Any chance and where to start
 

Hi from a newbie
My wife and I have been having serious thoughts about emigrating for a while now and have decided on New Zealand.

We are unsure as to whether we would actually be abel to get in.
I am a Despatch Manager and have spent the past 12 years in my current job.
Qualifications include NVQ LV3 and LV4 in Business Improvement Techniques (Lean manufacturing), RTITB qualified FLT Instructor and C.I.E.H qualified Manual handling trainer.

My wife is a Teachers assistant with 2 years exp, previosly she was a nursery nurse and has a NVQ LV3.

We are both 34 and have 3 kids aged 11, 7 & 5.

We are getting mixed messages with some people saying we have no chance and others saying we should be ok?
We would just like a bit of advice before we take the next step of looking for agents to help with Visa's.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Re: Any chance and where to start
 

First bit of advice is DON´T look for an agent, they don´t do anything you can´t do for yourself.

Have a look on www.immigration.govt.nz, have a look at the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) and other visa option, try their points calculator and come back here when you have questions....much better than paying several thousand pounds to get the same or worse info than you can get here....

Re: Any chance and where to start
 

We too are just starting out on the process and have found that agents come up with such a huge range of points (between 95 - 165!) from their free assesments that we are more confused now than when I had just used the NZ govt website.

Re: Any chance and where to start
 

Find out about your points from the actual New Zealand Immigration website. It is really the best place to look.

Link to NZIS POINTS INDICATOR The minimum is 100 points. The more points the better. 140 & up is great.

If you are confused about anything you can come back and ask us on here. Many of us have been through the emigration process or are in the midst of this and so we can pool and share our experiences .

Please search ANZSCO to find out which most describes your occupation .

Re: Any chance and where to start
 

Seriously, avoid agents like the plague, it's a con! the forms and process may all seem a bit confusing at first but its not that bad once you get started, but be warned, it is a long, frustrating, and expensive process, but we managed it on our own (with allot of reading of pages of threads on this site) but we got here from start to finish in nine months. I did have a bit of trouble with the medical side of things extra blood tests for a high cell count, paying a small fortune for a spinal consultant to to examine me and write a letter to immigration to say that i was well enough to work? (nz govt are scared that you want to come over from the uk and sponge off their system:lol: like its not already hard enough to come here and try and live on two full time incomes, when you've got no debts or financial dependants :confused:) sorry to rant on, sour grapes! but start with immigration and just work out if you qualify, read through old threads on this site because theres always someone with a similar situation to yours and anything you need to know is here, the only place you can start is at the beginning, good luck:fingerscrossed:

Re: Any chance and where to start
 

Agree with the others - agents are a royal rip-off and you could save your eventual moving costs by not using one. We've made it through the process with a medical issue to contend with and are now at the point of interview where it is purely down to us not make a complete Horlicks of things.

It does take a bit of time and the forms/points things can be a bit confusing, but for the most part they really aren't rocket science and there is a shed load of knowledge on tap here should you need it. :thumbup: