KAO

Hi all,

We're a family of 4 looking to finally apply this year via the Skilled Migrant Category. Just looking for some pointers and opinions on the overall likelihood of job offers?

I'm not sure if we have 115 or 125 points without a job offer - hubby's HNC is a level 5 which according to the documentation is worth 40 points, whereas I'm sure the points checker puts it through as 50?

Anyhow, with a job offer we'd have 165 or 175 points, according to whatever we officially get for the HNC, which would sail us over to automatic selection for an ITA.

Hubby has been in touch with a couple of firms, albeit not many, in the Auckland area and they've indicated they'd be happy to speak to him - once he has the visa. It seems it might be a vicious circle in that you need the visa to get the offer, and the offer to get the visa!
Are there many NZ employers who will make an offer when you're only at EOI stage? He's in ICT management with practical technical experience.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts

K

MrsFychan

its possible for your husband to get a job offer from aboard but he would be far better being here and meeting people for interviews to obtain a offer of work. Once he has that they may be willing to wait for the process but best fpr him to get a years works visa to tide you guys over as the process without any hiccups once you have submitted an ITA can take over 3 months

BEVS

I've moved this to the main NZ forum for the time being as it is more about looking for work than about the visa type.

It is up to the individual to educate any prospective NZ employer that it is a job offer first before a visa can be applied for. Many NZ employers don't realise this. As Mrs Fychan suggests, if you do manage to find a job offer, you can apply for a temporary work visa to get you here and working quickly.


Others may be along soon that can best advise on how work is for your particular occupation. I have tweaked the thread title to reflect this.

KAO

Hi Bevs and MrsFychan, thank you for your help and guidance.

I've been on the NZ immigration site to find out more info about temp work visas but they don't give all of the info I'm looking for.
I looked up the fee for a work visa - am I right to think this is the 'Work Visa: Other' option which is £125? It didn't seem to fit into any other category so I'm guessing so. I also looked up the family stream work visa, which is the same cost, and would enable me to join my husband and also work while there if this is correct? There's no detailed information that I could find relating to taking kids on this visa, and if there are extra charges associated with doing so?
I'm just looking to build a picture of how it would all work out financially if we were to;
Persevere with getting a job offer and apply under skilled migrant from offshore or;
Get job offer (is this a direct requirement of a work visa?), go out as a family, hopefully get established in work and apply onshore under skilled migrant?

Funny, we've been looking to do this for a long time and have done lots of research, but now it's getting closer to applying I feel like I know less than when I first began looking into it

K

MrsFychan

My husband came out on a 3 week stay with friends and was lucky enough to get a job offer, he went to the local immigration office and applied for a Work to Residency visa and it was issued to him within an hour enabling him to start work immediately. So he stayed on in NZ.
You also need to be aware that the company you are applying for work with or offer you work must be an accredited company. see the latest list of employers:

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...st.htm?level=3

I think the company that offered my husband had to reapply for the accreditation as they had not kept it up to date, so it is possible an uncredited company could apply for accreditation its depends if they would bother (?)

Husband then updated his EOI to with job offer and was selected. We then filled in the ITA for the whole family, myself and the kids coming off the fact that husband was working here in a SM category.

So yes we paid for the Working Visa in Sept 2011 and then started the payments for the PR Visa once we had submitted the ITA at the end October. 2011.
We felt this was the best option for us and the additional couple of hundred pounds for the works visa in the scheme of things isn't a lot.

Myself and the children also had to get return tickets from the UK as our visa hadn't been issued by the time we came over in January, so if you all did decide to come over you need to factor in costs for air fares and that you have a maximum stay of 6mths on a visitors visa. You also need to be careful coming over on vistor visa's and seeking work, its a very grey area atm.