Gaining Employment in New Zealand
 

Hi,

We are off to EXPO New Zealand in March 09. We are at the research stage of our journey I understand from what I have read that it is advisable to have a job offer upon applying for a visa. Should we take our C.Vs with us to the exhibition in the hope that there may be prospective Employees or is that a bit premature?

Our house has had an offer on it already, this would seem to be our biggest hurdle. How long is the average time taken to emmigrate?

Thanks

Re: Gaining Employment in New Zealand
 

Hi Sarah,

I took my CV along to the London expo last year with similar hopes, but there were only a few employers there, and none of the recruitment agents were really set up to do anything constructive with it. They just gave me their addresses, advised me to submit it by email, told me about www.seek.co.nz and said I should get a visa before applying for a job.

So I went to the Immigration stand, where a helpful chap ran through my points score and told me I really needed a job offer to get a visa! I went home a bit disillusioned.

If you are qualified and experienced in a skills shortage area and also youngish, you can get enough points without the job offer. But in my case I'm over 45, and though I work in IT I haven't got a degree specialising in the field, so the man from Immigration was absolutely right that I needed the extra points.

Hope things work out well for you,
Dave

Re: Gaining Employment in New Zealand
 

Hi,

Definitely take you CV's with you. We went to the expo in Oct and found that some companies were not interested as we hadnt started the process. However it is a great way to make contacts and get a real understanding of the job market. The seminars by immigration NZ are really useful.
Also it depends on your occupation we saw people having interviews on the day so you never know!?
With regards to the length of time have a look at our timeline below (nether of us have a job offer) we have just sent off our ITA today!

Good luck and if you have any questions give me a shout

Jo