LittleGreyCat

Things are moving on, and our application is apparently at the stage of final approvals.
[Which is no guarantee against rejection.]

We have been at this since 2016 so the whole thing is a little surreal.

We live, at the moment, in "interesting times".
The UK seems set to get rid of a right wing Government dedicated to austerity and a small State.
$Deity alone knows what an incoming Labour Government might feel empowered to do, especially with the predictions of a massive majority for Labour.
Meanwhile NZ seems set to get rid of a left wing Government and elect a right wing Government dedicated to austerity and a small State.
$Deity alone knows what they will do if they get in with a reasonable majority.
[I'm getting a distinct frying pan and fire feeling at the moment.]

Under the circumstances it seems foolish (and expensive) to burn all our boats and go all in for NZ.
In 2016 we were all set to move everything in a container, buy a house, hold onto our UK house until we were confident we were settled, then sell up in the UK.
Now we are taking what seems to be a more pragmatic approach.
Live in NZ for 6 months + 1 day per year as residents for two years and get our Permanent Residents Visa in our UK passport.
At that point we should be able to live in the UK, or NZ, or both depending on how the world looks in a couple of years.
[Not good is a reasonable estimate.]

Our issue now (and this is still speculation as they might decline the issue of visas) is how much of a presence to maintain in the UK and what are the pitfalls/gotchas.

NHS - we would be NZ residents spending nearly 6 months a year at our current residence. Do we have to leave the GP Practice?
Mobile phones - do we keep our UK numbers active (as a main source of contact and TFA with banks etc.)?
Broadband - do we keep our current service or keep signing up then leaving?
Home insurance.
Rates.
Voting - I assume we will become eligible to vote in NZ as soon as our feet touch the ground with our shiny new Resident Visas?
Presumably we have to notify the UK Electoral Roll we are no longer UK Residents.

I assume people who (at least prior to Brexit) moved to for example Spain or Portugal would have had similar issues.
[Although they may have maintained a UK address and still considered themselves UK Citizens.]

It is all looking horrendously complicated.

Has anyone else been down this route?

christmasoompa

No idea on NZ as I'm in the US, but you can vote in UK elections as British citizens, you just need to register as overseas voters and for postal votes. I'd be surprised if you could vote in NZ elections if you are only residents though? Most countries require citizenship. But others in the know will be able to tell you.

We've kept our UK numbers, have them on the same phone as our US numbers, so can get texts for both numbers with a dual SIM. We just turned our package down so only pay £4 a month to keep them going with minimal data.

You won't be eligible to use the NHS for free as non-UK residents, other than for certain care, the same as any other tourist. So you'll need travel insurance when back there.

Home insurance may be tricky if you're leaving the property empty for that long, most policies don't allow you have it empty for more than 30 days in a row. So you'd need to look carefully at insurance.

Council tax you may get a reduction on, depends on your council.

Resident and citizen are different things, you'll always be a British citizen unless you choose to renounce it for some reason. But each country will have different rules, I believe that those living in Europe could still access certain UK benefits and things like the NHS, whereas NZ is different.

HTH, good luck.

Justcol

With such a half arsed low level of commitment to embracing NZ, I really wouldn't bother coming.

​​​​​​NZ national party is not the UK tory party.
NZ labour is not UK labour, and no one is talking about austerity.

Timmy Chch

Whilst I agree with the above, you do get a few years to sort out your assets/affairs. Surely you've made up your mind by now if you're fully in or not? Or at max give it say a full year here then make the decision to be all in or not?

LittleGreyCat

Noting that if immigration hadn't been stopped in 2016 we would almost certainly be NZ Citizens by now and have been living in Russel for the last 7 years.
We would have also reached the stage of reviewing if we should consider moving closer to a city with a high quality hospital.

It was instructive to meet a couple of a similar age in Marlborough who had the traditional Kiwi Dream of a decent plot, boat, access to the sea, orchard, vegetable plot etc.
They were wondering how long they could stay there because access to the nearest hospital was cut off when bad weather hit and they had ongoing health problems.
They also worried that urban properties had soared in price so they weren't sure what they could buy if the had to move.
This could have been us. We could have afforded the Kiwi Dream in 2016 but current prices mean that this is way beyond our reach now.

