Work permit granted same day.
 

Hey guys (and gals) !

Over the past few weeks we've heard a few different stories about what can and can't be done (and how quickly) in terms of getting a work permit granted - even different people from NZ Immigration themselves told us different things over the phone.

So we thought we'd let you all in on what actually happened for us.

A bit of background...

After travelling around NZ since September 15th looking for a Primary School Teaching job for the wife, she finally secured a job in Masterton and our EOI was selected on November 4th on the basis of 160 points... currently we're still waiting for anything else to happen in relation to that.

In the meantime we're paying £212 every four weeks for our stuff to be held in storage in the UK plus a further £66 per month to insure it whilst in storage - so it's all adding up!

Additionally, the EOI/ITA process can of course take a while to complete and the school had offered to let the wife start working sooner rather than later in advance of taking on her formal position in the new school year in Jan/Feb... but she can't work until at least a work permit is in place.

But if we shipped our stuff across before the permit was in place we'd be hit for 12.5% GST on the value of the container... something we'd obviously not wish to incur.

So the wife phoned NZ Immigration to check how quickly a work permit could be granted... 30-60 days apparently!

I'd read on the forum that people were having much quicker turnarounds. I'd also read that some people had their work permit application processed and granted on the same day, so I phoned NZ Immigration instead... I was advised that if we posted the application OR dropped it off with them it'd be processed in as little as 10 days. I questioned the same day/next day possibility and was advised that they no longer offer this service.

Then I went on the website for the Wellington Branch/Office and it clearly states that they do a same day/next day service for work permit applications.

So, on the basis that we were going to be passing through Wellington, we organised a full medical including chest x-rays and bloods for the wife with a doctor in NZ (took a week to turnaround and cost $390). We then set about finding a house to rent, a school for the boys and headed to Wellington.

Yesterday morning it was a case of getting up and getting to the Wellington NZ Immigration office a.s.a.p. (as we'd heard stories of day-long queues)... half with the expectation of being turned away and told to leave the application with them for the next 10 days.

( I should probably quantify here that she took EVERYTHING with her, e.g. she'd completed the forms already, medicals in hand, employers supplementary form and so on )

After collecting a ticket at the main desk, the wife sat down to wait and myself and the boys went off to get some breakfast...

Despite the advice given over the phone and contrary to the stories of huge queues (although I expect that is sometimes the case) the wife was meeting back up with us in less than hour with the 2yr work permit securely fixed in her passport and our bank account $200 lighter.


I'm now wondering what complications are going to crop up... as it's just gone far too easy! Over the past three days we've viewed and chosen the school for our boys, found a house to rent (we pick up the keys at 11.00am today) and acquired the work permit that aside from allowing the wife to work allows us to ship our stuff across from the UK sooner rather than later save us £278 per month and avoid any nasty customs charges when it lands... sadly we won't have our stuff before christmas though!


Our plan now, is that we'll leave myself and the boys on the visitors permit which expires in March in the hope that the EOI/ITA process will have been completed by then and we'll have PR etc. However we now know that if that time arrives and it hasn't, we can simply pay a visit to Wellington and get additional time on our permits (including a student permit for our eldest who will start school in April) off the back of the wife's work permit.

Re: Work permit granted same day.
 

Fantastic update, well done to you all :thumbsup:

Re: Work permit granted same day.
 

Am curious to know why you didn't do this in with your wife's 2yr work permit? You'd have then also had an open work permit and kids student permits for 2 yrs and no worries about went PR came through.

Re: Work permit granted same day.
 

Also curious as the extension on a visitors permit is only a further 3 months ???:confused:

Re: Work permit granted same day.
 

Congrats on the two yr temp work permit for your wife. At least you can sorta start to settle.

Just wondering why you left yourselves off the application . You were entitled to a 2 yr open work permit & the kids their student visas on the back of her application . You would all have gained the same status at the same time , without the complication of expiring visitors visas . The timeline for a PR application would then not have been a problem .

What happened about the good character requirement for the 2 yr permit out of interest & why would you apply to extend a visitors visa later on when you should still be entitled to a permit on the back of your wifes application.

I've not got kids but doesn't the school year start at the end of January/ beginning of Feb ?

Questions, questions I know, but I am curious .

Re: Work permit granted same day.
 

:thumbsup: Glad that it all seems to falling into place for you....bit curious about the visa issues as well....but :fingerscrossed: PR will be sorted soon.
B x

Re: Work permit granted same day.
 

