mudblood21

Hi all

I handed my final application in to NZ house at October half term.

Both the immigration officer and the teacher's agency advised me to hand in my notice to make myself available for the start of term in Feb. which i did!

I was kind of hoping to get myself set up before now, but finally it looks like I might be in the running for a job offer.... (not to count chickens etc) -- but if i do, I can't see how they can possibly get my visa through in time for Feb!!!

1....Does anyone else have experience of what might / could be done?

2......I was thinking of calling NZ house and asking- but is there any point before I have a definite offer?

3.... would there be any point asking for an 'interim' visa of some sort - I think i have read about a six month visa...?

thanks
Jax

thanks!

garfield250

Excuse my ignorance but a little confused here?

Are you saying you were advised to hand your resignation in the UK without a job offer in NZ???


I am assuming you have received your ITA and submitted that?
The branch processing times will give you advice on the timings just click on the NZIS website.....Branch contacts..... the following is from the London branch;
Skilled migrant applicants without job offers
The Pool draw, which would potentially allocate your EOI to the London branch, takes place every two weeks.

Your Expression of Interest (EOI) will be assessed within one month of being selected from the pool. We will then contact you, either inviting you to apply for residence or requesting further information.

Please note that if you have been selected and later obtain an offer of skilled employment you should fax this to us (+44 207 973 0370) and we will prioritise assessment of your EOI.

Once the pre-populated application form is returned to the London branch it should be allocated to a visa officer within four months. As an example, for the week ending 6 November 2009 we are allocating applications submitted up to and including 27 July 2009.


After your application has been allocated to an officer they will generally take between one and three months to make a final decision on your application. Processing times largely depend on whether you have supplied your visa officer with everything they have requested in your Invitation to Apply, or if there are any other issues (such as medical conditions) we need to follow up on.

BEVS

Once you have the job offer contact the case officer striaght away and make sure they know that you need to be in NZ for the start date. If poss. have the NZ employer do this too.

You can apply for a temp work visa if PR doesn't come through but I would hope, especially given the advice you recd from the NZIS CO, that they would prioritise your application fast track.

viv jones

We are in the same situation Both OH and I are teachers). Sitting without UK jobs now having resigned so we could make ourselves available for overseas interviews etc...struggling to get a teaching job in NZ as I cannot confirm the start that they need in Feb. I am still in a queue in London and it is 4 months of waiting now and no case officer. I did contact them and quoted the lifted bit on the Web site re queue times that has been shown above, but they just said they are behind this now and without a firm job offer my application cannot come out of the queue. I am being told by NZ that I need to be able to confirm a start date as you cannot have a class of children and no teacher....... so we are in limbo. I think the words "quickly" and "visa processing" don't fit together!
Viv

mudblood21

Thanks, Bev and Viv

Well, I suppose if nothing else it is nice to know we are not alone. I have had a lot of encouraging news from the NZ agency, but what I really need is that offer!
I have registered with a UK agency too, so that I don't have to eat my children if I don't make the date!
Good luck to you and the OH, Viv! hopefully one of us will be lucky!

mudblood21

[QUOTE=garfield250;8175967]Excuse my ignorance but a little confused here?

Are you saying you were advised to hand your resignation in the UK without a job offer in NZ???


Thanks for your reply, Garfield.
Yes - both NZI and the education agency.

I took my pre-printed application into NZ house in London. The lovely lady that accepted it looked through it all and told me that I really needed to hand in my notice to ensure I would be available for start of year in Feb. I had seen the processing information on the internet, my plan was to hand in my notice after I got a visa- but she assured me that teachers are in short supply, and that when I got a job offer, the visa application would be plucked from the queue and processed. The teaching agency said exactly the same thing- no one would offer me a job until i had handed in my notice- because without doing so (teachers have a long notice period) I wouldn't be free to go over for Feb.

