elcomandante

Hey Guys,

Im British, and have got the chance to go and work in New Zealand with a well established company. I can get either the 12 or 23 month initial visa, and with guaranteed work & then sponsorship, I have been told that it would take just 3 years in toal for me to gain New Zealand nationality & Passport..

I would quite like to live in NZ and gain nationality/passport (which i have been told will take roughly 3 years) so I can retire there when im much older (I'm currently 27) as I have visited NZ for 3 months travelling when I was younger...Also on this travels I used my years work visa for Australia & liked Australia alot..

So my question is once I have spent 3 years working in NZ and gained NZ nationality/Passport would I have right like I have been told all Kiwis do, to go live and work in Australia ?

goldchoccycoin

I think it will take 5 years for Citizenship (and then a passport). Kiwis can work and live in Australia with NZ citizenship - but only as temp residents unless they are eligible for Australian PR some other way. It then takes 4 years residency to get Aus citizenship.

newkiwi

You usually have to be a new zealand PR for 5 years before you can apply for NZ citizenship, which will take another 9 months or so to process.

You cannot live and work in aus as a nz PR

You can live and work in aus as a nz citizen

you do not become an aus PR based on your status as a nz citizen living in aus, and therefore can never obtain aus citizenship based only on you being in aus as a nz'er. if you want to obtain aus PR and ultimately aus citizenship you have to apply and be granted aus PR just like anyone else.

elcomandante

Thanks for the info & help on clearing the issue up guys..I just have a few questions to clarify

"You usually have to be a new zealand PR for 5 years before you can apply for NZ citizenship, which will take another 9 months or so to process".

So does this mean If I was on a 23month visa to start with & in the that time applied for residency it would take me 7 years + 9months to get citizenship?...or would the initial visa and time spent be counted towards my 5 years of trying to get citizenship?...sorry if its a stupid question

Ok so taking all into account I obvioulsly would like to gain the right to live in Australia and New Zealand so what would be the quickest way, seeing as I have alreasy used my OZ work visa, but havent used my NZ one. Basically which would take longer to gain nationailty with right to reside and work?

newkiwi

As far as I know you have to be a NZ PR for 5 years usually before you can apply for citizenship. Time spent in Nz as a workk permit holder does not count to the five years. So if you spend two years in Nz as a work permit holder and then get PR you still have to spend another five years in NZ as a PR. (in this example 7 years in total)

I think it is something like three years in aus as a PR to apply for citizenship,. but I may be wrong, it may be longer.

I guess you should ask yourself whether you want to live and work in aus or Nz, and then apply for residency in the country you want to live in.

Bananadude

If you have a job offer from this company, there is nothing stopping you from applying for a PR now surely? Seems like you'd have more than enough points to qualify. Could take 6 months or so, maybe more, and you don't say when you are going, but you can still go to NZ on the WHV while this is processing I believe.

Someone else told me that it was 3 years for citizenship, but it appears to be 5 years now. Was there a change in the rules perhaps? Or maybe 3 years is something else?

NakiMan

yes... if your PR was granted on or before 21st April 2005 then you need to live in NZ for 3 years before you can apply for citizenship.

If your PR was granted after 21st April 2005 then its 5 years before you can apply

ex_exile

No, if you applied for PR before 21st April 2005 its 3 years, your PR can be granted after that date.

NakiMan

I stand corrected

I was going by the NZ Dept of Internal Affairs website which says -

"If you received permanent residence before the 21st of April 2005, or had an application for Permanent Residence accepted by Immigration New Zealand before the 21 April 2005"

Depends what they mean by "accepted"

Does it mean "Residence approved but blue sticker not yet issued" or just "completed forms received" ???

Who knows. All I know is that I will have to wait 5 years

ex_exile

It means completed forms received, I applied for PR 15/04/05, PR was granted a few months later but was able to become a citizen under 3 year rule. I lucked in actually as had no idea that the change was scheuled for 21/04/05.