elcomandante

Hey Guys,

Im British, and have got the chance to go and work in New Zealand with a well established company. I can get either the 12 or 23 month initial visa, and with guaranteed work & then sponsorship, I have been told that it would take just 3 years in total for me to gain New Zealand nationality & Passport..

I would quite like to live in NZ and gain nationality/passport (which i have been told will take roughly 3 years) so I can retire there when im much older (I'm currently 27) as I have visited NZ for 3 months travelling when I was younger...Also on this travels I used my years work visa for Australia & liked Australia alot..

So my question is once I have spent 3 years working in NZ and gained NZ nationality/Passport would I have right like I have been told all Kiwis do, to go live and work in Australia ?

JAJ

Even assuming you qualify for permanent residence, it's now 5 years for citizenship. And they only count time as a permanent resident.
http://www.citizenship.govt.nz

New Zealanders can live in Australia, but not with full rights of permanent residence.

bjddavies

It will be a long wait but worth it.

New Zealand's economy is bad at the moment though so you may need a lot of cash to tide you over.

There are a few minuses of being a New Zealander in Australia.

- You are not allowed to work in some govt jobs
- You can't get some social security payments
- You may not be able to buy a house or land.

JAJ

Bear in mind it is open to any eligible NZ citizen to apply for a permanent resident visa for Australia.

bjddavies

I was looking at doing that but it is not easy, or cheap. You have to go for the same PR visa as other applicants, the special PR visa for NZers appears to have been scrapped.

In my case even though my occupation is on the 'in demand' list I would still only scrape through - mostly due to my advancing age (nearly 40).
Not to mention the eye watering $2100 fees.