Congratulations on finding a job and getting the permit so quickly:thumbup:
Hope you all get PR as fast!

Re: Work permit granted same day.
 

Hi Great news for you all...Can I ask you though was it your intention to find employment whilst you were visitors there?
The reason I ask is this is because we've submitted our application into the pool for next week onwards, fingers crossed...My husband has sent his cv to numerous agencies etc and has had great feedback but no interview.
I am now under the impression he would get employment or interviews if we were actually in NZ, would you agree?
I'm hoping to persuade my husband to leave the UK next year and take the bull by the horns, so to speak. As you and your family have.

Re: Work permit granted same day.
 

wow, what a good turn out for you in the end????

Well done :thumbsup:

Tina. x

Re: Work permit granted same day.
 

Wow! Did I need to read this!

Just had a bit of a panic this side (UK). My partner was offered a Nursing position in Auckland about 1 week ago and we have started to look at the work permit application (similar story, our EOI was selected back in early november). Anyhow, the job starts on the 11th of Jan and we knew there was no hope of PR by then! Last night we contacted NZ immigration only to be told that there was little chance of a permit for another 2 months!! This would have left us touch and go re: job start date :-(

I am truly hoping we can come back with a similar story as we fly to Auckland on the 23rd December and hope to process the permit fairly quickly - 10 days would be fine :-)

Although not feeling 100% relieved - this has helped us a little - thank you Sir!

All the best with the future,

tris

Re: Work permit granted same day.
 

Guys,

Not to dash your hopes and a word of caution, check (preferably today) with NZIS in regards their Christmas and New Year office hours, many businesses here shut down for two to three weeks over the festive season. Some government departments use skeleton staff to manage the essentials.
I am unsure as to when businesses/agencies finish (it may be as early as 21-23 December) but in many cases they do not restart until 5 January 2010.:frown:

Re: Work permit granted same day.
 

I'd echo Gardfields words of caution.

Take your temp work visa applications & supporting paperwork to NZIS London in person now ! Make it clear about the start date. Get support from the employer with this.
NZIS may well turn around the temp work permits quickly . It's a few years back now, but ours were back in just 8 days. Our PR was also in the pipeline at that point .

Re: Work permit granted same day.
 

Hi guys,

Yep, unfortunately I am all to aware of the opening times, but alas we are unable to get it to London quickly as we are still waiting on the Nursing council in New Zealand to complete registration - this is still (according to phone call tonight) 10 days away :-(

To be honest, I am just re-leaved to hear we MIGHT not have to wait 2 months - even if it takes 1 month we have been assured the position will be held!

We have plenty of friends over in NZ and (perhaps foolishly) could not resist being with them for new year - keep your fingers crossed :-)

tris :fingerscrossed:

Re: Work permit granted same day.
 

Hi Guys,

In retrospect, perhaps we should have just gone ahead with getting my permit off the back of the wife's - at the same time, however it was simply a case of being so blatantly focused on getting *a* work permit in place in order that we could ship our belongings from the UK that we just ploughed on regardless.

That being said however, I don't require a work permit as I (currently) have no intention of working (being employed) by anyone in New Zealand. I'm a Director of a UK company and am fortunate enough that my salary is paid regardless - not for doing *no* work mind, (that'd be nice :-)) but I work remotely with a laptop and a mobile broadband internet connection.

That being the case I'm comfortable with just sitting out the EOI/ITA process for the time being, in the knowledge that *IF* it comes to it, I can shoot down to Wellington (we're only an hour away) and get the necessary permits for myself and the boys off the back of the wife's 2yr work permit, on the same day.

BEVS? You're not suggesting that we're not of good character are you? :( lol!

The good character requirement was apparently satisfied by the Wife's Police Certificate that we obtained prior to leaving the UK. I have one too, although it expires at some point in March so if PR isn't looking likely we'll be on with the work permit beforehand as explained above.

Sorry for the confusion, I used the incorrect terminology, you are quite right that I would not seek to extend the visitor's visa, but would look to acquire the necessary permit off the back of the wife's 2yr work permit. Unless of course PR comes through beforehand.


I should probably have quantified this further too... our boys are 4yrs and 2yrs old. Our eldest is 5 in March therefore wouldn't start school beforehand, but because of the school break around that time is likely not to start school until April. The Immigration official processing the wife's work permit advised her that the boys'd get the necessary permit automatically off the back of her work permit but in any case a student permit is not required for Kindergarten.... therefore again, for the time being at least, time is on our side and we're comfortable in sitting it out for the time being.

