British Expats - Any and all advice welcome.

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- - Any and all advice welcome. (https://britishexpats.com/forum/new-zealand-83/any-all-advice-welcome-910469/)

Any and all advice welcome.

Hello all! New on here and hoping for some advice or to find someone who's been in a similar position.

I'm 41 with a wife and 3 young children. I'm a self employed builder here in the UK with a good business with a good local reputation. We are no longer happy in the UK and after spending 2 months in NZ we fell in love with the country.

I've been advised that the beat visa to apply for would be a working visa once I have a job offer in NZ and then apply for residency further down the line.

Although I am very skilled and have been building for over 20 years I don't have a piece of paper ie nvq's to say so. This is why I can't applied for a skilled migrant visa apparently.

My questions I suppose are

1 are there any builders on here who have made the move.
2 what's the best way to go about finding a job in NZ. All the stuff I've seen advertised require you to be a resident or have a visa already.
3 is there a lot of work in NZ for a skilled builder/plasterer/plumber/kitchen and bathroom fitter.
4 how would it work getting my family out there with me.
5 we don't really want to be in a major city so outside of Aukland and Christchurch would be ideal, any advice on locations to focus on. We loved the south island especially around wanaka and queenstown.

Thanks in advance and I look forward to hearing your replies.

Re: Any and all advice welcome.

Hi and welcome.
I will try to get the ball rolling a bit by answering some of your points in brief. One can expand later.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leechy (Post 12463596)

Although I am very skilled and have been building for over 20 years I don't have a piece of paper ie nvq's to say so. This is why I can't applied for a skilled migrant visa apparently.

Yes. Tradesmen need to be able to match the same level of quals /skill/work exp as someone trained in NZ to gain those points under the Skilled Migrant route. However that is not the whole picture.

Quote:

1 are there any builders on here who have made the move.

Builders in New Zealand are qualified carpenters/joiners mostly. Buildings are wood/steel framed. Any brickwork is actually cladding.

Quote:

2 what's the best way to go about finding a job in NZ. All the stuff I've seen advertised require you to be a resident or have a visa already.

I'd suggest that as you do not have comparable quals that you talk with canstaff/hayes or one of the other NZIS accredited recruitment agencies to see what work they may be able to offer you.

Quote:

3 is there a lot of work in NZ for a skilled builder/plasterer/plumber/kitchen and bathroom fitter.

In New Zealand each trade is stand alone. Each needs to be licensed to work in that trade. You will not be doing a 'jack of all trades' thing out here.
There is work, however not all the trades have a shortage of NZ tradesmen at this moment. That does not mean there isn't a job offer out there, just that it may take a bit of effort to acquire that golden egg.

Quote:

4 how would it work getting my family out there with me.

If you gain a job offer that NZ immigration will accept , then your wife and children will uplift visas on the back of that job offer.

Quote:

5 we don't really want to be in a major city so outside of Aukland and Christchurch would be ideal, any advice on locations to focus on. We loved the south island especially around wanaka and queenstown.

Erms. You will go where any job offer and work is, if you can gain a job offer that is.

Re: Any and all advice welcome.

I have a kiwi friend who is an electrician, he lived and worked in the UK for 15 years. When he returned to nz he couldn't find his papers or prove he had completed his apprenticeship. Having done the job in the UK counted for nothing
At 50 years of age he had to do a full apprenticeship again.

Re: Any and all advice welcome.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leechy (Post 12463596)

Just like here in Ireland & UK, NZ also seems to have a shortage of workers in the construction industry, but that doesn't mean anything.

If you don't have anything on paper, it will probably be hard to get a visa and you might have to start from scratch. Having a business with a good local reputation is worth a lot these days and would you start from scratch, if you had a job offer in a really scenic part of the UK today? Liking a place/country is one thing, but making a living is the hard bit.

Re: Any and all advice welcome.

i got my nvq3 through a company call DMR training 01942 673047 ask for Dave. i already had nvq 2 so a lot of things i had covered so my lv 3 did not take long and only cost around £600, but my friend just did there lv 2 in carpentry and it cost £1000. they visit you on site a number of time and watch you work and ask you loads of silly questions but it straight fwd. hope this helps.