kevinweav

Brain dump time I know. We're really getting close on making the move to the west coast from the UK. We're a little overwhelmed by the steps involved in getting there.

Really would appreciate any advice from anyone who has already made the move (I'm a teacher if that's relevant), did you have a checklist of things to cover off, what would you do differently in the planning and what are you do glad you did?

UktoNZ19

I am not the best to answer really as we are atill in the planning phase, but will be interesting to hear what advice you get.
Have you seen the checklist on New Zealand now website? nzready.immigration.govt.nz

kevinweav

Thanks for the reply. Let's keep our fingers crossed

carcajou

What visa do you have?

kevinweav

Applying for an essential skills working visa

carcajou

Has a school offered you a full-time job, and submitted proof to Immigration that they can't find a New Zealander to do the job?

kevinweav

Yes, and in the process of

escapedtonz

Yeah we used a few checklists. We got them from a couple overseas expo's we attended in the UK. One from WorkingIn who we used as an Immigration consultant, one from the Emigration Group and one we found through ANZ bank. They pretty much covered everything and gave timelines of when to do things.
Can't really think of anything we'd do differently. It can seem overwhelming as there is loads to do but if you start early enough and don't leave it all till the last minute you'll be fine. There's heaps more you can do online nowadays through Internet portals, websites, apps & social media etc

kevinweav

Thank you

MrsFychan

would of not sold the house in the UK to fund the move over.

nikkijane88

bourbon-biscuit

We made a massive ever-evolving mindmap and made lists from that. Things we did well: a 2-week stop in WA en route gave us some really lovely family time sandwiched between the stress and sadness of leaving and the stress of arriving and setting up - I can't recommend this more if you have kids; booked some short term arrival accommodation near the beach so we had quite positive first associations (although we also had 2 weeks in a very decent motel as part of the health board relo package - think those days are gone!); we tried to accept all offers to socialise and make friends but especially with Kiwis and ended up with some lifelong close friends. Things we did not do well: should have come for a year or two only.

BEVS

Should have kept the UK house and come with the thought & mindset of a two year trial run .

Certainly should have been more ruthless about what we brought over and what we did not.

Best thing - bringing our pet pusscats. I would never have left them. They were family.

escapedtonz

Yeah we did similar and would recommend to anyone making the one way journey to NZ, as you say....especially if you have kids..
We did 5 days in Dubai/Abu Dhabi and 5 days in Sydney en route to NZ to break up the journey for the family, do a few touristy things in locations we'd probably not get to see again for many years. It was awesome family time.
We also set about to socialize as early as possible and just be very friendly and positive with everyone we met. We pretty much made a whole bunch of friends in the first couple of weeks in Wellington, some which we still see on a regular basis by making the effort to meet up or visit when time and cash allows now that we are in Tauranga. Off to Wellington at Easter for a few days to catch up with most of them

Rainbow74

I hope I am not hijacking the thread by asking those of you who have said "you would have kept your property in the UK" or "a 2 year trial run", is this because in hindsight, you would have returned back to the UK if you had done things differently?