Jenpen17

Thanks for the tip, I've had a look at the website and will get my partner to sign up.

I'm still so confused about the conflicting information out there - there are specific websites linking skilled people outside NZ to employers in NZ who are apparently crying out for people, yet the employers advertising jobs on those sites want you to be in NZ before they even consider you for the job... makes no sense!

My partner has been so busy at work this week that we haven't even had a chance to chat about these recent options that have come to light.

It's such a shame that they look at it that way for those specific occupations, because you don't need a degree to do those jobs. Unfortunately my partner doesn't have a degree of any kind and either do I because we're much more 'hands on' people than academic university people. He does have two diplomas in I.T. from college, both of which are worth 40 points on the EOI, although of course the points for qualifications is capped at 50, which is a shame really because even if you've worked your butt off for a degree or even higher, you don't get the points you really deserve for it!

I'll tell my partner this, because I don't really know what that means either! But it sounds like it might be the same level of skill in a slightly different area, which gives me confidence because that means you guys were in exactly the same position as us and have succeeded!

I think for right now we'll have to keep sticking it out and doing what we're doing because if we were going to take the plunge then we need to save for a few more months to have some decent cash in the bank. But we'll talk it over and no doubt I will be back soon for some more advice from you lovely people!

Jenny x

EmmaLB

Hi Jenny

We were in a similar situation to you. Accept we applied in 2009 for residency and I got rejected because of my weight. This caused complications when it came to applying for work visas later. We came over in 2011 without jobs. My boyfriend had a working holiday visa. I came over on a visitor visa but was looking for work. Going through immigration that first time was a bit scary! Watched too many Border security programs.

I work in IT Support too. I couldn't claim for bonus points as my degree is not in IT. You can claim for normal work experience, just not the bonus points. I was really lucky and got a job over within a couple of weeks of being in Auckland. I'd spoken to a couple of recruitment agencies before and had lined up meetings with them. I hadn't applied for any jobs yet. I think being in NZ definitely helped. I applied for a 1 year essential skills visa initially and then additional work visas. Finally this year we got residency

I think Auckland probably has more IT jobs. A lot of companies have offices in both Auckland and Welly. Having a look at companies websites to see what vacancies they have is good. I've listed a few below as they normally have quite a few vacancies.

https://www.xero.com/nz/about/careers/

Vend | Careers (Based in Auckland but is a really cool place to work).

Hiring Now - Datacom

It took us a few years but we finally made it and it was worth it! Keep at it and I'm sure you will get there. Hope things work out for you both.

Cheers Emma

Jenpen17

Thanks EmmaLB, that's good to know and makes me feel a lot better!

Did you have any trouble at all going through immigration?

My partner did actually work at Xero and knows a few people there, but despite lots of networking and applying for a few jobs there hasn't been any success so far. I think they really are put off by the fact that he's currently in England.

Is datacom an accredited employer? I saw they had lots of jobs going through a recruitment company and a lot of it is perfect for my partner. Only problem is that quite a lot of the jobs are immediate start which wouldn't work even if we were in the country because we'd still need to wait for the visa to be processed.

I think scenario 2 is looking to be the favourite option after much discussion. My partner is really worried about quitting everything here and then not being able to find a job in NZ. I think his confidence is being knocked due to the fact that he just isn't getting any responses at the moment. I have faith that he will find something, although the fact that it has to be an accredited employer does limit the opportunities a bit, which is frustrating!

Jenny x

EmmaLB

No worries

We had some issues with immigration as I needed to loose weight for my medical. We used an immigration advisor to get the temporary works visas as we had an application rejected previously. I was only given one year work visas because of this.

My company is not accredited. We had to prove that a New Zealander couldn't do the job. This normally means showing that the job has been advertised and that no suitable candidates match the job description. They had to re-advertise my job each year to provide this evidence. Which was a bit scary. I work as an Escalation engineer supporting a quite unique product. It was quite easy to prove no one else could do the job. So glad we have residency now

This is another option for your partner. He can get a job offer from any company. As long as they can prove they have advertised the job and that your partner has skills that other New Zealand applicants haven't got.

I checked the website below and Datacom are an accredited employer

If you do a search on the link below and type in 'Information Technology' it brings up all the IT companies that Accredited. Xero is on the list. Fujitsu NZ ltd and Hewlett Packard (NZ) Ltd might be worth looking at.

Accredited Employers List

I think it took me about 2 weeks to get a work visa. But it can be quicker than that. Even if they say an immediate start it would normally take a couple of weeks to get the contract sorted out. The recruitment agency I went through was IT recruitment Auckland New Zealand specializing recruiting IT&T professional, recruitment IT jobs and career opportunities.

Good luck with the search

Cheers

Emma

Jenpen17

Hello everyone!

Sorry it's been such a long time but I thought I'd come and give you an update.

At the end of August my partner and I totally flipped out with all the frustrations of the double standards of the visa situation and our current living situation so... we decided to just pack everything in and go to New Zealand on visitor visas and make it work.

We left England at the end of October and within three days of being in Wellington my partner had a job offer for a permanent role. He got his medical done, submitted his temporary work visa application and it was granted within two weeks. Then I applied for a partnership temporary work visa which was granted just before Christmas. In January we submitted our EOI under the skilled migrant catagory with 240 points and were automatically picked from the pool. Then two weeks later we were invited to apply for residency. Our current visas don't expire until the end of 2016 but we just wanted to get residency so it's done.

So right now I am getting together all the paperwork for the application, and in the stress of it all I thought of you guys and realised I hadn't shared our success story!

We were very careful coming over here as visitors - we booked an outbound flight for Australia (which they asked to see evidence of) that we later cancelled (we didn't realise it was non refundable, but we figured if that was the price we had to pay to succeed in our dreams then we didn't mind!) and we had backpacks and looked like genuine travellers just visiting. We had no problems going through customs or immigration. We were never intending on working illegally so really we didn't do anything wrong, we just needed to be in the country to make things happen.

We definitely made the right decision!

So if anyone else out there is in the same situation that we were in - don't fret! It CAN be done, but you might just have to take some risks.

Hope you are all well

xXx

MrsFychan

What a great outcome,
I think your partner being in the IT field and its on the lists of required skills enabled a happy ending

Pom_Chch

That's great news, well done!

How are you settling into NZ life?

Jenpen17

Love love LOVE IT!

Persephone

Excellent news!
Sometimes you just have to take a risk in life. That was my strategy on coming here. If it all works out then great, if not then I can always go back to the UK. Better than wondering 'what if'