visa options

[kwadjo]

Hello,

Hopefully someone can offer me some help. I am a 37 year old American who is very interested in relocating to New Zealand. Although I do have extensive IT experience, I am more interested in changing professions. I would like to eventually purchase and run my own hostel. I have found a hostel that is currently for sale and I have been speaking to the current owner (a brit) about purchasing it. After some discussions he has agreed to allow me to lease the hostel for a year before deciding on whether or not to purchase it outright.

Now for the hard part, obtaining a work visa in order to do this. Although I would bring enough money with me to run/lease the business, I do not have $1,000,000. My IT skills might qualify me, however I do not plan on utilizing them in NZ (at least not at first). The Working Holiday Visa would be perfect, however I am over 30 years old. So do I have a chance? Which route would be my best bet?

Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Nick...

[MotherBear]

Nick. Welcome to MoveToNZ.

Changing professions while you're about to apply for Permanent Residency isn't a good idea as the NZIS is looking for people who have qualifications and work experience in particular areas. With IT experience and quals you should stand a good chance of getting PR, but I'd think if you made a complete change in your career to something you haven't done before, it could make things very difficult for your application.

Usually, if an immigrant wants to run their own business in NZ they apply for a Long Term Business Visa . I would normally say that to apply for one of these you would need to have previous experience in a similar field before you could move forward. However, our member, Macfod , managed to get his LTBV without previous experience after he'd bought a cafe so it is possible.

You could use your IT skills to obtain enough points to get into NZ permanently and then, once the dust has settled, you could progress with your plan to buy a hostel.

[kokopeli]