Zareen

Hi there everyone

I wonder if anyone might be able to give some advice. We are looking to move to NZ, (hubby, daughter & myself). My hubby is an electrician on long term skills shortage list.

We got an agency to provide a report for us (around £100) They have recommended that we opt for the residency route and that my hubby should try to get a job offer before we apply to help with our points.

That's all good, but we are now left wondering, do we put our house on the market and get it sold now? Obviously employers won't offer him a job and wait for us to sell the house, but it's kind of scary prospect selling our house on just the possibility that he will get offered a job???

Have any of you been in this position? What did you do? We considered leaving the house to be rented which would allow us to leave if he gets an offer & visa immediately, and we could then arrange to have the house sold at a later date once we are a bit settled in NZ.

Also did any of you use an agency to help you with the application process etc? They charge quite, are they worth it?

Any advice would be great , my head is bursting!!!

hazeandsteve

Quick thoughts.....
Don't use the agency. It's not a difficult process, just be thorough.
Get the house on the market now, and be prepared to take a hit. The house is only "worth"what someone will pay.
Local sparkies will advise, but I believe hubby may need to do a bit of training to become nz qualified. You could send him over while you stay behind to sell up!
Best of luck, (sorry for the current exchange rate.)

midmand

Hiya

We have been in this situation. We sold our house and moved into rented in November. We have a six month lease but the opportunity to stay longer if needed (hopefully not!!). I used a recruitment agency (I am a midwife) and as my house sale was being finalised they spoke to a midwifery manager in an area i liked. I now have a job offer with this hospital. I put my EOI in in January and it was selected and as i had a job offer it was processed in 10 days. We found out last week that this was successful and we are now in the process of collating the info for the ITA. I have not used a consultant to assist with the paperwork, there is plenty of cost involved without incurring extra!! Good luck x

Reylan

Hi There, we are in a similar situation although we already have our visa. Our house was sold and we had rented to go into temporarily and then the people buying our house pulled out at the last minute. It's now back on the market but the market is slow. My own preference would be to get the house on the market now and if you are lucky enough to sell it sooner rather than later, rent for a while. We hope to sell and then go - with at least one of us having a job if at all possible - but if that looks unlikely - we'll go before our visa expires and go all out when we get there. Good luck!

MnB

Hi Zareen....first off 'Welcome to BE'
As you'll see from replies to your post....you're not alone! lots of helpful members who are prepared to share their experiences and pass on tips if you do decide to 'go it alone' with out an agent....and you're right, they are expensive!
Good luck with your planning, you've come to the right place for support Happy posting!
B

Zareen

Thanks everyone for your posts

It's so nice to be able to chat to people who understand, and are going or have gone through the same thing!

We have had the house valued and we are ok with the propsed market price. So looks like we need to get it on the market!

Reylan - can I just ask, what type of visa do you have? You see, we have been told by the agency James has to have an offer of work before we can apply for anything. But I do know of people who have been given a two year work to residency skilled migrant visa. When we looked that type of visa up it was saying about submitting details of your job offer

Thanks again Feeling much better knowing we have joined this forum!

Reylan

Hi There, We have a Permanent Residence Visa which we were granted without a job offer. We got pulled out of the pool fairly quickly and, after going through the process, my OH had an interview (anyone applying without a job offer has an interview) and we were lucky enough to be granted a PR. I understand from this forum that, if you do have a job offer, you get fast tracked to some extent. So it is (or was) possible to get a PR without a job offer. Oh, and by the way, although we saw an agent initially for a consultation we didn't use them for the application but got all the help we needed from the great people on this forum.

Zareen

Thanks Reylan,

We managed to speak to someone at immigration in London too. So now we know we have over 140 points without James having a job offer and that we should be applying for the permanent residence visa (work to residence requires a job offer). God, anyone would think we were stupid

So that's a big help, we can now lodge our EOI and we will be on the first step to our new life!

Now I can relax a bit knowing that and that we have this forum for help!

Thanks again

Reylan

Great news! Believe me no one will think you are stupid, it can be a little complicated but don't hesitate to ask on here. Good luck with your application.

BEVS

Hi there and welcome to this cosy little NZ forum.
Well done on getting through to NZIS London . Must have cost a fortune !

I'd be interested to know how your points are made up please, to be able to get over 140 as a sparky without a job offer. There must have been a reason that an immigration agent suggested a job offer to make up points.

Have a look at the official NZIS POINTS INDICATOR ( click on the link) to double check your points.

From speaking with both an Immigration Agent and NZIS direct ,you will be aware that your OH will need to be starting his EWRB ( click the link) registration pronto in order to claim his points.

Zareen

Hi Bevs

Thanks for your reply

Our points are over 140 because of my husband's qualifications, being in the long term skills shortage area, my husband's experience, my qualifications, our age, and the fact that I have a close family member resident in NZ.

The call for clarification cost us £10.00, so not too bad, worth it for us

That's ok re the points indicator, we have done this goodness knows how many times, ourselves, with the agency and with my family member But thanks for adding the link.

Apart from the fact that they would charge us in excess of £2,500.00 they were saying that we will get even more points if James has a job offer, thus making the application "more attractive". Plus it helps us to hold on to savings if he is earning as soon as we get there.

Thanks about the info for the Electrical Workers Registration Board, my husband is taking care of that end of things. As we understand it, he will also need to sit exams for final registration when he is over in NZ after gaining employment. I think those are held twice a year.

BEVS

Well. That's how I worked it out TBH. Hence the question/
Basic recognised trade qual 50
Years of experience 10 yrs or more 30
Area absolute skill 6 years or more 15 points
Age 20 to 29 - 30 points
Close family member - your parents etc - 10 points
Basic qual for partner - 10 points.

I get 145

Ten quid or One hundred quid ?

Zareen

Yeah - £10 well worth it

Our understanding from what the agent said was that immigration are becoming more employment led in terms of giving visas, and after our conversation with them, we thought, ok we need James to get job offer.....but god where do you begin with the whole house situation etc and I guess because we are not experts we were thinking that maybe that is the case and that's what we need to do

But then you have to think, well are they just saying that to get you to use their job service??? - £495 for that alone!!!

That's why forums like this are so good, using this and advice from my family member and then being able to speak to immigration has been really good, we feel like at least we know where to start with a feeling of clarity now, regardless of the outcome, and that is a good feeling.