 2 years time. I know about the sponsorship and the ballot system for the family quota and have located the relevant forms BUT how on earth do you find out when the registration period for the ballots begins and ends? and is there only 1 of these per year? :icon_rolleyes:

Please help
Fisheress

Hi Fisheress,

Are you hoping to sponsor your parents yourself or will your brother, who has already been in NZ several years, be doing it? I ask this as I believe you have to have PR for 3 years before sponsoring family members. As for the ballot system for the Family Quota, I think it is only once a year and, for some, reason, it hasn't taken place this year which isn't a good sign. I have it in the deepest recesses of my murky mind that the draw takes place in June sometime, but I may be wrong. I would be interested to see how you get on as we are hoping to be sponsored by my son, the notorious Taffy himself, or perhaps we could have a stab at the ballot if and when it happens. Taffy hasn't yet got PR so we are estimating a long wait ahead of us and who knows what will happen in the meantime with the election looming in NZ. :icon_rolleyes:

Good luck, anyway.

Hi Fisheress

We got PR via the family quota scheme. We were successfully "pulled out the hat" in 2003, which seems to be the last year the scheme operated. The scheme runs for April to April, with the draw taking place in June. You have to be entered by a close relative who has lived in NZ for 3 years. The relative will be notified at all stages and will be told if the application is successful. After that you still have to fill out all the normal application paperwork, pass the medical and police check.

We would add that you can only be entered for this scheme if you do not qualify under any of the other categories and this may be why the scheme has not run for the past 2 years.

We were lucky enough to be draw out the first year we were entered and give thanks that we did not wait another year.

PM us if you want anymore details.


Pam & Dave

Cheers for all your info! It will be my brother sponsoring as we won't have had PR long enough. I wonder if there has been no ballot because of lack of people???? I understand a bit more now but am still a little confused.

As I'm up to my eyes with my ITA, I might let little bro take responsibility for this one :smiley17:

Fisheress

How sad that Immigration are so strict on allowing parents into NZ. They have their reasons in that they worry that we will be a burden to their health system. I just wonder if they couldn't go about it another way e.g. by imposing a condition that we take out private medical insurance to cover such an eventuality. In the long term, if more older folks did require medical treatment it will create more jobs for doctors, nurses and other auxilliary workers. Having heard painful stories about recent immigrees missing their families so much and the anguish it causes, isn't there another side to the story? NZ is worried about the problems that we folks of a 'certain age' might cause but have they looked at the plus side of it? What a boost to the moral of the new immigrants when they can settle happily in NZ in the knowledge that their parents are there for them. So many people find they have to return home because they miss their family too much and it's NZs loss in the end. Older people may well have a good and stable financial background and provide spending power to the country, so we're not all bad. NZ needs to bend a bit to help their new citizens-to-be to settle well rather than upping and returning to their base country.

This is my opinion as one of 'them' but younger forumers may well have a different view. With a tear in my eye, excuse me while I get out my violin and strum a few cords. :smiley19:

Don't worry Bear, we'll smuggle you in one way or another.

Even though no selection was made under the family stream this year, it wasnt due to lack of applicants. It says in one of the immigration services' newsletters that they have had more family applications than they have places for. The reasoning behind no selection this year seems to be due to the change from the General Skilled category to the Skilled Migrant category, and all the complications and workload this has created, so not having the resources for the 'less important' immigration streams.

There were murmurings of scrapping the family quotas altogether, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.. at least for the time being anyway.

Thanks Taffy!
I'll keep my ears open and eyes peeled..........am even going to ask when I take my ITA to London! I'm sure you and I will be able to get our parents in somehow! I think when my dad sorts his business out, he may be able to come in as an investor??!!! but he's not sure yet.

If I find out anything new, I'll post it on the forum!

Fisheress

Taffy, there's no problem with getting into NZ, it's the staying there that's a worry. We thought, if the worst came to the worst and we couldn't get PR, we could buy a place in NZ and have a campervan in Oz and flit back and forth every 6 months - summer in NZ and winter in warmer Oz :icon_cool: . Then it occurred to me that we might not be so keen on this nomadic sort of life when we're in our dottage and shuffling round with our zimmer frames. Let's hope it doesn't come to that and NZIS will look kindly upon us when our turn comes.

Fisheress, I'll be following the progress of your parents with great interest.

Is anyone else concerned about the outcome of the forthcoming election and the possible effect it might have on immigration? Could be some radical changes, as even Labour is reviewing the immigration situation so there must surely be even more changes yet to come and I doubt whether they will be good.

My mother sponsored us under the family quota scheme and she is almost 80. So in some cases even sponsoring your children can result in more "oldies" coming to NZ !!

One aspect of the family quota scheme than is important is that the sponsor must sign an undertaking, that he/she will support the person being sponsored, for the first 2 years. This means that you cannot claim anything from the state for the first 2 years.

Pam & Dave

Zemanvoa, may I ask how people manage with payment of their British pension in NZ? I understand that it can be payable in NZ but you don't get any rises as UK residents would. Is there any way around this e.g. having the pension paid into a UK bank account thereby giving the impression that you are still in the UK or is it just a case of having to grin and bear the fact that your pension will stay at the same amount until your demise? Seems a bit unfair for those of us who have religiously paid into the pension scheme during our working lives, the same as the UK people, but would lose out when it comes to payout time. If the pension could be paid into a UK bank account it wouldn't cost the relevant pension department any more than for someone still in the UK. I recently read about a court case in which the issue of lack of increases was contested but it was deemed not to be unfair and was thrown out. I don't know any further details as to reasons why the government thinks this way.

Sorry, I'm only assuming that you are of pensionable age, but maybe I'm wrong :icon_redface: