phate316

has anybody been to the nz immigration expo in earls court and is it worth going to

poppets

My hubby went in Oct/Nov & feels it was worth going, got to see a lot of people face to face ie recruitment agencies, relocation, real estate. He came back feeling very positive & was glad he went.
best wishes

Noel and Rachel

We went today and were a little dissapointed! It was absolutely packed, there were 34 stands and seemingly hundreds of people. The attendees there were a mixture of people who weren't sure about emigrating, to people who are sure. There are some really nice people (we got chatting to a few), but there's also some "I'm excellent get me a job" types, fortunately they were few and far between.

You won't need any CVs, we took 25 "just in case" and bought all 25 back - they are asking people to register and interview there and email CVs later.

As for the stands - well don't even bother with the NZIS, WorkingIn or Drake stands - they were queuing the length of the hall for those. I already have a contact at Drake that I'm meeting over there, and the other two have loads of information online so not too sure what the draw was for those.

Other than that there weren't many recruiter stands that could help us - most of them were healthcare or engineering (so if you work in any of those it's great). There was one IT related stand that registered me and interviewed me this afternoon, and I got a contact at Westpac bank who I have to email. To be honest there were that many people there I'm not sure whether we'll hear from any of the agencies but at least we are registered with them now.

A couple of banks were there opening NZ accounts (don't forget your passport and utility bills, but if you have you can fax them across and it's open within 24 hours). A couple of upmarket property places and a few publications, as well as two removals companies and that was pretty much it!

Overall it was worth going, although we were only in there 2-3 hours in total. Expect to queue for most of the stands - even the smaller ones had lines, it takes 10-15 minutes for most of them, except those mentioned above.

We've got some good information on mortgages and bank accounts, as well as some NZ publications to read, so it wasn't too bad overall. I would recommend it - I'm glad we went but am glad to be home!

Noel & Rachel

phate316

thanks for the info, im already registered with 3 recruitment companys in nz anyway, and looked into moving and banking therefore i dont think it will do me any more good to travel up tomorrow, are there any construction recruiters there as i own a building and landscaping firm and want to use the skilled migration application to get in.