Heal

We had our interview as part of our ITA application today.Everything went well , the person I spoke to was very nice.
One thing that surprised me was at the end I was told everything was ok and we would be offered either residency visa or wtr visa.
At no stage have I ever applied for wtr and always thought our application was for pr.
Apparently with wtr you can apply for pr after working for 2 years, if we are offered this wouldn't we have been better just going on a work visa, then applying for residency.
We should be excited but can't help feeling deflated if this is what we will receive.
We have a little boy thats 3 and our worry is if we stayed for 2 years and didn't receive residency and had to return to the UK he would have missed his first school year.

Persephone

Hope I got this right!

I got confused about this and what I should apply for and went to NZ House to ask about it. Apparently there are 2 types of WTR visas. One is the temporary one- the 2 year one you mentioned. This doesn't lead to residency.

The other is what you get if you go down the EOI/SMC route and you do not get permanent residency from the start. With this you have 9 months to find a job once you arrive in NZ and I don't think that the same conditions apply compared with the temp visa. I seem to remember reading that you would only have to stay in your "skilled migrant" job for 3 months once you'd found one and could then convert it to PR. Hoping someone else will confirm this for you though. Think the idea is that you prove your desire to stay there just by getting a job

Basically the 2 WTR visas are not the same so don't panic too much! It all made so much more sense when NZ House told me this.

Damn NZIS- why give 2 different visas the same name!!

Anyway the best of luck, what sort of questions do they ask at the interview??

malcoltom

I am using a consultancy firm and they are taking me down the WTR route.
I dont have any skills to use now so i am coming on a 2 years WTR. Got interviews lined up with Insurance companies as a fraud investigator. Been told i have got a job but cant be given the offer before attending the interview as it would affect my visitors visa status.
Get the offer when i come on recce and lodge it with the firm. They do the immigration office side of it. I come over on the WTR and work for an accreditted company for 2 years then apply for PR. If PR refused, get extension on WTR and apply again. The consultants say that very very few fail on the WTR as long as you stick to the WTR rules. ie: work for accreditted company, receive minimum wage of $50k per annum, take a job that has been advertised and not filled.
Thats what i understand.

BEVS

Ok. Waiting to hear from you. Let us know.

Heal

Thanks still waiting which visa we'll be given,should find out early next week so our fingers are crossed for pr

Questions asked were

What are your plans when you go to NZ
Have you looked into employment
Have you looked into accommodation/housing
How have you been researching your move
What would be any stumbling blocks
If you cannot find employment in your field what would you do
Why have you chosen NZ
Do you know what your expected salary in NZ
Why have you now decided to emigrate to NZ
Does your partner have any plans to work.
Have you any friends or family in NZ

I was on the phone for about 20min everything was quite informal and the girl doing the interview was very pleasant.
Hope this helps

Persephone

So they do the interviews on the phone then, I assumed I'd have to go in.
It doesn't sound too bad, had visions of being interrogated, spotlight in the face type of thing!

Heal

Yes its on the phone at a pre arranged time to suit you.Ours was on Thursday at 10am.I was surprised when I was told a decision would be made that afternoon and would find out early next week.We didn't even know we had a case officer until Tuesday.

Persephone

Do you have a job offer and how long ago did you send in your ITA?

Don't mean to be nosy but I have had my EOI selected and have no job offer [no ITA yet] and just interested to know how long it took for you.

Hope you get your PR next week, though WTR good as well

Heal

There's my wife,me and our little boy who's nearly 3.
We applied with 125 points without a job offer (Carpenter with qualifications assesed as National Certificate Level 4).
EOI 13 March 2007
EOI picked 13 March 2007
Received police files May 2007
ITA Received July 2007
Medicals end July 2007
ITA sent August 2007
Didn't hear anything until Feb 2008

Hope this helps

happynz

I'm sorry, but that part about 'cant be given the offer before attending the interview as it would affect my visitors visa status' sounds like a load of horse-cobbles. Being given a job offer doesn't affect your visitor visa or visitor permit one jot. Sounds like your consultant is making up shit to stop you from getting the job and avoiding his consultancy fee.

Persephone

Thank you for that and the list of the sort of questions you were asked, good to have some idea what to expect, nothing scary there!

NZIS website says up to 7m from them getting your ITA so looks like that was true for you
Oh well, you know when you think things may go quicker than the officials say! I'm getting as much done as poss now so hopefully will just have medicals to do when the ITA arrives - am being optimistic, when not if!

Good luck for the PR