danjon16

Hi,

I would like some advice.
I work in the offshore industry so I am out of the country for more than 6 months, would it be possible for me to move to NZ with wife and kids and what visa would I have to apply for. I am not looking for work there and my wife would not want to work there but we would like to have our main residence there and kids go to school etc, pay into the state, and have healthcare.

any advice would be welcome

cheers

Genesis

simply go to www.nzis.govt.nz all your answers will be there. I think you can get tourist visa at 6 months a pop BUt you will be entitled to nothing..nada..zilch. So I guess the question is are you allowed to send your kids to private school? It is pricey though..around $15k per annum per child. You would obviously need ongoing return travel from whence you came and I wonder would NZIS allow folk to do this type of thing EVERY six months? IE 6 months in NZ six months out, ad finitum...interesting question??

danjon16

thanks Genesis,

I would be leaving every month as do 4 weeks on shift and 4 weeks off, but the wife and kids would be staying full time so would they have to leave to?

cheers

Genesis

If you are an EU citizen I believe you are entitled to stay in Nz for 6 months at a time, it is a tourist visa. You have to have an return ticket when you arrive that will get you out of NZ within said 6 month period. As I said one wonders if NZIS would allow folk to do this ad finitum, one imagines there is no bar on returning EVERY 6 months, providing you have not overstayed the previous 6 months whilst in NZ. A mate of mine's mum has been doing it a while, but not literally 6 months on 6 months off. But very regularly over the past few years.

Jan n Neil

Your wife and kids would also have to leave: they would not have the type of visas that allow them to stay all the time. Emigration to New Zealand is a New Zealand up-skilling exercise essentially, so everyone who is allowed to stay for ever either works for New Zealand or has a partner who does. I think your plans do not include working in or for New Zealand, so I'm afraid you will only ever be classed as tourists in NZ

danjon16

Thank you for the info.

cheers

Dan

tiri

Why do you want to abandon your wife and children in New Zealand of all places?

danjon16

they have been abandoned in worse places, uk just one example

i prefer to call it something other than abandon

is NZ so bad??

JohnThePom

It is to tiri. She/he has an axe to grind.

tiri

Yeah, it could be if they've got no support network and no family. Surely you can find somewhere nearer to home if you're so desperate to get out of the UK? I know its not great here but NZ isn't that different you know.

JohnThePom

Abandon is an emotive word, but tiri does have a point. If you're not there half the time, then it's asking a lot of your family to move to another country.

Support networks are often taken for granted and only noticed when they are gone. Having children can help you make new friends, but it's not guaranteed. The significant problem in your case though, is the visa issue. I think Jan n Neils response is the most relevant.

danjon16

Thanks all for your commentS
I was hoping that being better weather, good outdoor lifestyle as some areas have in NZ that the wife and kids would be more occupied than the current situation. Support networks are nit really there at the moment anyway.

the visa issue is antoher problem, will see if there are other possibilities.

cheers

Genesis

We have no family here..not a sausage. We knew no one either. We soon had a good social circle going by getting out there and being friendly and gregarious.

And NZ is sooooooooooooooooooooo different from the Uk you could shake a stick at it. We speak the same lingo it all ends there. Sometimes it feels like another dimension. If it was the same we would all be on crowded beaches sharing crowded roads, crowded housing estates et al. How can you say they are not that different?