WestSussexPebble

HI All,

I'm hoping to get some advice from some of you who may have been in similar positions. My family and I have always wanted to emigrate to NZ, but finding the visa process a little daunting, have asked an immigration assessor/lawyer (through Integrate Immigration) to look into our situation to find out how many points we would score. We live in the UK, aged 30 and 37, I work in PR, husband is a self-employed sports coach, with 2 small children. Was told by the immigration officer that I would score higher as 2 university degrees, but even with them, my points was estimated to be around the 90-100 mark, meaning we'd need to get a job offer from outside Auckland first to get anywhere near the 160 mark. Our lawyer suggested to go down the NZ qualification based visa route, and is drawing up a mandate, which is going to cost £500, and will be used to open our case and to take us on. I'm not sure if this is worth pursuing (sounds a little like a rip off to me -but then I don't know!) but I am not sure how else to get this whole process started.

I was wondering if anyone has experiences of using immigration services, and can recommend whether they are trustworthy?

I'm feeling pretty hopeless about our low points score and am wondering whether there is any hope for us to make this move, given that our skills are not on the shortage list. Has anyone else, maybe in a similar situation, managed to achieve the move to NZ?

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thank you

geoff52

If you can read and write you don’t need immigration agent.
Their priority is to make money, getting you immigration visa is secondary.
There are knowledgeable people on this forum who can help.
If you feel like spending money on a agent find some one who has used an immigration agent and have been satisfied with their services.

Make sure that the desire to move is a rational decision and not an emotional one.
The grass always looks green on the other side until you get there and find its AstroTurf.

escapedtonz

Waste of money in my honest opinion.
You can easily do it yourself.
We used an agent but only because we knew the wife's medical would be passed to the assessors and we were likely to struggle. Even when using an agent you still have to do all the same work, filling in forms and collecting evidence etc.

With 90/100 points you most definitely need a job offer AND it'll have to be outside of Auckland so you gain the extra points to take the score to at least 160. Scoring near 160 is as mush of a waste of time and money as 90/100 as the EOI still wouldn't be selected.
Also, for your info....the SMC points calculation will change in August 2017. The government has issued a media release that will change some aspects of the points calculation which may make it better or worse for you. A final decision will be made after 12th May.

MrsFychan

agree unless you get a job offer before the new rules come in then there is not point outlaying any money. Don't need an agent to do that and if you get a job offer you won't need an agent unless, as in escapedtonz case, you see some medical issues.

I do know of a sports coach who was offered work and got his family over last year so it can be done as its seen as a skilled occupation. obviously you need to met the criteria.
So get emailing council and check out their websites to see if there are any jobs available.

I will speak to my friend who got over and see how they actually got the offer and come back to you.

Public Relations Professionals is also on the skilled occupation lists so you could also be looking and applying for job so you are in a better position than those who have only one person available to apply.

Not sure how you go about getting a PR job so my best advise would be check out SEEK and trademe jobs and also email large corporations in NZ and possibly local councils and see what happens.

I personally would start the EOI now but not submit so you are ready to go if and when either of you get a job offer.

WestSussexPebble

Hi MrsFychan,
Thanks for the reply, lots of useful advice! I would be most gratetful if you could find out how your friend managed to come over as a sports coach! Just trying to figure out how we best get started, it seems like an impossible task at the moment. I am signed up to Seek and a couple of other job websites, will definitely keep en eye out for everything that looks like it might be suitable. I'm not sure if we'd need to go to NZ for a few months and try getting interviews that way (I have seen on this forum that a few people had success that way) but ideally, we'd like for one of us to get a job offer first. If your friend had any suggestions on sports related job agencies, I would be most appreciative. Many thanks for your reply.

WestSussexPebble

Thanks for your reply escapedtonz! You are certainly right about the changing points calculator, I had a look at the website, and from what I see so far, it doesn't seem to make too much difference for our application. Do you have any advice on how to go about getting a job offer (for outside Auckland) first? Did you have to do this too?

MrsFychan

From what I understand he just sent his CV into lots of Councils asking if they had any positions going.
Mind you they arrived here late June last year and the wife and kids are going back to UK this July and he will follow on after that, probably around Dec. They came out here for better family/work balance and it appears that that did not happen, his wife felt more like a single parent as he has worked ridiculous hours.

Have you tried the points calculator if your OH was the main applicant, if so what was the score?

escapedtonz

All you can do is to keep applying but in all honesty it's very difficult to land a job here from overseas unless you are in a niche industry where the NZ employers are desperate for your skills or a particular industry you are in is doing an overseas recruitment drive - e.g like NZ Corrections at the moment.
You've got to understand that the majority of employers are advertising across NZ and not overseas and aren't aware or interested in anything to do with Immigration or even entertaining someone from overseas who doesn't even have the right to live and work here. It is a massive risk for an NZ company to commit to employing a person from overseas and a lot have been stung in the past where people haven't turned up or may have even been scammed.

I was fairly lucky in the fact my speciality is in a niche industry and employers in my industry actively seek the skill from all over the world as there is simply a fundamental lack of it and the correct attitude in NZ for my particular speciality to be sustained long term.
In my case, I secured Resident Visa without a job offer. It was only a few months after we received the approval and we had made plans to ship our lives and fly out to NZ did I start actively looking for work. We received the passports with visas in August 2011 and secured two roles early December 2011. We flew out March 1st 2012.