Moving to NZ - where to begin?
 

Hi,

My partner, myself and our 19 month old son currently live in the uk and are all british citizens. We are a young family I am 21 and my partner is 24.

We want to know what kind of visas to apply for to stay in NZ for around 6 months to a year. We want to see if we like it before we decide to permanently live.
My partner is in the police here but if he leaves the country for longer than a couple of months they told him he will most definitely have no job to go back to. How easy is it realistically for him to become part of the NZ police?

What kind of accommodation is best for this kind of temporary living, and where are the nice areas with lots to do for children?
Also, I am a qualified beauty therapist with 3 years working experience, currently working in the best salon/spa in my town. Will i find a job in beauty easily in NZ?

Thanks for your help, if anybody can answer any of these questions I would be really grateful!

Kara x

Re: Moving to NZ - where to begin?
 

You will either need to get a job offer for one of you to apply for a Work Visa or a Work To Residence visa. Or you can see if you qualify for the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) - which is a route to Permanent Residence (PR).

You won't qualify for Working Holiday Visas if you bring your son with you.

You can see how the SMC points system works on the indicator on the NZIS website here

Have a read of the Skills shortage lists (both Long Term and Short Term), to see if either or both of your skill sets and experience qualify for extra points under the scheme.

Do a search here, I think there will be people who have done the UK Police to NZ Police route here before...

Re: Moving to NZ - where to begin?
 

The police over here are always recruiting from the UK force - I heard that they hire ex-"Bill" cast members to get involved with the induction courses in Auckland!

Re: Moving to NZ - where to begin?
 

http://www.newcops.co.nz/application...o-can-be-a-cop

In the police website, it says 'To be eligible for employment with NZ Police you must obtain NZ Citizenship or Permanent Residency first.' :unsure: hmm - bit of a catch 22 there?

Re: Moving to NZ - where to begin?
 

Unfortunately these days it is not as easy to join the police in NZ as a migrant. For several years NZ police actively recruited UK cops, & it was possible to get a PR visa on the job offer from them. They also provided conversion courses for UK recruits & recognition of prior service when it came to salary scales. However the last lot of UK recruits came over in early 2009, and since then they have said that there won't be any further recruitment from the UK. That said if you were to move here your husband would be able to apply to join the police, & would, I imagine, stand a good chance of getting a job. But they don't offer any assistance with the visa, so you'd need to be able to secure a visa independently. Also he'd need to do the full new recruit training at the police college in Porirua (I think that's quite a long course, but the details should be on the new cops site) & he'd start on the new entrant pay scale.
It does, sadly, mean that it is much, much harder to emigrate here with the intention of working in the police. Sorry that that is probably not the news you were hoping to hear.