Time scales for 23 month WHV and the move

[LilAmy]

Hello,

I just thought I'd share our experience and things that we have found out about the 23month WHV. There seems to be a lot on the 12 month one but not much on the 23month one.

* You can apply on line for your 23 month WHV at any point, no action to your application form gets taken until you submit your medicals to immi as until these are rcvd your application is only part completed

* It took us a week to get an appt to get our medicals booked up (although I have heard it's taken up to 3-4 weeks for others) and 14 days to get the results. Our docs told us the results would be back in 4 days but inactual fact it took 14 days. So dont worry if it takes a little longer.

*It cost us ?70 for the Xray and ?160 each for the actual meds, I think this was slightly more expensive than others.

*Once you've applied for your WHV online you get an email advising you where to send your meds to. You have to submit your meds within 3 months of getting them done (I think). We submitted ours straight away as we got our meds done first then applied online.

*Remember that you need 3 passport photos to attach to the forms for the docs to sign and your passport when you go for your meds. They take 3 philes (I think thats how you spell it) of blood, urine sample, blood pressure, your weight, your waist measurement, eye test and reflex test.

*We sent ours recorded delivery without the Xray. We just submitted the forms one about the Xray and the others about the tests, once they are rcvd your online application is updated with them being received

*We then rcvd an strange email from immi saying 'Now that you have your visa blah blah blah' our applications were still pending at this time

*About two days later our Visas were approved and we rcvd another email advising us of this and we now have 12 months from the day it was approved to enter NZ.

*Within NZ you are not allowed to take up permy employment on this visa

*You are only allowed to work 12 months out of the 23 months

*You have to be 30yrs old or under to get any WHV.

*There are no extensions to a 23month WHV to get another WHV. You have to go for Work to Res I think or through the EOI.

I would advise anyone who doesnt have a house to sell or massive commitments to apply for their Visas asap as that was the most worrying time for us as we had sold our house, handed our notices in and weren't sure if our Visas would get approved. We sat everyday looking online for any updates.

Our whole experience from the day we decided to move to the date that we are flying on has take about 8-9 months to sort out. This was mainly due to having a house to sell.

It is very stressful but I know it will be worth it when we fly at the start of Aug.

I hope this helps anyone who's thinking of a 23month WHV.

If anyone else has anything else to add to this please do so as I think it will help lots of others on the same Visa.

[MotherBear]