suzannew1983

hello We are a family of four. Myself and my husband. Our two girls aged 6 and 8 We are beginning the process after much thought of making the move the new zealand. I am a big believer that you cant knock it until you have tried it! I cant let the negetive comments on here bother me too much as no two humans feel the same! Home for me is where my family is. The thought of moving away scares me but also fills me with excitement! I have a couple of questions. Firstly, I wondered if anyone went on an organised expo prior to moving and found them useful? we have booked on for next month. And also the climate in relation to where we would live. As silly as it sounds! I think I have and idea. We dont want to be freezing our pants off. Sunshine would be nice. New zealand appeals to us as being less developed. I am aware that 'things' are not the same as the UK. Housing is different etc. When researching we keep ending back up in Tauranga. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

The Way I see it is, whats the worse that can happen? We hate it and cant setle. So we use out savings to come back. We wont initially sell our house.

Does the country insist on a certain amount of savings in the bank? I have so many questions! Is transferring an NHS and a private pension possible??

We have a dog I would love to bring. But again I am realistic. I would love to take her as she is family, but I am not willing to sacrifice the happiness of my family for a dog if it is going to cost thousands. As heartless as that sounds!. Anyone experienced this and the costs? My family would keep her if not.

But finally. We are realistic. We have done the workings out and financially even if I took a wage drop as a registered nurse we would always be better off. My husband owns his use business and has been very successful. However he is unable to expand in the UK. Between a rock and a hard place without too much detail. He is very specialist in what he does and its complicated to explain. But we would be looking into him seeking employment. Self employment has been too stressful in the UK. We want regular hours. Some paid hols (in the Uk he managed two weeks per year which he spends months paying for!). So for us we would always be a little better off even on a low income than we are here.
In a nutshell he works with racing cars. He tunes them. Spending time at brands hatch, silverstone etc. He has no formal qualifications but has an excellent reputation in the UK. With a client base coming as far as europe. Prior to that he was a floor finisher/carpet fitter. But has not practiced this for 6 years. Obviously good with his hands and logical. However, I think our safest bet would be to budget on a low income for a completely new career change. I have no idea what lol

In the UK we have a mortgage with equity in the house. But due to me working part time and my husband being self employed, a remortgage or a move is totally out of the question for years. From what I gather in new zealand we could put down a deposit and buy ourselves a nice home eventually to the specifications we would like in a place of our choice. In the UK im stuck.

Just some general thoughts of peoples experiences with any tips or help they can offer I would be greatful for. I suspect my questions and thoughts are much the same as anyones!

nikkijane88

Dog wise... It can depend on the size of your dog. We took our Labrador and yes it isn't cheap but she is family and we couldn't leave her behind, even when we had numerous people willing to have her. There are a few companies to use regarding getting them over, we used petair UK, but from reports on here there are a few good ones. Only 10 days quarantine at this end, so no different to going into kennels

suzannew1983

Thanks for your reply! How much did it cost if you don't mind me asking. She is a bassetthound. In fact we have two but one is over ten years old and she wouldn't manage the journey. She spends a lot of time with my mum when when I'm working so already has a home there. I Have looked into the quarantine process. Was it complicated? I would love her to come. I love outdoors and walking her. It would defiantly help us settle. It would just be perfect to have her with us

MrsFychan

I think its around 4-5K once you have all the vet costs and injections along with carrier and quarantine costs.
Although you say you OH will get a job once he is over here and will to retrain, please be aware that it may take some time. I know of one person who has been here for over 3 years with a skill required in NZ and has yet to find full time work and another who despite endlessly trying only getting the odd part time/contract work, another lady although has a part time job cannot find full time work, these people are not in one particular area but cover the area from Auckland down to Wellington.
You would need to to look into your legal/tax requirements for keeping the house in the UK as the rules on that changed this year (?)
As for pensions at the moment you have 4 years to bring over without incurring any tax implications this end.
NZ doesn't really worry about what you had/did in the UK, any monetary stipulations maybe that what is required on the visa, so you would need to look into that.
Rental costs would be a bond, usually 4 weeks rent as well as a certain amount upfront. You may find rentals harder to come by with a dog.

