tiger mama

Hi there

We moved to NZ last year, haven't been on the forums in a while. We are loving life here, everything we'd hoped for and more.

My partner is currently on a WTR visa and me and the kids are on our various temp visas with him. The plan was just to wait the 2 years and then go the Residence from Work route just to save on the cost of the Skilled Migrants visa, and also to delay the expense as we've invested a lot last year of course. But we've settled so well that we can't shake off the fear that one of us is going to get ill in that time or something and ruin our chances to the point where I'm nervous about going for a smear test 'just in case'. Also we're planning another baby and thinking "what happens if there's something wrong with the baby's health and we don't get the PR visas", so are now considering going the Skilled Migrant route now after all.

The question I wanted to ask is, those of you who were granted PR (esp. through a Skilled Migrants visa) - when you get it does it come with any conditions attached? Eg. Is there a period where you have to stay fit and healthy and whatever in which there is still a risk of it being revoked? Or once you've got it is that it, complete security? Because if we'd still have to wait for a probation period then we may as well just wait to be eligible for the Residence from Work visa if that makes sense, we'd only want to do the SM route now if it could guarantee complete security in getting to stay here for good.

We have no health worries at all by the way, I am just a worry wart especially with this new baby uncertainty as you just never know, also slightly concerned our eldest may have aspergers and just all these little worries that keep popping up in my mind. Any advice appreciated, thanks.

Blade Down Under

The only probation period from my understanding if you stayed on your scheme is that you'll have travel conditions on your passport. If you are say in a foreign country when your resident visa travel date expires, I believe then you have to re-apply. Or if you want to go on holiday and will be away when the travel condition expires.

There's a few colleagues in my office, one girl had a baby and she's from Canada. She was on a WTR visa and had entitlement to the health system. The only difference was that when it came to registering, her baby had to be registered as a Canadian citizen since she wasn't a resident. Now she is a resident, I believe the new arrival will be a New Zealander. It's the same in the UK, Australia and Canada - something to do with the 2006 Commonwealth agreement. She's got travel conditions but has no plan on renewing when they expire. It also has no affect on the 5 year resident until citizenship

My SM application granted me permanent residence but that's mainly because I met the requirements financially to fast-track. I believe if someones salary is over $90,000 - your residence application whether SM or not could become PR straight away. All you'll be entitled to is freedom of movement in and out of NZ without the restriction. Everything else is the same, once a resident you are a resident. You can do the things that were only entitled to Kiwis

Similar to Australia, although we have to go 2 years as PRs of Australia without government help. I think that's the same for New Zealand but am not 100%

When did you move to NZ by the way? From what I'm aware, you won't be required to do another medical at all when you apply for residency. Also if you do have a new child before you send the application off, then they would have to have a medical. Quite how they'd do a medical on a 2 month old is beyond me.

tiger mama

Thanks for the reply! :-)

My partner earns over $90k so luckily we will be eligible for full PR if we do go for it now, all being well. Would the stipulations in your first paragraph only apply for those without the 'permanent' part of residency?

So when you got PR from the outset, that was it, no further conditions?

Interesting about your Canadian friend, thanks for that. That's pretty much how we'd figure it would work out but it's good to hear an anecdote as we weren't 100%. We have worked out that we've got maternity care entitlement otherwise we'd have had to wait. It does make me slightly nervous though to have a baby as only a temporary resident, I'd feel more comfortable if we had PR by then but we'd ideally like to do it sooner rather than later.

Moved last year so our medicals will still be relevant, but you do have to state (and I wouldn't feel comfortable lying) if your health has deteriorated at all and get another medical done if so. And as you say there's the new child who would need a medical and while it's the hopeful assumption that it will be a healthy baby, you just never know do you.

MrsFychan

everyone applying for SM gets the 2 year travels conditions, you also have to be working in the same job for 3 mths to obtain the PR visa, my husband had already been working on a temp visa for other 3mths when we got the PR so they just took those conditions off the visa stamp. You should be fine with your medical and chest xray

" I intend on staying in New Zealand less than 12 months AND the medical and chest X-ray certificate submitted with an earlier application were issued less than 36 months ago
-> No, you do not need to submit another medical certificate and chest X-ray certificate"

If you didn't have a chest xray you may need to get that done.
I do not believe children under 6 have medicals (?)

The possibility of waiting is that the criteria you fit today may not be valid at the time of application.

If possible I would pop into an Immigration office and speak to the people there and just ask them

Pom_Chch

Hi Tiger Mama,

My partner and I went down the same route. We were also going to wait the two years on a WTR visa and then apply for permanent residency through skilled migrant. We ended up doing it sooner, probably after 6 months of being in NZ. Same reasons as you - we like it here and couldn't shake the feeling of it being temporary being on a 2 year visa.

There are no conditions in regards to health. The only restriction you will have is travel related. You wont be allowed to leave NZ for more than 6 months during your first two years. After two years this restriction is then lifted and you can come and go as you please for any length of time.

I'm not aware of there being a "fast track" permanent residency if you earn over a certain amount. I thought all forms of permanent residency came with travel restrictions in the first two years. I thought the whole point of the restriction was to stop people being granted permanent residency and then leaving NZ straight away for a long period of time. The idea is that once you have been granted with the ability to remain in NZ on a permanent basis then you should stay and contribute to the country, tax etc. I could be wrong though as I am not an expert in this.

tiger mama

Thanks both of you. Okay that's good to know, thank you. We've got no plans to leave the country any time soon and if we did it would only be for a short visit so the travel restrictions aren't a concern.

I assume regarding the 'fast track' PR that BDU just meant that earners above $90K can get permanent residency at the outset, rather than having to go through a spell of having 'just' residency? I'm pretty sure that's right but I am not too sure what the differences are between the two though if not travel.

Under 6s do have to have medicals, just not chest xrays (I think you've got to be 16+ for that?) - we had 3 under 6s when we applied last year and all had to have medicals unfortunately - would have saved us a fortune if they didn't! But yes our medicals will definitely still be valid whichever route we go for (SM or RFW) - the only risk is that if any of us decline in health then we'd have to declare it and probably get a new medical.

Pom_Chch glad it's not just me who feels that way. It's just the whole uncertainty of it, at first it didn't bother me but the longer we get into it the more nervous I feel. I keep thinking "what if one of us needs a mole cutting out" or something and worrying that that'd be enough to scupper our chances. And as one of you said - if the criteria changes and we don't end up meeting it at the time - big gulp.

So now just got to think about the $ as we hadn't budgeted to be at this point for another 1.5 years and it's a grand or more expensive. Anyone got any inventive money raising ideas?

MrsFychan

so have you done the points indicator and get enough points to apply for SMC?

tiger mama

Yes I think the worst case scenario was 160 or something like that if I remember rightly, so fingers crossed that should be fine

MrsFychan

well anything over 140 is instant selection.
Next selection is this Wednesday if you want to take the bull by the horn.

or you could think a bit and try for the one after which is on 25th

tiger mama

Ooh good to know, thanks! My OH has just come home equipped with a graph (can you tell he's an accountant...) and reckons if we move some things around and tighten our belts for a few months (and pray to god that nothing goes wrong with the car or any major appliances for a little while) then we can go ahead and do it now. So - let's try and do this for Wednesday then!! Keep your eyes peeled for possible EOI questions coming up then! (Eek feeling real now...)

Pom_Chch

Nope, you are not alone! Everything we bought whilst on a temp visa felt risky (apart from surround sound, that felt good ) As soon as we were granted PR it was like a weight lifted and we could just carry on and build a life.

There's a thread on here somewhere about money saving tips, it has some good advice on there.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ighlight=money

Just don't be as frugal as my grandad and switch off the engine of the car whilst going down hill to save petrol....

tiger mama

Absolutely f***ing gutted.

Just as an aside - Anglo Pacific destroyed and lost so much of our stuff. I hate them, they are the worst company I have ever dealt with.

So, we've just realised (I'm not sure how it took us this long to realise this, we just haven't had a reason to look for them until now) - in the boxes of our stuff that they lost is a file of our 'incredibly important stuff', including all five of our birth certificates, and £800 worth of medical forms, not to mention all of the proof we submitted (including all of our original letters) of our relationship.

I don't even know what to do

MrsFychan

OMG Really. how did they lose them??

If you went for compensation surely they have had to of tried to locate them?

Birth Certificates can get got again, Medical notes (why the hell did it cost you £800? I thought they were capped at £50 per patient?) can be requested again , Immigration should have all the evidence from last time so that part may not be so much a problem but yes as you say "f word" gutting

tiger mama

They totally denied that there was any possibility that they could have lost them but then they offered us a token £50 (which we then haggled up to £100) to put towards the stuff they lost as we were very firm that there was no way they couldn't have lost the stuff, unless it had been stolen by the packers, and asked if we should report it to the police. If I hadn't been so exhausted I would have gone for more than £100 - as we lost hundreds of £s worth of stuff - as them offering anything at all must surely prove that they accept it was their fault, otherwise they would have given nothing but after 2 months of living in an empty house and after such a lot of emotional trauma caused by them (long story, I will blog about it one of these days) we just didn't have the energy. If I'd realised it was this stuff as well we might have done. We keep realising every now and again that something else hasn't turned up - I wonder when it'll end.

The medicals themselves cost £800, not just the forms - I was in a blind irrational panic last night that we'd have to have the whole things redone but now that I've calmed down I can see that worst case we just need to pay for copies don't we. Still feeling a little irate about that but not as bad as I first thought. Though thinking about it, would INZ still have a copy of those too or am I hoping for too much?

If you wanted to make a formal complaint about Anglo Pacific, who would you go to out of interest?

Pom_Chch your grandad anecdote really made me giggle btw

MrsFychan

omg surely they had all the stuff itemised and you had to sign them off when delivered?

think you might be able to ask to use all the documents used in your previous application but I would call Immigration Office and just ask.

How far up the Company have you gone? DO you have proof that these items are missing?