skinnymat

Hi all.Just wanted to ask a couple of questions regarding me and the wife coming over to New Zealand and which Visa's you think we would be eligible for. Here's the story. Im 44 UK citizen 25 years Print finishing experience and 2 years working in Finance. Wife is 33 Dual Uk and Thai citizen and is a Traditional thai massage thweapist with 14 years experience. What are our options. Looking to move longterm to New zealand but can do a one or two year stay 1st if needs be. Any advice would be fantastic.

MrsFychan

both are on the list of skilled occupations so I would go with the one that gives you the most points.

Fill out an Expression of Interest on the Immigration site and let us know what points you get.

Please see post 1 in this thread as to when you can apply points for certain questions
http://britishexpats.com/forum/immig...d-pool-810756/

Justcol

I think whatever role you choose to come over with (printing or finance)
You need to have worked in that role for the previous 3 years before the application
But not 100% sure on that.

skinnymat

Thanks for the replies. Think we are going to look into the visa's and see which ones we can go for. The employment side is the main thing I think we need to prepare for the most as my understand is once there is a job offer in place the visa application follows on.

It may be that we travel over for a 5/6 weeks holiday 1st and try to fix up some interviews whilst we are there and maybe get a job offer in placed before we apply.

MrsFychan

Justcol is nearly correct you need to have the relevant qualifications or at least 5 year provable work experience. Same goes for you partner

skinnymat

Thanks again for the reply. Have a relevant certificate in print finishing that should be ok but went into finance as a career change for the last 18 months. My wife has been working as a massage therapist for the last 13 years and has a certificate of skills which she acquired in Thailand so hopefully that should be ok. Need to look at getting a job offer i think before we apply for a visa.

BEVS

It is always job offer first before one can apply for a work visa.

MrsFychan

unfortunately Thailand is not a comparable market so not sure she would be able to uplift a visa??

skinnymat

Thanks again for the replies. She has been in the UK for over 6 years and she was working in Spain and Grand Canaria for 3 years before that so im not sure where how that would work.

MrsFychan

I think the qualification has to come from an approved establishment, maybe best to call Immigration and ask them

BEVS

If she gains a job offer in her occupation then they would uplift temp work visas. The problem here is that this occupation , Thai Massage Therapist , although seen as skilled is not deemed to be in shortage so any prospective employers is going to need to show that there is no NZ resident or citizen that could take up that work.

However, nothing ventured, nothing gained & what better Thai massage therapist than an actual Thai trained massage therapist.

Seek seems to have several vacancies.

From what is written this lady has 5 yrs of work exp in the UK which is a comparable labour market. It may be that an NZQA assessment will be needed to prove her level of expertise. That would include her formal Thai quals + all her work experience for the past 13 years.

Talking with the MassageNZ might be helpful.

Also, if she could uplift a UK qual like an NVQ to help underpin her ability and quals to do this work.

bigmo23

When I did it I applied on one application and had my wife on it too. I had a job offer. But when I spoke to immigration NZ, they said whatever visa and rights I get, as my wife was on my application, she would get it too. Hope that helps. I ended up with a PR from the SMC, but there is a work visa, for that it needs to be shown that the employer looked for someone with your skills in NZ already!

skinnymat

Thanks for this reply. I have emailed a few companies to ask about vacancies for both me and my wife and to be honest she has had a far better response than me. Need to get my head around which way would be better for us to obtain visas. Im thinking of holiday visas from the Uk and then apply for working visas once both me and her have secured a job offer. Had a very interesting reply for her from Rotarua. Anyone know how the job scene is down there. Would suit me a lot better if we were not in Auckland but out in the country a little but with my job skills it will be difficult to get something there.

Kotare

Rotorua isn't that isolated, Tauranga and Hamilton would be commutable for you.

skinnymat

Thanks again for the replies. Looks like the Job/Visa application is a catch 22 situation so the best way forward is for us is to travel over and then take it from there. Seems like a bit of a minefield but with some help when we get there, I'm sure we can sort it out. Feeling positive is the way forward i think.