Spinke

Hey,

My family and I are very keen to make a move to NZ (with the intention to stay permanently), but I'm unclear about the routes available to me for immigration.

I'm a IT Pro with ~13 years experience, the last 4 in senior positions, and I have multiple Microsoft competencies along with many years of in-demand 'Cloud' experience (Microsoft Azure in particular). I can easily match myself to several roles on the Skilled Shortage list BUT I don't have a degree - which seems to add a slight 'gotcha' to the standard VISA options.

What options do I have, are there any schemes similar to those in Canada?

Thanks in advance.

Bo-Jangles

Don't think there's any way around it - you have to have the required qualifications, along with work experience.

Does your partner have any formal tertiary qualifications? As that might be an alternative approach to use the other half as the principal applicant, even if they maybe had not intended to be the principal bread winner.

Or you might need a longer term game plan for one of you to start working on getting a qualification that will stand you in good stead for a future application, as i think it will be some time before NZ will be wanting / needing to to bring on board folks from overseas anyway.

Kooky.

Putting aside the visa issue, is there demand there for your skillset? Which sector would you be hoping to work in? And do you have skills no locals would have?

To the best of my knowledge, as the wife of an IT professional of many years, there is not a huge IT industry in NZ, it's mostly serviced from Oz. (My husband had one person there, based in Wellington, and he himself flew over occasionally from Sydney to see the larger prospects/customers.)

Spinke

Thanks for your reply.

My partner has a Law LLB degree, and is interested in continuing her education in NZ - I don't know if a student visa of any sort would open up options to us?

I noted that immigration seems to have closed, which is disappointing as we'd like to leave sooner rather than later but understandable in the circumstances.

I'm under the impression there is, there are positions advertised in NZ which meet my skillset and IT professionals are apparently on the 'shortage' list. Whether that's an accurate impression though I'm not sure..

Clappy

The whole Information Technology industry in New Zealand is a small-scale affair. I am sure that the last time I saw a figure quoted it was a total of around forty thousand technology jobs in the entire country (but don't quote me on that!)

Of course the global situation is changing at the moment so it is difficult to predict what is going to happen with demand.

Nine months ago New Zealand had full-employment. The place I work at had difficulty recruiting Software Developers. It is looking again for another one now and the agency has offered more than sixty candidates for that position so far. I expect that we will see a flood of Technology professionals that relocated from New Zealand to Australia (and beyond) all heading back now (if we haven't already) so it might take some time before supply and demand settles down.

Bo-Jangles

No brainer then that's the route to pursue - although suspended currently she can go for skilled migrant visa if you can get enough points and a job offer (which obviously is the trickiest part but not totally insurmountable.

Points calculator here: https://www.immigration.govt.nz/form...qualifications

Most likely some extra hoops to jump through to get admitted to NZ Law Society: https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/for-la...sion/admission

There's no quick and easy route at the best of times and far less so now but you can work on it assuming things will return to 'normal' in a year or so from now; which is a more realistic time frame to be planning such a big move.

For jobs: https://www.seek.co.nz/jobs-in-legal

escapedtonz

Not entirely true.
Immigration will accept years of hands on work experience in the specified skilled occupation in lieu of the person having the desired qualification. This is at the discretion of the Immigration case officer. I am a perfect example as I have no Bachelors or Masters degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering, but because I had 24.5 years work experience with me being employed as an Electrical Engineer they awarded me the points and absolute skill shortage bonus points anyway.
It is worth pursuing if the OP wishes to go down that route. It may be more difficult to get a job offer that way of course as employers nowadays want qualifications.