Questions!
 

My son is currently here on a WHS visa. He has been working since he arrived as a chef in a cafe. He has worked for the same organisation the whole 9 months.
He would like to apply for a visa under the SMC. The problem is he doesn't have any qualifications.
He is 29, good health etc.
Would he need to do the ielts despite being educated in the UK?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

My husband and I both have residency.

Re: Questions!
 

Hmmm.

Has he done the points checker to see how many points he may have? That's probably the first thing to do.

I've just looked up 'Chef' which is on the LTSSL and therefore would provide a pathway to residency for him but he'd have to have a fairly specific list of qualifications and extensive experience with that as well.

You don't necessarily need IELTS unless it's mandated for your professional registration. You can get away with it if you've had ongoing SKILLED employment in NZ for more than 12 months. I think you may also be able to skip it if you've been awarded a degree taught entirely in English. That being said IELTS is not hard for a native speaker if you study properly and don't take the test lightly.

Probably the most pressing and significant issue would be time. Is he on a 12 month visa? If so there won't be enough time to put an EOI in, get an ITA back and get a case officer to okay it all in three months.

I think from what you've said he might be hard pressed to go straight for SMC. He has a couple of options apart from that though. 1. Go home, get some experience and skills and try again. 2. (Preferable) try for an Essential Skills visa to continue in his current work and try to gain enough skills and experience to go through SMC off the back of that.

Re: Questions!
 

Hi Kingacat.

The most pressing issue would be his lack of qualifications and work experience as a professionally trained chef. Chefs have a specific skill set which includes management and budgeting. As opposed to cooks , who simply cook to a menu.

In the UK there would be on the job training as a commis chef + college theory work. It takes several years . The same applies to NZ.
Does your son have any qualifications? Did he cook/chef in the UK?


If the employer is NZIS accredited or is able to prove there is no NZ resident /citizen that cold do his work, then he may be able to uplift a temporary work permit prior to the end of his WHV time.


Should you have the funds, you may wish to loook into getting him on an NZ chef training course as an international student. That might help the aim towards residency.


Other than that, he may need to return to the UK. Complete the necessary qualifications there and then look to return.