sky

ring the nz information line they will tell you all you need to know.

GetMeOutOfHere

What at a quid per minute!!!

Thought you could help us NZ bound Brits by sharing your views thats all

sofistek

I'm sure that all they'd tell you is that the Interim General Skills Category is being replaced by the Skilled Migrant Category late this year or early next. You can read about it on the NZIS site. I doubt that they'd speculate about what comes after that.

nell m

hi sofistek,

we had been looking at the property websites for about 18 months to get an idea of what was out there, prices etc. Sadly my mother-in-law passed away (she was coming with us, she was a nurse and her skills much in demand) and when we carried on looking we found the 'perfect house' and as sorry as we were to lose her, it did mean that we could afford to buy the house rather than wait til we move over (we would have had to get a mortgage before).

As for prices compared to salaries; teacher's starting salaries here are £16-17k, in NZ, it converts to about £12-13K for starting salaries so it's only about a quarter less. However, prices in supermarkets seem to be similar to uk prices, maybe a bit lower, the same for furniture, so were definitely going to have a veggie garden & homekills to make the money stretch further!

nell

Don

Maybe you can name the house after her in poignant memory of her legacy:

Goodbyeandgoodnight?
Dunwitchin'?
Falsesmilenomor?
Yamiserablecow?
Imarriedyasonnotyouyabitch?

I really really love my adorable M-I-L!!!!

Roger

Umm Don not too sure about the humour, I got the impression that they were quite keen on her.

Roger

nell m

I'm not going to take the hump, but just remember, although she was my mother-in-law, she was my husbands mum, he reads these posts too and she's only been gone a few months - have a heart

Ben.M

Cheaper to phone the National Contact Centre in NZ on 00 64 9 914 4100 which is charged as a standard international call, which is about 49p a minute with BT but just 4p a minute with the likes of OneTel. I always found them to be very helpful (and patient!)

Ben

southerner

Now that is a great suggestion. I knew there was some reason I read this forum.

I would hazard a guess that you would get through to somebody who can help much more quickly than on the NZ House phone number. My wife tried that number, and was very disappointed with the attitude and service provided (mind you at £1 a minute she probably was a bit anxious and sensitive about those sort of things)


Thanks Ben, a real gem of info.

Gra.B

Here's a useful site for int calls - www.pd-dial.com/intland.htm - it will give you calls to NZ for 10p per minute, there's no pre-paying or anything like that, it just goes on your bill.

Cheers, Gra..

Ben.M

Here's another one - Telediscount

Calls to NZ from 1p/min via an access number 0845 2 441 441. Basically you pay for the call to the access number and the international call is free. Have no idea how they can do it but I've used it and it works! The only downside is that because you are dialling via an access number, even if there is no answer, you still pay for the local call but at these prices it's worth it!

Sa-Su: 1p/min
Mo-Fr 6pm/8am: 1p/min
Mo-Fr 8am/6pm: 3.95p/min

Ben

sofistek

Yeah, I'd come across Telediscount. It seems amazing but I'm glad it works. Just-dial (http://www.just-dial.com) also offer this sort of service. It's not quite as cheap but at 4p per minute and no set-up to do either, this kind of service sounds too good to be true. Even calls to NZ mobiles is cheaper than BT or NTL's call cost to NZ land lines.

Don

Whoops! Sorry Nell, guess you actually liked your M-I-L. That idea was so inconceivable to me I used a bit of abrasive humour - sorreeee!!!

sofistek

Or, with all of the trouble you're having over there (I think it's you - visa trouble) maybe you've become bitter and twisted.

nell m

No problem, She would have probably found it hilarious - I did tell her when we were first talking about moving over together that she could only come if she had a granny flat at the bottom of the garden with a moat full of piranas (know it's spelt wrong!) all round it