Kiwi Husband and Daughter. Divorcing but want to keep the family together....help!
 

My Kiwi husband and I have been married for 13 years and we live in Saudi Arabia. Our daughter is 8 and is a NZ citizen (born in Saudi). I am British. I have lived in NZ in the past. My husband and I have investments, assets and a bank account in NZ.

My husband and I are separating with plans to divorce sometime in the new year. We want to keep the family together for the sake of our daughter so I have agreed to move to NZ so we can be close. I do not plan to live with my husband but to rent or buy a house close to where he will do the same.

We plan to move to NZ together in January for the start of the school year.

My questions:

1). Can I simply walk into NZ with my husband and daughter and apply for PR? How does that process work? How long does it take? We don't wish to be dishonest about our marital status in the future.

2). Should I employ an immigration consultant beforehand and just be open and honest about our situation? Can I apply for PR on the grounds that we want to keep our family in the same place?

We will need to get police / good behaviour certificates from 3 Middle Eastern countries before we make the actual application for PR. Given how difficult they are to acquire in this part of the world and the fact that they expire after 3 months, at what point should I even try to get these certificates?

Sorry for the long post. Any advice or replies gratefully accepted.

TIA.