Is your husband a teacher too?

My wife was an Assistant Head Teacher in the UK, but it doesn't really count for much here in NZ as with no experience of actually teaching in NZ it was blatantly apparent that she'd only be considered for a "Teacher" position.

Also, (in our experience in relation to Teaching of course) be aware that the salary is less here in NZ. The wife's salary in the UK was £30k+ whereas here in NZ it's more like £25k (although the current exchange rate doesn't help the conversion back to pounds).

In terms of your question(s)...

The wife searched and applied for no end of teaching jobs in New Zealand before leaving the UK but found that she was being passed over repeatedly for people already in NZ. Even, on at least 2 occassions, the school principal preferred the wife for the job but were overruled by the board of trustees (the school governers) who preferred to have someone already in the country.

And it didn't end there, the preference towards teachers already experienced in teaching in NZ was very prominant throughout the applications made and interviews attended whilst in NZ also!

In our experience (and understandably so) the schools much preferred to be able to see the candidates face-to-face and I'm sure this is not something unique to teaching positions. This being the case I'd recommend anyone to grab the bull by the horns and just get out here, but do so with your eyes VERY wide open!

It's been a bloody hard slog, it's an emotional rollercoaster to say the very least, it's far from easy with two young boys around (and the enormous sense of responsibility to them) AND it's not cheap!

We've spent time staying with friends (mainly friendships that we've made whilst out here I might add), with a sense of imposing regardless as to their polite protests to the contrary, we've been through a series of hotels and motels (some of really not very good quality whilst others have been fantastic) we've spent time in our tent (that we bought whilst out here) and although we were fortunate that the snow that blocked the highways north of napier didn't land on the tent, it did get very cold and we had some shocking amounts of rain fall on the tent and had to live with water-logged land for just about a week!

Amidst all of this the wife was applying for teaching positions on an almost daily basis (she applied for in excess of 50 teaching positions in total whilst *IN* NZ), for each application she sent her CV, references and in many cases very detailed application forms and/or covering letters along with a link to her online interactive CV/presentation with photos and music etc which we hoped would help her stand out above the rest.

All this resulted in her being invited to only four face-to-face interviews, three of which she went to (she got the job from the third interview). However since accepting the position she has been invited to two further interviews!

We also found it interesting that the schools in some cases have held on to her application details and considered her for positions that she didn't specifically apply for. E.g. the job she has acquired, is not one she applied for, but the principal of the school phoned up and explained that whilst she hadn't been sucessful in what she applied for, they had another position that they'd really like to interview her for... this has happened since too as the interviews that she's been invited to since accepting the position she has, were exactly the same circumstances (E.g. not for the position she specifically applied for).

We've had the tears of frustration, the tears of guilt (are we making the right decision for the boys, lack of grandparent contact, lack of familiar support network etc etc) and we've been spending money seemingly like it's going out of fashion.

But.... it's been a massive adventure, we've seen some beautiful places, met some wonderful people and made what we truly believe will be a series of life-long friends (hopefully with many more to come).

And it appears to be working out too... I'm sat typing this email from a large (rented) four bedroomed house that we moved in to yesterday (granted only with our camping stuff!) It's in (what appears to be) a lovely peaceful part of Masterton with a large secure garden for the boys. It's outside of the "zone" for the school we want the boys to attend but the school have graciously permitted this (granted yet to be formally confirmed) on the basis that we do genuinely intend to buy a property IN the zone once the house in the UK has sold.

Today we're off to organise a kindy (kindergarten) for the boys to attend and hopefully start getting integrated within the local community - e.g. the friendships they forge at Kindy and in time school, will hopefully allow us to forge friendships with parents etc (incidentally not one person in Masterton replied to my "Looking for friends in Masterton" within the "meet-ups" forum :o).

Would we do it again... of course we would.... but we're more than aware that there's still plenty of uphill climbing to be done! Not least our first christmas in summer, living in a house with only camping equipment for the next 2 months or so (waiting for our Uk belongings to be shipped) - it's going to interesting for sure!



If you've got time on your hands then I'm sure it'll all work out for you.

Whereabouts are you stopping in NZ and do you need a friend in Masterton? :D

Sorry for the lengthy post guys.

Re: Work permit granted same day.
 

Well done and congratulations to you all, seems that it has certainly worked out for you all.:thumbsup::thumbsup: