thisnaturaljourney

Hi all,
So! The decision has been be made! New Zealand is for us!
We are a family of 5, 3 children (7,6&4) My husband is a floor layer (or floor finisher I believe it is described in NZ) I am a dispensing optician assistant/manager but haven't worked for years as decided to be home with my little ones.
We hope to find work for my husband, he has been self employed & run his own business since leaving school (18 years ago) so he has a whole load of experience, although no qualification as there isn't one here in the UK for this trade.
We have been looking at areas such as Tauranga (Bay of Plenty) or Christchurch as his trade is on the Canterbury skills shortage list...
We're unsure on a few things... The standard chicken or the egg... Job or visa first? Ideally Job, we think, but being right at the beginning of this process we are unsure of the best way to go about this & are job offers available to overseas people, how likely is this to happen? But we might need the job offer to get enough points to get a visa anyhow?
Is it worth using any agents with help to get a visa? Anyone used these? We seem to get a lot of emails & post from 'The Emmigration Group' Has anyone used them? Just wondering where to start first?
We have decided to rent out our UK home & sell another property we have to fund the move & we've started on a CV for my husband but that's all so far!
Lots to do but we've got to start somewhere.
I'd love to hear from anyone with our skills/trade, tips, from those areas or any general advice would be hugely appreciated...
Thanks in advance

MrsFychan

The Canterbury Skills shortage list is a temp visa and only affords you stay for the length of the contract.
But the skill also seems to appear on the list of skilled occupations. so it might be worth checking out how many points you can gain: https://www.immigration.govt.nz/pointsindicator/

check here on how to complete: http://britishexpats.com/forum/immig...d-pool-810756/

The other way would be to gain a job from an accredited company (a company that is allowed to offer jobs to over seas applicants). The Canterbury Skills shortage list is a temp visa and only affords you stay for the length of the contract.

You would also need to look at the tax implications of retaining property in the UK and renting it out as the rules for this changed this year.

Most people don't use a immigration as it usually prolongs the process, leaves the client in the dark as to what is actually going on with the Immigration dept and some have had bad experiences with them. Basically all they do it collate the documents you have to provide in the first place. Unless of course your application is going to be extremely difficult then a agent working in the particular problem field (refugee, medical problems) maybe worth the money.

thisnaturaljourney

Many thanks MrsFychan for your response.
That's given us some things to look into & think about...
My husband scores low (if I'm doing it correctly) on the points indicator, so I guess getting a job is the answer to up the points?
Do you know of any accredited companies for jobs that we should be looking at (I've been searching) that you can recommend?
I'm guessing that if my husband got a job on a temp visa, he would gain experience in NZ & that would give him more points but then we would then have to apply for another (different) visa if we wanted to stay longer which would mean more money & a lengthier process of getting what we would like, which is a permanent visa, which I think we can gain under the skilled migrant category...
It's knowing how to do it the most beneficial way...

I will look into the tax implications of renting out our uk house... Thank you for the advice!

I think dealing with it ourselves will be the best option then so we are in control & not going through a company

Thank you!

Hazelnut

I'm having to change career to make the move and I know a few others on here have swapped roles when the wife is more highly qualified and can obtain higher paid work.

Would you consider updating your skills or obtaining some PT work while still in the UK and then obtaining the visa on your credentials rather than your husbands? He could stay at home with the children and you could work until they are all at school which doesn't seem to be very far away from what you've said.

thisnaturaljourney

Thank you Hazelnut... It's definitely an option for me to work PT here but I haven't seen my skills in demand for NZ which is why we have focused on my husbands skills instead.

BEVS

Work first. You need the job offer to not only gain a quality application but so NZIS can see you have ability to settle. Go where the work is.

Now before anyone jumps in , years, it is perfectly possible to gain a residency visa without a job offer if you have more than 140 points BUT these people have children and children cost money.

As MrsF points out , Floor Finishers are needed in the Canterbury region so appear on that shortage list. This means that any employer in that area can offer your husband a job. Have a chat with Canstaff & see what they say.

What you could do with is a two year contract really . You would then go for a temp visa or if he was earning $55K pa , you could try Work to Residence. In any case, provided he is a qualified tradesman with the quals and work exp. once here and working you could choose to go straight for a residency application.

Main thing is to get here and working.

Canterbury Skill and Employment might be of interest also.