NZ isn't the same as it was in 2016 when we applied, and we are 7 years older.
As Timmy_Chch says we would allow a couple of years to sort out our affairs anyway.
We have never lived in NZ for more than 4 and a half months at one go, and never in the winter, so there is a lot we still don't know.
How can we know we want to spend the rest of our life in NZ?
There are plenty of posts from people who have moved, regretted it, moved back, regretted it etc.
Two years to check out NZ living as a resident doesn't seem overly long, and also seems an intelligent and pragmatic approach.

If the last few years have shown anything, it is that the rate of change in the world is increasing at the moment and predicting the future is becoming far more difficult.
We certainly wouldn't want to pick a location to live without waiting a few years to see what the changing climate has to offer.
In 2016 we would have considered Coromandel.
After recent events we would no longer consider anywhere on the peninsular.
[Noting that the NZ Herald recently ran an article about how many 4 bed 2 bath properties were suddenly coming on the market because people were moving away from Coromandel. I wonder why?]
Hawkes Bay was another possibility which is looking decidedly dodgy now.
Most of Northland is now looking vulnerable.

Are we committed 100% to NZ? No, but we are willing to give it a go.
Are we committed 100% to the UK? Obviously not or we wouldn't have applied for NZ residency.

We have the (once in a lifetime, probably) opportunity to qualify as NZ Permanent Residents.
It would be very foolish to discard this.
It gives us choices, which is more than a lot of people have.

It should be no surprise to any thinking person that we are far more cautious in our forward planning in 2023 than we were in 2016.

Moon_River

*if immigration hadn't been stopped in 2016*

Please explain.

LittleGreyCat

We applied in 2016 with an EOI for Parent Category.
Draws were progressing, and we estimated we would be drawn soon.
Then all processing of Parent Category EOIs was suspended.
There was an attempt at a restart which fell foul of Covid.
Parent Category only restarted this year and we were in the second draw.

So we have been in the queue since 2016.

Justcol

I can tell you right now what will happen.
You will come over, hunt around trying to settle in a perfect place that doesn't exist within Cooee of a hospital while flying back and forth to blighty every 5 minutes.
In 2 years you'll have spent a fortune, decide it's not what it was in 2016 and go home.
I don't know what the obsession with hospitals is. I'll assume ongoing health issues, but I'm in my 60's and I'm looking to move further away from a main centre than I already am, and I'm 100km away already.
No idea what you mean about Hawkes bay and Northland, yes there's been storm damage but it's not everywhere and how can you consider them when neither has a "major" hospital, same goes for the Coromandel, it's miles away from a hospital unless you're in a helicopter.
It seems you're all over the place without any idea of what you want. Could have been in russell, nowhere near a hospital, but you want to be near a hospital. ???

LittleGreyCat

What an amazing rant!
It appears you haven't read properly and understood what I have written.

In summary, a lot has changed since 2016.
Opportunities open then are not open now.
Our priorities have changed after another 7 years (surely not a surprise to anyone).
NZ itself has changed, as has the world.
Had we moved in 2016 we would now be reviewing where to live, and why.
If we get a visa, we will spend 2 years as NZ Residents to get permanent residency and then decide what to do next.

None of this seems illogical or unreasonable.

Justcol

I've read and understand everything you've said. I have a feeling we'll be be reading a similar post in a few years telling us things have changed a lot since 2023...🙄

LittleGreyCat

Which is one major reason not to go all in immediately.
In a couple of years we may say we are moving to NZ and selling up.
Or we may say we are visiting once every 2 years.
Or neither.
We live in an ever changing world.

Looking back down the threads in this Forum there seem to be a lot (relatively) of posts from people who have moved UK to NZ then moved back.
Not always to where they would have wanted to live in the UK.
I assume most of the happy people don't post here, of course, because as with most online Fora people join and post to ask for help.
People who have settled OK may well not feel the need to report back.