Maz

I'm asking as it would be a shitload cheaper for us to get our medicals done once, in NZ, for our EOI, and just come over one a 12-month permit. Can those permits cover spouse and offspring? I'm rather assuming they can.

Is it a lot faster to get a 12-month work permit instead of a WTR one? As you don't need meds or police checks for a 12-month permit, was wondering if this would be the way to go to get over there the fastest poss.

Ta. (US$50 - and I'd bring it with me! - happynz knows these answers )

happynz

If you are the sponsored employee on the 12 month temporary work visa/permit your husband will get an open work visa/permit valid for the same length as yours. Your daughter will get a student visa/permit which allow her to attend primary school with no extra fees.

With a job offer from a New Zealand employer who has permission to hire foreigners the paperwork can go through quite quickly. Our last work permit after we had collected the various documents took about forty-five minutes in the Christchurch office of the NZIS.

And yeah, if the job offer is less than 12 months then medicals and police clearances are not required. You can do the meds here in New Zealand easily enough. I understand from previous posts that you already have your police clearances. My advice is after you get here and settled, get that PR ball rolling as you don't want to have to go through the long wait for police clearances.

I'm not sure if I should be flattered or embarrassed that I know about this stuff.

Beachcombers

It was $180 NZ for my work permit (was 2 years), hubby will cost the same, which he will qualify for under partnership rules. You would have also to pay for a work visa (to allow you to leave and reenter the country without cancelling your work permit). Not sure if you have to pay for sprogs.

It took four weeks from applying to getting the blue stickers and that was through Auckland, I heard that it was much quicker at Christchurch and Wellington.

As for applying for PR, my advice is get on to it straight away after you have got your work permits, it took us nearly six months and it was very stressful trying to manage getting police reports etc remotely.

Medicals cost about $400 for the both of us, it pays to shop around as prices varied alot between medical centers.

Please note this was in 2004/5!

Good luck Maz!

happynz

If you use your US passport you will have to pay for your work permit, but you won't have to pay for a work visa, same - same for husband and daughter if they use US passports. My wife, who is Thai, had to pay NZ$140 or something like that for her work visa while my daughter and I got our work and student visa free 'cos we have US passports.

Beachcombers

Melissa is from Finland and for some reason Finnish passport holders get waived processing fees, so we only ever had to pay for my fee's, all the way through to residency.

Maz

Nearly there with the scenario. The job offer is permanent, full-time and from an accredited employer.

I'd actually prefer to get the short visa while in the US as I don't think we'd have to buy return / onward tickets, and could come on one-way tickets (correct?). Then the medicals would cost us heaps less when in NZ and we could take a little more time to get them. Police checks are only 2 months old, so no worries there. Actually am still waiting for my UK police check, bastards!

Let me put it this way... last year I got a concussion and even with my kick-arse health insurance, I still had to fork out US$800 out of pocket for an MRI! That's about NZ$1,150 at the moment. Not cheap! So you can imagine I'm not overly keen on paying for 3 lots of medicals (2 adult, 1 child) in the US!

What I'd really like to do:

1. Get 12-month visa for all of us
2. Move to NZ on one-way tickets with visas already in hand
3. Submit EOI the second we get there and I've started work
4. Do medicals once EOI is submitted

Viable?...

OK happy, earn your US$50.

happynz

Correct. Outward passage should be waived as the New Zealand embassy is fully aware that one cannot book plane tickets twelve months in advance.
Bastards!

Please do all your klutzy stuff here as you'll be covered with the ACC.

I have no idea what it would cost in the US, but I imagine it would be a lot.

Yes, absolutely.

C'mon, dat's too easy.

Maz

Thank you so much happy! And no that wasn't "too easy" you just have to admit you're a fount of knowledge. I owe you.

BEVS

HHmm !

happynz

Hi Bevs.