CJandCLARE

hi Debborah, Thanx for your reply,we are hoping to hear in late feb or early march as to whether there will be any vacancies in my trade. heres hoping We will be regulars to the site to keep on top of things and if we get a promising reply the ball will start rolling. How are you finding things? We are looking for a whole new start and are quite outdoorsy people. Scotland is our homeland but we are hoping that NZ can offer us much more. What are your experiences to date. Have you found settling in okay?

CJandCLARE

Hi Richie,
Thanks again for the reply. We hope to lean on your expierences over the next few months (if successful) I was in the HES on 111 from 99-2000! hopefully that rings a bell with you. Cheers CJ and Clare

richyandkat

Not really I'm afraid, mind you my memory isn't what it was!
I'm more of a 'faces than names' person!

So what stage are you at with all your paperwork and job offers etc? have you submitted your expression of interest yet? The paperwork mountain does seem impossible at first, I thought we'd never do it but we got there ok, esp after i found this website!! so many people have been through it all before and know just what to do or can point you in the right direction.

Good luck with everything, hopefully you'll hear something soon!

CJandCLARE

Hi Richy
At this stage we have passed the initial application stage and are awaiting vacancies, which should become clearer at the Feb lateral selection board. Hopefully by Mar, if we pass that hurdle we should be looking at the interview stage, and that is where we think the ball starts rolling (please advise if otherwise) we have not done an EOI as of yet but have done the points assessment, for which we scored well and should also amass some more points for various other reasons. Do you recomend doing the EOI at this stage? and is there two parts to this? we do not want to commit to spending money until we have something more concrete.

Many thanks
CJ and Clare

Divine Comedy

Happy New Year!!
Oh the waiting game!! dont envy you at all. I will cross my fingers for you. Its going to be a testing time for you and its takes alot of spirit. Have you any family to tell?
We are getting on fine now here. When we first landed it was the middle of winter, cold damp and dark. But knowing Spring/Summer was next was only a good thing for us at it would only get better. At the beginning it was a shock and took alot of courage to not jump back on the first plane out. As an Airforce family you think of it as 'just another move, it will be OK, we have done it before' But everything is different, and it takes a while to get your head round that the differences are for the better, they are what made you come in the first place. It takes alot of self will not to do the comparing thing, and accept that is how they do it here. So we struggled at first to feel at home and accept the choice we had made was for the best.
But as you know we have been here 6 months and we are totally happy now. I have 4 children at school and I have never seen them so happy, sure many people will say the education here is behind, I dont think so , I think it is different and it works .
We have done SO much since being here, the Kiwis love a good picnic!
We are enjoying the Summer emensly, our lifestlye has changed quite alot I would say.

We feel safe here and I love it.
Debborah.x

smiges33

having spent the last 4 months going over most of the threads in here i found this one. very intersting as i am currently in the Royal Engineers, Brit Army. have been debating if to transfer to the nz army or not. have a clerk mate who leaves to go over next month to the rnza, so as you can imagine i have been picking his brains as well. he asked me if i was going to transfer over. i told him i was downgraded p3. (knee) he told me that was not a problem. the question i was wondering was do the rnzaf accept personnel who are not fully fit. also he said that he was having to pay for his own removals to get over. is this the same with the rnzaf? as for time left i have served just over 20 years and just took a 2 year extention till 24 although i can still get out at 22 with my pension. ~brit forces now employable till 55 although it is offered for 6 years at a time and only if your trade is need. new terms are 12 years then offer of another 12 then in 6 year blocks. old and bold are being offered 2 more to take them to the 24 poiint~ anyhow current rank cpl and my trade is resources specialist. nearest i can convert over to an rnzaf trade is supply specialst.
having read all 30 pages of this thread i thank you all for the info you all have imput already. took me 2 nights to read it all and nearly slept in this morning doing so any info grateful.

smiges33

found this on youtube. should have been used for an ad for the forces

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dn7u5XvupSU#

Funny Tui(New Zealand) beer ad #2

Divine Comedy

We have that ad all the time on tv here [and TOO many of others] hubby likes to have a nice cold Tui.
I really dont want to go saying much about all your questions above as we cant answer for the RNZAF. I would totally recommend emailing them via the recruitment website. We found the RNZAF recruitment team really helpful. Just another thought, could you not emigrate to NZ on your own volation? without rejoining the forces? You would earn alot more in the civilian market. [I dont think wages has been covered too much on our thread but it is quite a big subjet on the other threads] [[apart from BEN having a say on it] ]
Anyhoo, good luck with it all.

smiges33

had'nt realy thought much about the civy market. thought it would be better to get into nz via forces. do a few years in it. if liked it stay in if not then get out and get a civy job. plus wouldnt really know where to start looking yet at civvy market.

NiamhW07

Hi CJ and Clare
We are just about to put in application having done EOI. Hope it goes throguh quickly as we are hoping to leave Kinloss mid April! If you are pulled from the EOI pool you get four months to put in application. Otherwise you have to go back to EOI stage (and pay again). We found it very quick and easy to get medicals/xrays at Inverness. UK crbs came through very quick too , about ten days - they accept Disclosure Scotland for UK CRB checks.

Niamh

Divine Comedy

Im sorry i cant be of much help to you, some of the others may come on and have abit more input for you? I will give them a nudge.

CJandCLARE

Thanks for that info! Thats great news that you are hoping to be out for April. Good to hear that you can get the medicals done in Inverness. Was it Raigmore you went to? Is there a specific place to get them done? Great news about the disclosure forms too as both me and hubby have them both being in the healthcare game. Is this all good karma?? or am i getting carried away too soon I can totally relate to Divine Comedy when she says that you can just feel that its another air force move. Cant seem to get my head around the fact that it will be so much more than that. Even though its early days cant help feelng apprehensive about it all

NiamhW07

We had xrays at raigmore (they only do them on Thurs and Fri) and used Dr from newtonmore to do medicals she too only does Thurs and Fri - so would I if I got paid that much for what is the quickest medical I ever had! there is a list on the immigration website of the Doctors you can choose from. Disclosure forms have to be less than certain age - 6 or 3 months I can't remember!! If you are transferring from RAF to RNZAF and getting a relocation package the cost of re-doing these can be covered. If all goes to plan we have 5 weeks to big family do for father in laws 70th, then 6 weeks 'til I finish work, then 2 weeks 'til furniture etc goes - suddenly it doesn't seem very far off. fingers crossed for Mr Immigration!

CJandCLARE

Hi Smidges,
When I put my application in last Aug-Sept the RNZAF were not looking for Suppliers but asked to keep me on file, they did however suggest that if I wanted to go sooner that the Army were looking for my trade, and I could apply to the Army. Might be worth a try if you still want to be in the military and continue in the same line of work.

Good luck
CJandClare

CJandCLARE

Hi Debborah, Yep its very early days for us and cant wait until March when hopefully they will give us more information as to whether they need bodies in my other halfs trade. The e-mails that we had back seemed promising but you never can tell can you? We have told family of our hopes but dont talk about it much as we dont have anything concrete to tell. If we are successfull I will be shouting it from the rooftops (until we have to start the paperwork )
Our boys are quite keen, the eldest asking for everything from a dirt bike to a jetski (he will be lucky ) Have almost got square edges to my eyes from all the internet surfing for info on NZ. Might be able to get a job in tourism if and when we get there!!! rofl:
CJandClare