[barnsleymat]

My mate from the UK is over here on a Working Holiday Visa, he's currently in New Plymouth but this weekend will be moving down to Christchurch as the job offers are flooding in, he's recently got a degree in Furniture Design and is a dab hand at joinery etc.

A conservatory company has just rung him up offering him a job and it's much better pay than the other job offers. There's one slight problem, the company has said they'd like to offer him the post but can only do so if he gets another visa and they can't offer him a permanent position if he's only got a WHV.

Having let an immigration advisor sort our visa's etc out I'm not really up to speed with what are his best option.

Can you help 'TEAM BE'?

[BEVS]

Quick post as I have to watch Masterchef.

Yes. They can offer him a position. Nothing to stop them doing that.

Your pal needs to educate the NZ employer , as is often the way of it. It is job offer first & then he applies for a temporary work permit.

In theory he could start work for them under the WHV & bang in the application for the temp work permit straight away. What your pal mustn't do is work for the employer without a visa in place.

The employer needs to provide your pal with the contract of employment or a letter to that effect. He will put that in to NZIS , together with the other usual stuff.

I'll check on the bits and bobs of it laters.

[barnsleymat]

Cheers Bev

[Caz8NZ]

agree with the above. On a WHV you can't accept a permanent job - but they can always give him a fixed term contract to start him off and provide him with a permanent offer of employment that he can use to apply for the other work visa.

Not sure how long he has been in the country but as he is here on a WHV anyway I'd say don't apply for any other visa yet as, as soon as that visa gets granted his WHV is cancelled in full.

He should try and persuade the company to offer him a fixed term contract up to the maximum time that he can work here for (on the WHV you can work for a total of 12 months - so this will depend on what he has already worked) and then see how he goes.

I'm only suggesting this as 6 months down the line, he may decide he wants to take a few months off and jump in a camper and travel around a bit etc, but if he is on a work permit and not a WHV he will not be able to do this.