Cath3rin3

Hi,
me and my husband and two boys (aged 1&4) are contemplating moving to NZ. We have been told by an immigration company that my husbands job is on immedI ate shortage list . He is an alarm engineer. We have been told that if he got a job to get a permanent residency visa we could get our visas within 3-4 months. It seems so quick, and she would charge £1500 to sort it all out. Does this seem the norm? I have epilepsy and it is controlled but obviously it will impact the time it could take to get in. I just want to know is anyone in a similar boat or agree/disagree with my comments?

Thanks

MrsFychan

Hi and welcome to our little part of BE

speaking to an immigration agent is all well and good but at the end of the day all they really do, if it is straight forward, is collate the evidence you have to provide. If the situation was a tricky one then you would need a specialised agent to help you through. I would suggest that you check out the Immigration website http://www.immigration.govt.nz/ and make it a place you get to know fairly well.
Check out the skills lists as it will tell you what experience, qualification level and number of years worked required to possibly gain a visa. And come here for some experience and advice. Most of us have done the process ourselves. although we are not able to give you legal advice personal accounts sometimes is all you need.

On the health side things you will have to pay for Dr's appt and medication and it is not as cheap in some area's as the UK. I do not know what sort of evidence they will require for you to pass the medical but I can see that it would be referred and that can take some time to sort and it would depend on what other evidence they would require and how you are managing the medication etc now.

Can I ask why you are contemplating NZ and where you would like to be. have you checked in to the cost of the move and actual living costs compared to what you have now?

escapedtonz

Alarm engineer is not on any of the three skill shortage lists. You need to be more specific - fire alarms, car alarms, security alarms etc as some of those are listed.
Also is he an engineer or technician etc. ?

If his occupation is on the skill shortage list and he can get a job offer then yes there's a possibility of getting a Resident visa application through but unlikely 3-4 months.
At the very best from your submission of EOI to receiving ITA from Immigration will be 4 - 6 weeks, then you'll have 16 weeks (ish) to submit all your evidence from the date of ITA. It'll be unlikely that you have everything ready to be sent as certificates from police and medicals need to be current and you'll need to collate relationship evidence, qualifications, work evidence etc
Even if you submitted everything in half the allotted time - so within 8 weeks, you've already done 3 - 4 months and your application will have only just been received by Immigration.
Say 2 weeks for the allocation of a Case Officer since your application is a priority, then at least 8 weeks for their processing.
Due to your condition you will most definitely have the medical referred to Immigrations MA's which will delay the process by at least 4 weeks....etc etc. If the MA looks at your medical then asks you questions, each question and your answers will delay by another 4 weeks.
The MA will need to consider your history, diagnosis, current condition, medication, cost of medication and likely visits to see a specialist or hospital - doesn't matter that you may say you'll have private medical insurance. Since healthcare is subsidized for Residents, Permanent Residents, Citizens etc through ACC then it is your right as a Resident to use the service at reduced cost so no matter what you say the MA makes a determination of how much you may cost the NZ health system and if it's too high you could be declined.
There's always a medical waiver though.

Bare minimum assuming everything goes to exacting plans I'd say 6 months if you're on their backs all the time but more likely consider it'll be 9 months. Longer if the MA's mess you about.

London branch of Immigration NZ also snowed under with applications by all accounts. They are taking application workload from other offices around the world.

Cath3rin3

Hi, thank you all for your replies, they really helped. The reason for going to New Zealand is to find a better way of life for my family. My husband is an alarm installer, he works from 6am to 7ish at night and that's when he isn't on call!! About 6yrs ago, we went through an immigration agent and applied to emigrate to Australia.however, long story short they took £5k from us, there Was a lot, and I mean a lot of messing around, 3yrs later they went into liquidation all under suspicious circumstances, and we lost our money, found out they hadn't even passed us through Skills Assessment. It was devastating. So we left it for a couple of years and are now contemplating whether or not to check on New Zealand. We have never been, and if we did decide to make the leap I would visit first, but because of our previous immigration experiences, you can imagine my concern at once again losing another £5k. We have a lot of equity in our property, so selling it would leave us in a very good position if we sell and move there, but spending that kind of money again and receiving nothing in return is a huge concern .

mikelincs

Simple answer is not to use an agent, most people on here have done it themselves, agents, in the main, are just after your money, and you still ahve to do the work, sort out all the paperwork etc.

MrsFychan

try out the points indicator to see if you get enough points to submit an EOI
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/pointsindicator/.

from what I can see alarm installer could be on the list of skilled occupations as well as the list for immediate skilled shortage list

please make http://www.immigration.govt.nz/ a site you get to know your way around

Cath3rin3

That's so nice of you thank you xx time to book my flight......Lol!!!