Face to face interviews with skilled migrant applicants without job offers
 

I noticed today on the London branch tips and processing times page that in some cases it is necessary to have a face to face interview if you are a skilled migrant applicantwithout a job offer. I'm wondering under which circuimstances this is applicable? :blink:

The reason I'm asking is that I'm South African and it looks as if these types of interviews only happens every few months here. It sounds like it could be quite a big contributer to slowing the process down.

I am also extremely curious to know to which branch South African's case files are allocated once ITA status is successfull, as there is no SA branch listed on the NZIS Contact Us page. I assume its also London? Anybody else from SA on this forum? :ohmy:

Re: Face to face interviews with skilled migrant applicants without job offers
 

I'd be interested in any answers to this as our plan is/was to tour for a few weeks when we get to New Zealand and then look for work.

Re: Face to face interviews with skilled migrant applicants without job offers
 

I'm in Stockholm and did a 30 minute telephone interview.

Re: Face to face interviews with skilled migrant applicants without job offers
 

Ok, found the answer to my second question... South African applications also get processed via the London branch.

Re: Face to face interviews with skilled migrant applicants without job offers
 

From what I've heard and read from other (Dutch) expats, they only had to do a short (20 - 30 min) phone interview. As I had a job offer in hand when applying for my residence permit, I never had to do any sort of interview. I would recommend to go down to NZ for job interviews and if possible, secure a good job *before* applying for the residence permit - it just made things a lot easier for us. (I got the PR visa's and paperwork done within as little as three weeks - mostly due to the job offer).

Re: Face to face interviews with skilled migrant applicants without job offers
 

Thanks for the advise. I must admit that I have looked at some online job advertisements and most of the good ones stated that you must already be available in NZ with the right to work in order to apply. It would be nice for me too to know first that I qualify for residence and then go to NZ for job interviews with the legal paperwork to proof that I have a right to work there. It does not bother me too much if it takes up to siz months for the process to complete... as long as I manage to go to NZ by about January 2009.

But if it means that trying to do this without a job offer will drag to process out for longer than six months, then I guess I will have to follow your advise. I'm also a little bit nervous that without a job offer, there is also an increased risk of my PR application being rejected. However, there seems to be a fair number of people that manage to get PR or work to residence visas without job offers, so for now I'll just take my chances and continue with my application without a job offer.