We too got a letter this morning..
 

saying we could apply for the WTR visa:thumbsup: Panic has already set in ... only 6 months to sell house and to get to NZ:ohmy: Very quick timeline EOI picked 14th Feb,ITA arrived 15th May telephone interview 13th June and decision today.:thumbsup:
Would be very interested to hear of other who have been given this visa
So many questions to ask- what if house doesnt sell? what if OH gets a job offer in the meantime? Will medicals still be valid? Ahhhhhh! We are pleased but everything has happened so fast and dont feel we are fully prepared.
Good luck to all of you who are still waiting, but things do seem to be moving along at a fair old pace lately.
Cheers Chris

Re: We too got a letter this morning..
 

Good luck with everything, keep us posted!!

xx

Re: We too got a letter this morning..
 

Congratulations Chris & OH

House - if it doesn't sell in time you could consider either short term rental to generate income while selling and giving power of attorney to solicitor or trusted friend/family member, it's not very complicated. Used .net website then have a permanent contact address.

You have your visa I'm sure I'm correct in saying medicals should still be valid.

Busy times ahead and exciting. Check out thread leaving parties and inlaws from May time (ish), lots of good info.

Best of luck
Pauline

Re: We too got a letter this morning..
 

Congrats Karma to You alchris . Busy , busy then.

We gave power of attorney to our, then, family solicitor when selling our house in the end. I had known the chap for decades.

Re: We too got a letter this morning..
 

Thanks Pauline and Bevs
It all seems a bit more exciting today, just the initial shock I think!
Thanks for the advice on the house front.
Cheers Chris

Re: We too got a letter this morning..
 

Congratulations!!!

I thought you will have about 18 months to move to NZ when you are given WTR. If it is PR then, you will have 42 months. This is how I came up with those numbers.

You have 6 months to send your passport for WTR visa and you will have 12 more months to enter NZ. So, that should give you 18 months time.

In the case of PR, you will have 6 months to send your passport for blue sticker and 12 months to enter NZ and you will be given 2 years RRV, which means you can leave NZ and go back in within 2 years. So, that should give you total 42 months time.

Please correct me if I am wrong on my calculations and assumptions.

Re: We too got a letter this morning..
 

I thought your 2 years RRV is activated when you first enter NZ with PR and yes you can go back to UK, or anywhere else, in that 2 years. However, that 2 years is your probation period and at the end of it in order to get an indefinite returning visa - one that allows you to come and go as you please as an NZ resident - you have to have fullfilled certain criteria during the 2 years probation time, like being in NZ for 184 days each year, or paying NZ tax, or owning an NZ property.

The way I understand it, once PR/RRV are activated that starts the clock for your 2 years probation period and your 3 years residency (if you later want to sponsor family) and your 5 years (if you want to get citizenship). So I'm presuming that if you don't fullfil the criteria in your 2 years probation period you have to apply again or request to have your RRV time extended?

I'm sure someone (the wonderfully knowledgeable Bevshere!) will say whether I've understood it right, and if so I guess in theory yeah, you'd have 42 months but you'd also have to bear in mind the probation period criteria.

Re: We too got a letter this morning..
 

Many thanks, but our letter states '' we have 3 months to apply, then when visa is issued it will allow you to work for any employer in NZ foe a period of 9 months upon arrival. The visa will also allow you up to three months to travel to and arrive in NZ'' ''A decision on the application for residence will be deferred for up to 12 months''.
Trouble is until house is sold we wont have the sufficient funds required to prove we can support our family and to get an outward flight, under the conditions of our visa!'' So I think I am right in believing we only have 6 months in which to enter NZ?
Has anyone on here gone down the WTR route with the skilled migrant category? Would really love to hear how you did it.
Many thanks
Chris x

Re: We too got a letter this morning..
 

Hi Alchris

We are in the exact same position as yourselves. We have received the WTR application as our application for PR has been deferred (because my husband is an electrican and hasn't got his provisional licence yet). You are correct is saying you only have 6 months. You have to send your application back within 3 months from the date of the letter they sent you and then Immigration will stamp your passports with your work visas, you then have 3 months in which to enter NZ and upon entry will be given a 9 month work permit. What line of work is your husband in?

Also, I have recently found out that we now will NOT be taxed on our household goods entering NZ which will save lots of $'s. Would be great to hear back from you.

Nic

Re: We too got a letter this morning..
 

