Introduction

[Baggiebird]

Hi I'm Andy,

Me and my partner Claire are looking to move to NZ towards the end of next year.

We would appreciate anyone replying to this to give us any hints/ tips on the whole moving process.

Any information on accomodation, jobs, visa's anything at all.

Also would like to know what it's like to live out there compared to England.

Thanks and look forward to hearing from you.

Andy and Claire

[MotherBear]

Andy, welcome to the forum.

I'm sure there'll be a few folks on here who'll be only too glad to tell you what it's like to be living in NZ but, before we can give you any information regarding the visa application process (the most important bit), we'll need to know something about your circumstances i.e. your age group, job skills, qualifications, work experience etc. so that we can gear it to your own needs.

It's not that we're a nosey lot (well, OK, yes we are, some of us, anyway ), just that getting into NZ to stay is quite a complicated process and you need to press all the right buttons to get INZ to let you in on a permanent basis.

[Taffy]

Hi Andy (and Claire!), welcome to the forum!

As the sheriff says, advice is hard to give without knowing whats what, so join in and post your questions! Just watch out for the local forum nutters, althought they're pretty harmless!

If you've got a strong stomach, you could also tune in to Saturday Night Madness with Dawn on MoveToNZ Radio, 8pm - 11pm NZ Time (9am - 12pm Saturday UK Time). Always good for a laugh

[Baggiebird]

I'm 24 and currently working for Virgin Media in the UK. I work within Customer Care, I've been with Virgin for a year and a half.
I'm with the Institute for Customer Service ( ICS is a recognised customer care qualification ). All in all I've been working within Customer Care for 8 years.
3 of those years I was a Manager within retail.
I'm educated to GCSE level.

My fiancee Claire is 22, she is at Wolverhampton University working towards BA (Hons) Early Childhood Education. She is in her last year.
She also works part time working in retail for H & M and is currently working part time in a local nursery for experience.

[MotherBear]

Thanks for filling us in, Andy. I?m not sure just how much research you?ve done into immigrating to NZ, so I?ll begin with some reading matter to give you some idea of how the process works. If you want to apply for permanent residency (PR) you need to have a minimum of 100 points to be able to apply. The more points you get, the better it is for you. This gives you a diagramatical idea of what happens when you want to apply for PR.

There are other ways to allow you to work in NZ if you don?t want to go the whole hog and immigrate i.e. being under 30 you could apply for a Working Holiday Visa (WHV) which allows you to stay in NZ for a certain time and, for part of this time you can work. There?s also the General Work Permit , which you need before you?re allowed to work if you haven?t already got PR. You need to have a job offer to apply for this.

Points system .

Points calculator

Guide to Working in NZ .

INZ site . Click on the right hand side drop down menu.

Not knowing how much you already know about getting into NZ, I?ll leave you with this for the moment. I don?t want to bombard you with too much blurb that you?ve either seen before or you find isn?t relevant to you. Perhaps you?d like to come back with any specific questions and we?ll pick away at them one by one.

[Baggiebird]

Thanks Motherbear, will read through this info and get back to you with any further questions.

We do have an idea of the process and what is required but we want to go through everything step by step just to make sure we don't miss anything.

Will get back to you soon and once again thanks.

[Dawn]

Oi baggiebird, might be worth Claire applying as principal applicant as her job is on immediate skills shortage list, if she has a degree in this she'll be straight in matey no probs and you along with her of course!!!

Oh, and living here is great. We've been here just a few months but would defo not want to go back to UK. Everything is so much more laid back here, suits our style. Vair vair do it in a bit.

[MotherBear]

Originally Posted by Dawn

Oi baggiebird, might be worth Claire applying as principal applicant as her job is on immediate skills shortage list, if she has a degree in this she'll be straight in matey no probs

I would agree with Dawn on this, Andy, although maybe she means the Long Term Skills Shortage List . Teachers of all types are desperately needed in NZ. However, something in the back of my brain tells me that she may need 2 years' experience before being fully accepted for registration.

Ah, just found this which is relevant to the above.

First year early childhood teachers are encouraged to become provisionally registered with the New Zealand Teachers Council and can gain full registration after two years of satisfactory work as a teacher.

Perhaps Claire might find some useful info on here and here .

[Baggiebird]

Thanks very much for all the information.

Right from the start we always knew Claire would be the main applicant due to her being in higher education and what's she's training towards.

So you've got no regrets then Dawn? What part of UK you from?
We're from the Midlands near Wolverhampton.

[MotherBear]

Right, OK, we know where we are now . Perhaps having a read through this will start you off on the right road as the first step in the process is working out how many points you can muster (from the points indicator in my post above) and then filling in an Expression of Interest (EOI) form, which can be done online if you wish.

Here's another couple of links about working out your points - Points Indicator Table and the Bonus Points Table . This shows you examples of how the points are calculated . This is how you apply and this is how you go about registering to apply online .

Another thing I would mention now is that you and Claire will need to prove to INV that you are in a stable, long-term relationship and have lived together for at least the last 12 months. It's just as well to acknowledge this now because it'll give you time to gather evidence of your relationship, like dated photographs, utility bills, rental agreements or bank account statements in both your names going back over the required period. Anything that ties you together over the requisite period.

I wouldn't think Claire would be able to start the process much before she's qualified as she'll need to submit details of her qualification with the initial application and then the actual qualification later on in the process.