Obviously this is much more plausible in October than it is in December! so I am lately getting a tad concerned (Which is where my question started from)

garfield250

[QUOTE=mudblood21;8183982] Keeping everything crossed for you

The Jezzers

Hi, just to say I have made friends with 2 teachers from the UK who came over on a visitors visa to find work, while waiting for their ITA to be processed. They found work within weeks. They then told Immigration, sent their job offers in and had their visa within 3 weeks sent to NZ. I hope this helps you decide what to do next. Good Luck.

viv jones

Great Christmas news and thanks for the encouragement to keep going. I do dispair at times. Just waiting for the Visitors visa application to be processed now (beating the ITA) and getting us on those flights on the 13th Jan! Jobs do seem to be out there for teaching so fingers crossed...mind you they may be in the sussy schools no one wants to teach in!!
Encourgaing that your friends were allowed the Vistior visa whilst also having an ITA in the system. They have been very questioning re ours
Viv

The Jezzers

Hi Viv, they just hopped on a plane to Nz and had the visitor visa stamp put in the passports at the airport, they did have to get return tickets to the UK to gain entry but they have not used the return part. The price for a return was worth it for them plus if they did not find work in 6 months they could get home.
When they had their passports stamped with the visitors visa, immigration knew because their status online with immigration stated their arrival as visitors to NZ. I hope you all the best and Merry Christmas from NZ.

mudblood21

This seems like a good option. I will have to give it some serious thought, logistically. thanks for the suggestion.

I leave my job on 15th Jan, so in all honesty, I could go over there = minor problem that NZ house have our passports, but I suppose we could ask for them back. Are they ok with handing passports back?

I presume that the 16 year old would have to stay here, as he wouldn't get school over there on a visitor's visa.

I might have a chat with the agency. it might be too late for me to get a job, so not worth it. I'd like to be sure i had a good chance of pulling it off before I went ahead.

viv jones

Yes NZ House are fine handing passports back. I asked via email and they "sighted" them for the ITA and sent it straight back...I said I needed it for an interview
Yes the 16yr old would need an oversaes visa to get into schools

The Jezzers

Hi Some people come over and don't send their kids to school until they get the job to speed the visa up, depends how your children will cope without school, My kids missed about 4 months school but fitted in really well 2 of mine are in the gate class[gifted and talented]. Here the age ranges for the years can be very different. My daughter is 11 and in her class the age range was 10 and 11, Children can repeat years if you think your child is not up to going to the next year. So your son would fit in fine even with the time out. I fine the schools here excellent 100% better than the UK and help in every way they can. All children stay at school here until they are 18 or 19 then go on to uni or poly ect.. But like the UK you need to go round and see all the schools you can and choose the one that you think is the best for your child. Some schools are zoned so you would need to rent a house in that zone to get in. This is how we did it. I hope this helps goodluck.

mudblood21

Thanks Viv & Jezzers

This is good news indeed. I will speak with the job agency and let you know what we decide to do.

I suppose I am just thinking protectively in terms of 6th form = Mikey has just started A levels. If we were not going to get in by the start of Feb term, he might as well stay and finish his AS year, the qualifications might be of help to him later on.


If for any reason I don't get PR, I can come back, it is not really that much of a deal to me. If I take him out of school and for some reason or other I don't get PR - he will find it tough to get back into A levels ( in our part of the UK the number of A level providers is dropping, and he is in a really good school) I don't know if I should take him out before I am sure we are going to be allowed to stay in NZ.

Plan
1. talk to job agency, see what they say about me hiking over there to get a job. 2. talk to job agency about usefulness of AS levels. 3.talk to family and comprise a cunning plan.

My work today is done. I now deserve wine! Hooray!

Cadibel

Hi there,

Both dh and I are teachers and are coming over in Jan, starting work in Feb. We sped our visa up by collecting from NZ house as worried about passport return, and that seemed to work ok, so maybe an option?

We both got our jobs from phone interviews - dh got his through an agency - Education Personnel and found them very good.

Good luck with everything Where are you thinkiing of settling?