I am a secondary maths teacher and my wife is a primary teacher and our application for PR in Oz was lodged June 2001. We were hoping to emigrate at the end of this school year, Summer 2002, but this now looks unlikely.
Rather than spend another Winter in the UK, we are thinking of going to NZ - probably as a stopgap whilst we are waiting for our visa, but also to see if we would like to stay there permanently. We have a number of questions that, hopefully, somebody can help us with:

1) Will it affect our application for PR to Oz.
2) I know that we have to get registered with the Teacher Registration Board in NZ before we can apply for a working visa, but do we also need to have a job offer, or can we go and look around, and apply for jobs when we get there.
3) If we do have to have a job offer, is it worthwhile applying for PR in NZ (as we would then have enough points if we had a job offer), or would this process take too long.
4) If we do have to have a job offer, does anybody have experience of being offered a job over the phone (it's a bit difficult to attend interviews!!).

Thanks for your help
Andy

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Have you checked out the option of getting a temporary visa for Australia while
you wait? I think this is possible for teachers, no doubt George will be able to
advise further.

Maybe get in touch with the education department of the state/territory you want to
live in. You may find they're quite keen, especially if you're willing to live
outside one of the main cities (which can be an interesting experience all in
itself). As far as I know, in NSW at least the pay is higher in country areas and you
don't have many of Sydney's expenses.

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Not as far as Australia is concerned.

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I think in another thread George Lombard has counselled patience for people with
overseas applications in the pipeline.

Remember if you do apply to NZ, and your Australian PR comes through later, you'll
be able to validate it by taking a holiday in Australia, and it will stay valid
for 5 years.

Separately, after 3 years you could become NZ citizens. New Zealanders can still work
freely in Australia, but no longer get full permanent residency rights. See
http://www.nz-oz.gov.au

If you got to a stage a few years down the line where you had NZ passports, as well
as British passports with Aus PR visas in them, any time you visited Australia you
would have to use your British passports, otherwise the special visa given to NZ
citizens would override your Australian PR.

Jeremy