Moving without working?
 

My partner has been offered a job in Brisbane (I am aware this is the NZ forum, that'll come up in a minute) and is very keen to take it, however for a few reasons, mainly due to heat and poisonous animals etc, I am not overly keen on the idea of living in Australia (also the sheer size of the country is really rather daunting)
So I had contemplated of moving my family (me + 3 children) to New Zealand so he could take the job whilst not living thousands of miles away. Obviously he would still be in another country but a lot closer than he would be if we stay in the UK.

I haven't worked for some years so the question I had was would it be possible for us to get a visa to live in New Zealand without working in New Zealand or would I need to get back into work in order to be given a visa?

Re: Moving without working?
 

Well, if your partner can get a PR visa for Australia, either sponsored through work or as a skilled migrant, then it is theoretically possible to use that PR visa to enter New Zealand and get a permanent resident visa there:

Can Australians get a New Zealand Permanent Resident Visa? - Immigration NZ Knowledgebase
Australian citizens and permanent residents - New Zealand Immigration Service

However, I would seriously think over your plan: maintaining two households one in Australia and one in New Zealand starts to add up especially if you are looking at staying in Auckland or Wellington, and if this is only one income. Smaller town centres may not be so bad. Add flights back and forth, you would really have to crunch the numbers.

I haven't lived in Brisbane, only Perth, remote WA and Melbourne and in all my time I have not seen one poisonous animal. I have seen a few snakes, but this was up in the Pilbara, not in any town. I also don't like the heat but it is really only unbearable for 1-2 months in the summer. At least the job isn't up north in Cairns or Darwin...

Re: Moving without working?
 

This does not look viable at all given the initial requirement for the family to hold OZ PR for 2 years before applying for NZ resident visa. So whole family would likely have to start in OZ first. Then you have the NZ visa residency requirements on top of that plus NZ travel restrictions. Add to that the costs of maintaining 2 residences and ongoing flight costs plus NZ cost of living is relatively high so not even having a NZ job would be an additional challenge. Best option would be go for PR in Brisbane there could be worse places to be given year round climate and the odds of coming across anything posionous in the city other than in the zoo are pretty small.

Re: Moving without working?
 

Ok, thanks everyone will have to re think re visas then, we've had 2 properties (one in London and one in the countryside in North Yorkshire) and would probably have 2 in QLD as I'm not comfortable with city living having grown up on a farm (which is largely why I worried about the wildlife)
Anyway thank you all for the information, hopefully something can be sorted.

Re: Moving without working?
 

As others have mentioned, it might not make sense. If it has to be and you have the money, why not consider Tasmania? It's a good mix and less spiders and snakes than other parts of the country.

Re: Moving without working?
 

Thanks for your suggestion, I hadn't thought of that but it's worth checking it out

Re: Moving without working?
 

You might want to post in Australia section and there might be people who live there. Hobart would certainly be a good option.

Re: Moving without working?
 

I arrived in New Zealand for a holiday after about eight months of living in Australia on a permanent visa. I was granted NZ permanent residency on the spot and so I am sure that so long as they have Australian PR visas they could live in New Zealand. Still I agree that it is not a good plan, because once the Australian PR visa "expires" they might have trouble getting another one.

OP - It also doesn't sound like a good plan for family life. Never encountered any dangerous animals in Australia myself and you do get used to the heat to an extent. Brisbane has a very nice climate for a lot of the year and in summer well I just used to get to the office early before it warmed up too much when I was working up there.

Re: Moving without working?
 

Another vote for Tasmania.
Very much like New Zealand but less people and an easy plane hop from Sydney so not much further to Brisbane. Although Google maps suggests that it is about 2400 kilometres to Auckland and 1850 clicks to Hobart so there isn't that much in it.

Of course, flying to/from Hobart is domestic with minimal checks and no heavyweight immigration screen (although Tasmania are very careful that you don't bring food and plants in) and I was startled to see that there are no restrictions on dangerous fluids such as bottled water or local wine when flying out of Hobart.

If you are looking for easy access rural then Hobart seems a good bet because the airport is North of the town and you are already in the countryside. You do need to like quite though.

On the dangerous animals front - son lives in Sydney suburbs and has had no problems.

We spent a couple of months in Australia, about a month in Sydney, plus 2 weeks in the Blue Mountains and two weeks in Tasmania. The most we saw was a snake in the long grass by a lake - bothering nobody and probably hunting frogs.

Having mentioned the Blue Mountains, that is a nice place to live and the climate is cooler than on the coast. This would work if you were based in Sydney, especially because of the good road and rail links, but you aren't.
However you might look to see if there is an equivalent area of mountains inland from Brisbane which is also accessible.

Sounds like you should be asking on the Australian board to see if there is somewhere with easy access to Brisbane but cooler in the summer.

Re: Moving without working?
 

Sorry i was mixing up the NZ residence visa which citizens and PR get landing in NZ and allows stay indefinately http://dol.govt.nz/immigration/knowledgebase/item/5323 however that expires every time someone leaves NZ making it a challenge to get actual NZ PR where you need hold the NZ residence visa for 2 years. Maybe rules have changed if you got NZ PR immediately .Overall as others have said not really a viable plan commuting between countries on a long term basis especially if only reason is to avoid 'dangerous' wildlife which may never see outside of a zoo.

Re: Moving without working?
 

Just dug out the passport and looked at the stamp. It says "Resident visa" and "holder may remain indefinitely". Was obtained after I had resided in Australia for about eight months. So was just pointing out that OP could live in New Zealand without a two year stay in Australia first, which the post I quoted hasd suggested. My stamp was February 2011 by the way.

But don't get me wrong, I most definitely do not think it is a viable plan for a host of reasons. And also think it is an unnecessary plan if intended only to avoid the dangerous wildlife. :thumbup: