balmand2

Hi We are Mandy & Barry
From Romford UK
Looking forward to a new life in New Zealand (Fingers crossed)

Barry is a HGV driver just past his ADR (he can drive tankers now) Took his redundancy from his old job, now were at a lose end. I want to move & we couldn't decide where to move in this country (uk). Barry see an advert in the SUN one day a Visa consultancy agency looking for HGV drivers in NZ. He phoned them & we received the paper work from them. Basically we needed to register with them & they will put Barry intouch with companies in NZ. Once he has a Job offer the visa's will be applied for.
We have two children 3 & 4 Just the right age to start school & kindergarden. We can't wait. We are putting ourselves in the position so were ready to go. The house is sold. Lets hope it all goes to plan as were moving out once the contracts are signed & in with my mum & dad until we go. We just hope the visa agency wont mess up because we did sign up with them, wrong or right we did it. Now I found this site & every one says not to.

BEVS

Hi and welcome to the site.
Have some karma to get you started.

I would be quite interested to know which agency you have used and what they have promised they can do for you as an HGV driver. Agents can be extremely expensive for what is a form filling exercise. You do still have to do much of the work yourselves.
Most people seem to do it themselves, finding their own job offers. However, there is a place for a good quality agent where the circumstances are somewhat unusual . Emphasis here on a quality agent.

As it stands at present HGV driving is not seen as a skilled occupation .

Here are the options as far as it is known at the present time.

You can obtain a job offer and apply for a temporary work permit. Once the work permit expires you apply for a renewal. The work permit ties you to the employer. If you change your employment you will need to re-apply for a new temporary work permit.

If you take up a work permit for three years , then you will need to obtain medicals, xrays & police checks to go with that permit.

Unless his job offer will be for at least $50 NZD for around a 40 working hour week , then you would remain on temporary work permits, as neither the job nor the occupation would meet the requirements to go on further to apply for Permanent Residency in NZ or for a Work to Residency work visa. In other words you could live and work here but you could not be residents as such.

The only way ,as far as any of us know at the present time, for the HGV driver to gain Permanent Residency in this country , is to obtain a job offer with what is known as an 'Acredited Employer'. The list of the companies is freely available on the New Zealand Immigration Website. The job must be for $50K NZD per year and for a 40 hour or so working week. From that base, the HGV driver could apply for a Work to Residency visa and then in two years time go on to apply for Permanent Residency in the country.

There are a couple of HGV drivers on this forum who may be able to advise further.

As this is the introductions section , I won't put anything further here.

Please feel free to put up any concerns or questions you like to the Immigration or Main forums. We'll all try to help.

If you start another thread to either the Immigration or Main forum,I'll link you to some older threads about HGV drivers in NZ .

4kiwi4

Hi, We're also from Essex, Braintree/Chelmsford areas. Hubby is HGV driver and we're on a 3 year general work visa at mo, but have put in paperwork for work to residence now. Have been here since Septemebr last year and loving it. Hope all goes well for you, but like the last reply say's you could have done without the immigration consultants!! we done it ourselves. But hey ho! you've got them on the case, so hopefully all will go well. Good luck.

balmand2

Hi Karma Thanks for your advice. I hope our agent is a good one to. The company is called Ambler Collins. The Collins part of the group has written a book about moving to NZ. We came across this after we had signed with them & not through any driection from them, just by chance so were hoping they will be ok.
Ambler Collins have said Barry will be put in contact will acredited companies in NZ & once he has a job offer they will start to apply for the visa's etc. They have said he will be earning $50k doing a 40 hour week sponsered for two years & then we will be able to appliy for Permanent Residency in the country. So from what you have said & what we have been told. So far so good.
I suppose you hear it all the time, but we are so excited. We have never been to New Zealand. The nearest we have got is Barry has been to Aus for a month once. I don't care though I just keep thinking what an adventure. All I keep hearing is good things about NZ.
Thanks for you advice again
Mandy X

balmand2

Hi
I don't know where we will end up yet but we have said we would like to live on the north land. This makes me even more excited to know that there you are out there & your only from up the road from us really.
I do worry that all I keep going on about is NZ & my friends & family hear will be glad to see the back of me. But as I keep saying we are not only planing to go to NZ but also we are planing to stay here. We have sold the house & moving in with mum & dad but if it all goes wrong we will just have to decide on some where to live here. (that will be a hard one).
Mandy X

BEVS

This is all good. Make sure that it IS for $50K pa and for a 40 hour week . Nothing less will do if you want to start on a Work to Residence via and so be able to apply for PR in two years time. It MUST be the $50K pa for 40 hours.


That's a good mind set to think of it as an adventure.

viksta1000

BLIMEY, only 5 posts and your beating me on karma already! lol

WELCOME TO B.E


Vik

viksta1000

oh Gee

Thanks for the karma BEVS