Hi Nic
Hubby is also an electrician, nice to hear of someone else in the same position. What stage are you at with regards to getting to NZ? Have you a house to sell? Wher are you planning on going in NZ? Hubby has started to apply for jobs, and we are still awaiting a reply from our case officer as too what might happen if he does get a job offer before the 6 months are up. It would be nice not to have a time limit, especially with the way the housing market is at the mo! Would be great to keep in touch and to hear of your plans
Chris

Re: We too got a letter this morning..
 

Hi Nic
Have just seen you thread in Introductions so I see you are more organised than us- sold house- doing saftey course. Hubby was going to do course here but £300 seemed alot when it's so much cheaper in NZ. also the cost for him to get to London from sleepy Wiltshire would have added to it. You will be in a better position when job hunting though.
Chris

Re: We too got a letter this morning..
 

Hi Chris

Yes, I agree £300 is alot (particularly with the £128 train ticket added to it from Manchester to London) in comparison to $80 in NZ but thought it was one less thing to do once we got there. Has your husband been in touch with EWRB? One thing I would say is my husband toyed with the idea of doing the safety course in London when Nick Chandler was over here last Christmas and is now regretting he didn't do it then.

We are very lucky we have sold the house, we heard from Immigration that we were going to be issued with a WTR visa one week and the couple who were interested in our house offered the following week. This is the type of luck I am not used to just hoping things go well with the house sale although if it doesn't we will have to rent it out.

My sister and her family are living in Auckland so that will be where we initially go. My husband has also been applying for jobs. Whereabouts has your husband been applying for jobs?

We are aiming to be in Auckland by the end of August. Hoping to complete on the house and then fly out after a couple of days. Obviously don't want to book the flights until we have exchanged on the house because the flight tickets I am looking at are non-changeable and I don't fancy losing £2,000.

You mentioned about waiting to see what your case officer said about your husband getting a job before the 6 months were up. We asked our case officer a similar question (what would happen if my husband got his provisional licence before the 6 months were up). We were told that once PR had been deferred to WTR both parts had to be complied with, i.e. obtaining provisonal licence and having worked for his employer for 3 months. Our case officer told us it was a difficult process being an electrician but not impossible. We know of at least one electrician who went over and now has a job working as a marine electrician in Whangarei. Good luck in the job hunting.

When are you planning on moving out there and whereabouts are you looking to go?

Nic

Re: We too got a letter this morning..
 

Thanks for that Nic,
Obviously we have to be there by 25th Dec!! alot will depend on a house sell-fingers crossed. Ideally Sept would have been a good time as my youngest is due to start secondary school, so would have been ideal. We are looking around the BOP and Thames areas at the moment, hubby has a friend who lives in Te Puke, so I think initially it would be good to be near someone we know! Do you not think it seems a bit unfair that electricians/plumbers cannot get PR without job offer etc, when another skilled migrant can? Yes he has been in touch with EWRB and for full licence needs to do regs and stage 3 of practical.
At the moment all we can do is wait for people to view our house and hope that someone will fall in love with it. When the first 3 months are up we may have to look into other options, just hope we have some luck in that! We are hoping having the WTR will prove to employers that we are serious about NZ and that they would be prepared to wait until OH does the saftey course whilst there.
Good luck with the house sale, are you excited yet or still in 'panic things to do stage?' I'm the latter!

Chris n' Al

Re: We too got a letter this morning..
 

Hi Chris n' Al

I do think its is unfair the way electricians/plumbers only get WTR because they don't have an offer of a job. We hung on and hung on sending our ITA back hoping my hubby could do the safety course earlier and get a job offer so we would get PR. At first everything seemed to be against us. When I read the guidance notes for the ITA they said you might be charged tax on household goods when you go over and then I thought my son would be classed as an international student and then also that mortgages and insurance may cost more. I have since found out that no tax will be charged (as from Nov 07), my son would be classed as a domestic student and after my BIL speaking to his financial adviser mortgages and insurance are no more expensive.

I'm neither panicking nor excited at the moment. When I heard we would only get WTR and we hadn't then sold the house, I was definitely in panic mode but obviously selling the house has eased that. Just trying to get everything sorted. We been through the loft today which has made me feel better too. The shed is next!!!

Nic

Re: We too got a letter this morning..
 

Good luck Chris and OH fingers and everything else crossed for you here...:thumbup: :thumbsup::thumbsup:
Steve and Dee