the3ofus

Hi to everyone

As the title suggest I am new to this and I havent a clue to be honest but I am hoping that there is someone that will be able to give me some help and advice.

My partner, 5year old daughter and myself are looking to start a new life in NZ.

My Partner has the opportunity to work as a correction officer and we gained some info about visa through a recent expo in Belfast.

He has a psych test to do over the phone in a few weeks time and then hopefully an interview in NZ not long after that. We are hoping all goes well and then we will apply for the sponsorship visa with help from the immigration company we spoke to at the expo.

My questions to you are in no particular order-:

If he is successful at the interview and is offered the job,will it be required to have a medical and police check carried out. If so how long do these usually take????

Can we get police checks and medicals done now or not????

Do we need proof of visa before shipping our house contents???? We had a guy out this morning who passed comment that we would need this.

He aslo stated that it would take 6-8 weeks for items to arrive but if we OH gets the job we would need to be in NZ long before that............How do I work this?????

If OH gets the job and is given a start date to be started in a matter of weeks where do I begin with things what do I do first????

What is the school terms like in NZ My daughter turned 5 in Feb and will be finishing year one in June??

We are looking to moving to Wanguani area can anyone advise on schools and areas to live?

I am aware that if OH gets the job we will have to go through a work residency visa and update every three years.

I know this can happen very quickly and I am just a little confused by it all.

I will be 25 this year and my OH will be 30. we are new to all this type of thing so any info will be appreciated.

Claire

Alifox

Woh, slow down claire! Welcome BTW . Have you looked at which route (ie, which visa) you'll be going for? My guess is skilled migrant, which will take some time. Firstly you will need to check if you will qualify on points (on the NZ Immigration Service website). If you have over 100 points, you can submit your EOI (Expression of interest) Its cheaper online- it's a 'mare to fill out, but you dont need to submit it straight away No doubt this will kick up more questions along the way, so take your time- ask questions- we've all been there, so know how stressfull it will be for you. You will need police checks and medicals, but they both have expiry times on them, so would not apply for them yet- these are things to get together in preparation for the ITA (Invitation To Apply) Good luck, you are just starting off here, so do your homework

the3ofus

Hi Alifox

Thanks for the reply much appreciated.

We are actually hoping to go on a work residency visa.

This is where you have already got a job offer and the job dosent sponsor you but we will have the seems rights as a citizen and will have to renew this visa every three years.

I think this is the correct understanding of it.

Claire

newkiwi

Hi Claire
Good luck with the whole immigration thing, its stressful but exciting...
Some answers to your questions, as best i can..

You will need a medical and police check, allow a couple of weeks for the police check. I guess it depends how long it takes you to get and book your medicals. You can do them earlier (be sure to point out what its for, different countries have different medical forms to be completed, your doctor should know or point you to a doctor that does medicals) The problem is that medicals are ony valid for (I think 3 months) and police check for 6 months, so dont do them too early.

I dont think you NEED proof of visa, but you would not be wanting to ship anything to NZ before you have your visa in hand in any case. I does take about 8 weeks to get your stuff to NZ. And yes you are right, you will need to be in NZ before then..So you need to go with as many suitcases as you can and have your belongings follow you. Do some research into which airlines (ie via LA, or singapore airlines) give you bigger luggage allowances. Dont worry, its an adventure literally arriving in a new country with only a few suitcases!! I think everyone done it that way...Then the fun starts finding places to live, but thats another adventure alltogether.

If your partner gets a job offer, ask his employer whether they had applied for others in the past, and whether they can help with advice. do some research in the meantime so you can ask intelligent questions, look at the NZIS website (immigration.govt.nz) It isnt the greatest website, but the info is hidden on there somewhere.

This site is a good place to start.

School years run from Jan/Feb to Nov/December

Cant help with info about Wangunui

The work to residency visa it sounds your going for isnt necessariliy quite like you seem to think it is, The workpermit is only for a set period, but after a while (depending on your exact circumstances) you should be able to get permanent residency. But for all extent and purposes now it probably makes no diff to you at this stage.

Keep reading up on this site, do a search on here for some of the questions you have, and feel free to come back and ask away...

happynz

That doesn't sound right. Have you been going through an immigration agency perchance?