Tom1983

Hello all

Tomorrow will be the first years anniversary of the boss and I touching down the Christchurch floor from a long Singapore Airlines flight from Heathrow.

A year has gone and i've seen four different accommodations, a large quake in December as well as becoming a married man and most recently a father

Now for the serious help as I'm now in the process of deciding whether or not to obtain residency now or wait until next year once i've completed 2 years of working for the company and applying for residence via work

I've had a wee look at the immigration fees and i've seen to apply for residence via work, it will cost a total of $930 (minus $92). Now is this for me only or will I have to pay that amount as well for residence visas for my wife and my son?

If that is the case, i've seen that the skilled migrant visa = $1,810.00 (well minus the $92.00). Now if I applied for this visa now and am successful, how much would it cost for the wife and son under this scheme? is this a one off payment that will include Sarah and Dylan becoming residents? Or would I have to pay seperate residence visas for them?

Another thing that I have noted is that whilst I have now achieved a full year working for the company I work for in New Zealand, and also have achieved the 5 years experience - there have been some gaps in employment. In total i've worked 57 months which is 3 months short of the 60 months. Will they catch on this and use this against my application? Even though i've been a tester from August 2007?

Lastly, i've seen on the INZ website that i'll require another police check from the UK and also from New Zealand but they do mention that medicals might not be required? Will they accept our medicals from last year since they were used for submission to obtain the WTR visa? Or would we have to provide new ones, this is if the decision is to apply for residency via the Skilled Migrant route. Would I have to get a certificate for Dylan as well even though he's only a few weeks old???

Hope you can help

Kind Regards

Tom

MrsFychan

personally I would go for it now you never know what's going to come off the lists or when. Speak to your local Immigration office to see the best way forward for you. My husband found the Wellington office really helpful when he was changing from his temp work visa to PR even though we were actually applying as a family from the UK

chippy64

Tom, pop into the office in Addington. They are very helpful and should be able to answer your questions there.

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/branc...rchBranchHome/