As for expo's found them a complete waste of time and so glad the two we attended we didn't pay for, one supposedly about life in NZ and another about jobs were uninformative of the true facts and just a complete waste of the train fare.

suzannew1983

Thanks for your reply. It's difficult with the dog. We love her to bits . But 5 grand is a lot of money especially when my parents are happy to give her a home and she knows them. I am a registered nurse with ten years experience. I'm not expecting to sail into a job and we are in no rush. I have four good friends over there. Well three and one due to go out . Three of whom are nurses and found jobs prior to traveling out. Another who is not a nurse and got work long term temping. But this is the reason I have started the thread as its good to get varied opinions. My husband isn't fussy what he does within reason. i definately need to look into the tax implications of the house situation thankyou

nikkijane88

Yes the costs are around that... It's not a particularly difficult process, the company we dealt with sorted everything and included pick up from the house to the airport. She settled in really quickly at this end, once she got used to the heat as she came from winter!

Pension wise... Last I was aware of before I left where I worked is that there is a block on transferring your pension. I have a local government pension and my husband has a forces pension and they can't go anywhere... NHS pensions come under the same

Tom H

First of all, Tauranga is beautiful. You've chosen a lovely place to target...

The DHB there is the 'Bay of Plenty' so you can do some research around nursing jobs. There is also Whakatane that has a hospital in Bay of Plenty if there's nothing in Tauranga available for you. Usually, care homes are crying out for registered nurses as well. I think you'll need to register on NZ Nursing Council as well and may require some checks.

Don't bother with expos especially if it is organized by Working In. Biggest waste of time ever. You have one representative talking goddly gook, they try and sign you up to do a migration map and if you do proceed with one, it'll probably be full of lies. I could have come over here on a skilled migrant visa, despite them saying I couldn't. If it wasn't for the company I worked for, needing me asap - i'd have gone down the GSM route. It would have been the same if I took the job offer in Brisbane or Melbourne, although that would have been state sponsored.

From looking at the housing etc - it's a lot more reasonable than other areas is the BOP. They're having a huge increase in demand for IT workers there, hence we're looking at possibly moving up to Tauranga as well. You will probably need to have a 20% deposit to get one, but given the exchange rates at the moment, you may not have an issue - especially if you gamble and sell up. We rented our place out for 2 years whilst we considered whether to stay or not, ended up selling even though there's still consideration that I may go contracting for a year in Blighty

I'm not fully 100% certain on transfers but my wife cannot transfer her NHS pension over for some reason. It may be something to do with what the above poster noted.

With regards to your partner, there'll be plenty of work for him to do. You'll see thousands of racing cars on the highways, overtaking 100kmh travelling vehicles around a blind bend etc.

Lastly, in NZ, nurses tend to do everything from my experience. I remember whilst I was in hospital back in Blighty, they had health care assistants that did some of the work. I've not seen that during the times my wife has been in hospital here after the birth of our two sons. It tends to be the nurses that do the jobs i'd expect HCAs in England to do. Fair enough, more work, keep you busy .

escapedtonz

Correct. You have to try something new before you can say it is or isn't for you. Other people's forum comments on how good or bad it is are just to be taken with a pinch of salt as we all see the world differently, we are all individuals with different wants and needs etc.
Yes we went to a couple of the overseas expo's in the UK. They were OK but mostly geared up and catered for people wanting to go to Australia or Canada. There wan't much there for NZ although they may have got better since?
They are good for gaining company contacts for removals and Pension transfers etc and you may get some free bits of crap. The chance to have a sit down with Immigration is good if you get the chance and you may also get the chance to sit down with an immigration adviser for a free half hour discussion to get more of an idea of visas. The Expo's were useful to us although not as much as we expected.

Tauranga is absolutely awesome
We love it here in Bethlehem, after spending our first 2.5 years in Wellington. The climate and weather is much better here. Obviously in the last few days of winter and I can still count on one hand how many times I've had to defrost the car before leaving for work in the early hours and the temp hasn't been below 2 degrees. Was 17 degrees yesterday in the afternoon and should be the same till the weekend when we have forecast rain. Can't beat those temps for winter.
We also have a hospital here. It is pretty big but isn't a major hospital if that's what you need. The hospital in Hamilton is but is a 110kM commute. I work on the outskirts of Hamilton and have a 99kM commute which takes 1hr 5/1hr 10 mins but is fine. There's no traffic to worry about.

Yes, if you are cautious, rent your UK house out for a while, keep some savings back etc you always have the option to return if you don't like it. This is exactly what we did but knew pretty early on that we would be staying.

You don't need a certain amount of savings in the bank before coming out. If you go with a visa gained from a job offer then that will be enough to satisfy Immigration that you can afford to live and settle here. If you do not have a job offer then Immigration may ask how you will support yourself whilst looking for a job - which is the position we were in at the time of our Immigration interview, but we didn't have to prove we had enough money to get by.

