To be or not to be?
 

Help I am completely confused, I currently live in the north East of England and work in IT. I have been thinking of immigrating for some time now and have been toying with Az NZ or even Canada. However reading some of the threads I am not convinced I will have a better quality of life.

I have a secure job with a good salary although it is in a IT Helpdesk so much of my IT skills have been lost? (In truth I had a skilled IT role in London but moved up here because the salary was good and I was out of the retrace but I was by no means a career move). However the salary is good for this area and moving from London I am mortgage free although my house is only worth about 120k.

My mail reason for wanting to immigrate is I worry about the way this country is going, just seems to get worse road tolls ect they will tax you to breath before long. My sister visited her partner’s family in NZ last year and is now completely taken with it. So now she is moving there in a few weeks.

So my questions are:

1: Will I be better off i.e. mortgage free ect in NZ? Biased on the fact that I am comfortable now and mortgage free in UK?

2: I worry biased on the fact that my IT skills are not great anymore will I find work in NZ? Although I do have a Qual in joinery although it’s only a NVQ level 2.

3: I was thinking of working in IT or Joinery for a while until I get my residency and then go back to University in Wellington or somewhere then I would like to study Medicine as a resident I imagine the fees would be more affordable. As an international student it’s out of the question. Bit of a mad question I know but does this sound possible/correct? (with ref to fees ect).

4. Am I better off trying to apply as a skilled migrant or waiting for my sister to become resident nd getting her to sponsor me? Her partner’s mother thinks it may only take a year for her to get her residency?

5: Can anyone recommend an immigration agent I have looked at a few and one was:

http://www.jobfastrack.co.nz/testimonials.php

They quoted me about 6k for all the paperwork and that includes a job via their agency in NZ? Does this sound right/expensive?

Any help would be appreciated.

Re: To be or not to be?
 

Hi,

sorry can't answer most of your questions but I was gobsmacked by the cost of your immigration agent, we went through Chrysalis Recruitment and only cost us 1500 GBP, they don't do the paperwork for you but do give you plenty of help to do it yourself and it really is not that difficult.

1)check out the real estate websites and see what you can afford, depends what kind of place you want our place is costing us 130k GBP in total that is having a 4 bed, two storey house built on a section 2 mins to the beach but it does depend where you choose to live.

4) my wifes sister lives here but can't sponsor us as my wife has another sister and mother living in the UK, so it depends if you have any other relatives in your home country.

If you are not sure if NZ is for you come over for a holiday and take a real good look around.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

Re: To be or not to be?
 

Hello mate-read through the relevantly titled threads for an idea,and email/pm mr dreamfish-he in the same area of employ as you. Good luck.:)

Re: To be or not to be?
 

Hi,
re your motgage - if you sell your house and make 100% profit you would be in a position to put all that into house here - it obviously depends on how much you would want to spend on a house, where it was, size etc as to what it would cost. Look on one of the real estate sites for an idea - The Professionals, Bayleys etc or PM Cottageinthsky - she works in real estate.

There seems to be a shortage of IT workers here, again look on some of the recruitment sites (check the Really Useful thread for sites) and to my knowledge they are pretty well paid jobs. Not sure if NVQ is reconised here, you hould be able to check on the NZIS website though - you can do quick points check to see what you are starting off with. If you have a lot of points I wouldn't even consider using an agent.

We applied through the skilled migrant category and it took us 3 months from submitting our paperwork to gettin PR. We used an agent (The Emiration Group) and it cost us nearly 3K but they did all our paperwork etc but ith hindsight we should and could have done it ourselves. We weren't using this site at the time dyou will get tons of help from people here. We also strugled initially to get enough points but with advice from the agent ended up with 220 - well more than we neded for automatic selection from the pool.

Anyway - good luck, let us know how you get on:)

Re: To be or not to be?
 

Hi,
Two answer a couple of your questions,
we arrived in November and my husband works in IT. You would definately get a job in it.
You will not be able to apply as a skilled migrant unless you have a degree in computing as microsoft qualifications are'nt recognised.
If your sister was two sponser you it would take 3 years after her residency before she can do that.
PM me if you wan to know anything more specific
Carole

Re: To be or not to be?
 

Thanks for all your replies i have been away for a few day visiting my sister as she is moving out to NZ on the 18th. She is nagging me to get my paperwork in, i have emailed Dreamfish danny.f so thanx for that lets see what he comes back with. I am going to shop about with the immigration agents i have downloaded the forms and although they seem straight forward one mistake and it could be game over. I wonder if its just worth paying 1500 end of the day i know will need every penny but whats 1500 to get a new life. All i know is something has got to change, i am thinking of coming over July (not the best time as its your winter) but wanna get the paperwork in asap if i am going. I am tempted to just roll the dice and gamble, always worked hard and usually lucky.

Thanks

Re: To be or not to be?
 

Hi,
Did my paper work myself for all the family and although we all checked and rechecked it we still had some documents missing and info they required.
If you are selected then you'll be assigned a case officer and they will look after you application.
The one we had was excellent and quickly came back if items were missing.
Once everything was together it took little over two weeks.
However, my wifes a nurse and needed to get registered, so from initial selection from the EOI pool until sending in our completed forms took some four months.
My suggestion to you would be if your really serious about going, to send off for your preliminary qualification checks, costs about $25 per qual.
Another word of warning is the medicals, make sure that the documents are all signed by the doctors and that the photos are signed and dated accross them.
I hope this helps.
If you have any other queries please PM me.
Goodluck!!
Regards
Jules:)