3 year work Visa? Best route or not
 

Know doubt many people have asked this before, but as I'm new to this site here goes.
Myself and my family are looking to emigrate to New Zealand after a visit to the London Expo earlier this year.
I have been told that I can do it two ways given my age of 47, either apply to become a full time resident which could take upto a year or apply for a 3 year work permit, but I need a job offer firstly to get the points and then when out there apply after two years to come a resident. I'm told the paper work will take about 3 months for this route, Is this correct?
Myself and family are coming over to New Zealand next month for a look around and to see if I can secure a job before completing any paper work to get this underway.
Has anybody got any any good ideas that may help, I have looked on the skills list and I would come under Sales of Industrial Products so I assume I can get extra points for this?
Any help would be gratefully received.
John

Re: 3 year work Visa? Best route or not
 

PR visa's can take different amounts of time, and it can be quicker than 12 months, things seem to be moving a little quicker at the moment, I know getting your qualifications checked is taking longer than normal, but if you have a job offer and enough points to get picked from the pool, I would go the PR route. I'm not sure what you do and if you have a house to sell or how quickly you want to get over, so it's a little difficult to answer.

All the best
Tee

Re: 3 year work Visa? Best route or not
 

Kia Ora.

Fair enough. It's not a bad place to be . :p

Your age is only part of the picture. More important would be what qualifications, skills and work experience you can bring to New Zealand.

If you have enough points under the skilled migrant category, then you can submit an expression of interest to the New Zealand immigration service - NZIS. If that is picked from the fortnightly pool, then you would be invited to apply for residency. Once that application has been checked over and approved , you would be given PR.

Have you done the POINTS INDICATOR at all? Please click the heavy blue type to take you to the NZIS points indicator calculator.

To apply for a temporary 3 year work visa you do need a job offer first. If your occupation is on either the long term shortage list or the immediate shortage list , then any NZ employer can offer you a job which matches your current quals, skills and work experience. Those skills must come up to the standard set by NZIS for that given occupation.

If you do this , it may be possible for you to apply for Residence from Work. There again it may be that you go straight for PR via the skilled migrant category route. It really all depends on what your occupation and quals /work exp. are.

I am not clear on what you do.
Please look at the ANZSCO list and let us know which occupation matches yours best.

Take a note of the register number.

Then search the NZIS essential skills in demand lists - both long term and immediate lists. Is your occupation there?

If it isn't there , then you can still possibly come to NZ. Perhaps look at find a job offer with an accredited employer. If you meet the criteria for earnings etc , then you could apply under the Work To Residence policy.

If your occupation isn't on the shortages lists and isn't with an accredited employer, then any NZ employer offering you a job will have to prove there is no NZ resident for that job. They would have to apply for Approval in Principle before they could legally employ you.
From that, if your occupation is seen as skilled by NZIS and you have the quals /work exp to back that up, then you could in theory apply for PR through the SMC. Otherwise you would be looking at residence from work but you would still need to prove that you have the skills that NZ wants.

For a temporary work visa ? Each case is different. The same with PR or any of the policies. It really depends how clear cut the case is and how snowed under NZIS is. There is no way to know exactly how long an ap[plication can take. NZIS do post process times up on their site which they hope to keep to.

That seems like a might fine idea. Use the NZ yellow pages and look up Nz recruitment agencies. Wiznton from here works for one such place. They are in Christchurch. As you have been to the London Expo you are probably already armed with various places to look for work.
There are NZ job sites such as seek.co.nz and trademe.co.nz etc where you can look for jobs. My thought would be that you use the NZ yellow pages and blitz the companies that may be interested in your skills with your CV, looking to set up possible interviews during your reccie.

I couldn't find your occupation on the lists.
If it is on the long term shortage list, then you are entitled to bonus points.

Hope that helps a bit.