Think you're stuffed with the NHS Pension transfer now. New rules were implemented in the UK from April 2015 that prevents transfer of NHS Pensions into QROPS schemes, or at least makes it very difficult. Think you may have missed the boat?
Luckily we started the process of transferring my wife's NHS Pension in October 2014 and it was confirmed mid April 2015 as since we had started the process we were eligible.
Not something you wanna be doing for a while though. No point in transferring if you aren't gonna stay as you lose on the transfer as it's costs around 2% in admin fees/commission fees then you'll lose on the exchange rate.
I would't consider doing a transfer for at least 2 years and only if you will be staying. As a new immigrant from the UK you have a period of 4 years to transfer Pensions tax free in NZ.

There's a few threads discussing pet transfers and costs. Just use the search facility. It is expensive.

My wife is a nurse. Was a Sister on Intensive Care in the UK for 20 years but didn't wanna pursue that career here so went in to Practice nursing which isn't perfect for her but fine for the time being. There is an ICU at Tauranga Hospital but it's nowhere near to the scale of the department she worked in the UK. It's more HDU than anything. She would have to go to the Hamilton hospital for more ICU status but that's out of the question for working part time when you have kids. She doesn't have the time to commute 100km's every shift and she can't do shifts as I do already.
At the moment she is paid very similar to in the UK and works 2 or 3 days a week 08:30-16:30 and it takes her 7 mins to get to work.
You really need to check if you can get a job in your nursing field in the place you want to live before committing to that area as you may find you need to work elsewhere ruling out that area.

Don't get any daft ideas about property in Tauranga. It is an expensive market and you need a minimum 20% deposit which is the same NZ wide. Property prices are rising all the time and investors from Auckland are starting to snap up properties here meaning the prices are being pushed up even further. There are sections available to buy but if you want something of a decent size - i.e. an acre or 4000 sq metres you'll need to be looking further away out of the city into the more rural areas. You'll be looking at $300k-400k for a section of that size plus council fees and build costs. Yes you will be able to build whatever you like but it'll average around $1700 per square metre and does not include heating, garden landscaping or initial ground works for the property. All that is extra.
If you're not bothered about size of section there are a few new build developments that offer a buy and build or home and land package in the $600k range.
We are just on the verge of buying our first property in NZ and the process although seeming pretty easy compared to the UK it's the buying bit which is difficult as hardly any of the ads have a price. It's either open auction or price by negotiation. You can use the RV/CV as a guide which is all to do with the council valuation for rates purposes but a house can go for $200k over the RV. These valuations are only done every 5 years. No home owner actively keeps up with them as there is a potential that asking for a new RV/CV will increase the rates you are paying.

BEVS

Yes. We did that 13 years ago and it was a nice day out in London but of no use whatsoever .

Very sensible to keep a fund like that. You may need find you need that for any family emergency also , not just in case of a UK general retrench.

Okays.
If you are thinking to rent it out, then there is a need to check with both the mortgage provider and your insurers if they allow this and for how long.
If it is thought to leave the property empty, they still need informing of the fact.

Apologies if you have already done this .

No. Not unless you are looking at an investor type visa. From what you write you would be looking at a full time nurse position which puts you on the skilled migrant category, not investor.

That's fine. That is what BE is for. Care and share.

No. The NHS one is no longer transferable into any NZ qrops scheme as far as I know.
The private one may be possible depending on it's terms and if there is a suitable NZ qrops for that to come to.

Please note , that you must declare those funds for NZ taxation after the 4 year period.

Perhaps ask that question on this thread <-- click the link.

Depends what you see as expensive for your pet. I believe the current costs run into several thousand.
Contact Golden Arrow who will be happy to give you a cost

He is unlikely to find work in that trade . NZ has no shortage of these and the jobs go to those NZ tradesmen that are qualified in that trade.
If he has his trade papers then that would give him a better shot at being taken on once you have your NZ resident visas.

.

Yes. That is perfectly possible.

suzannew1983

Thanks for the comments. All very useful. The nhs has ground me down I'm afraid. I love nursing but my job has changed so much in ten years. I find change exciting and embrace if. But it's just becoming impossible over here. Another big reason I want to go. Would be useful to hear from British nurses over there! We would definately keep our house as its paid in ten years. I'm thinking of a long term asset. To eventually have a good deposit to put down on a house over there. Really excited now