wannabekiwi

Hi there,

my OH is currently in Auckland attending interviews.
If he was to get a job offer is it better and quicker to apply for a temporary work permit in Auckland or is it better to apply for one in London (he will be back in the UK on the 23rd of October)?
We are also still waiting for our ITA but feel the temporary route might happen more quickly.
Hope anybody can tell us more about it.

nukiwi

I came out with my OH to Auckland in July for 2 weeks for him to have interviews and he secured 2 job offers within 2 days. This meant we had almost 2 weeks before we went back. We used a visa specialist and they advised us to have medicals whilst in NZ to save time (also much cheaper) and they completed all the relevant paperwork and we brought it all back to the UK with us, together with medicals and x-rays and submitted it to London. We were not able to stay in NZ at that time therefore as we needed our passports to get us back, London was the quickest option. From the day we submitted our applications for a temporary work permit to the day we received our blue stickers was exactly 3 weeks.

Once we have been here 12 months, we will apply for PR. OH was just short of points so we had to do this route.

I hope this helps and good luck.

chocolate cake

From personal experience it would probably be quicker to do it in the UK. I had a job offer and came out on visitors visa and applied for a work permit in Auckland. It certainly wasn't quick, it was only pressure from my prospective employers that eventually produced some action.

wannabekiwi

Thank you for your great replies.
We are thinking of only getting the temporary work permit for up to 6 months and plan to add our medicals to our Skilled Migration Visa application once we are in Auckland.
That means OH uses the temp visa and me and the kids enter with a visitor visa.
I hope the processing time for a 6 months one will be no more than 3 weeks in the uk?
My other worry is that we won't get the Permanent Residency within three months out there cos our visitor visas (me and the kids's) are only valid for three months (German nationality ones).
Could we chose a better option somehow?
Just feeling a bit stuck in the visa jungle right now

newkiwi

if your OH gets a work permit you qualify for a work permit pretty much automatically, unless there is something about 6month visas that excude that. Your spousal work permit and your OH's work permit should be issued together. So I cant see you needing to enter NZ or a visitor's permit if he has a Work permit.

wannabekiwi

Hi newkiwi,
thank you for your interesting reply.
I am not yet planning to work in NZ but do you mean I still have to apply for a work permit when my OH gets his temporary one?
And what about our kids which visa would they need?

Thank you for your time & advice.

UKNZAUS

We came here as visitors, secured a job and my hubby applied for a temp work permit so that he could start work asap. I applied on his application and was issued an open work permit, meaning I could do whatever work I wanted although the hubster had to stick with his employer. We have 3 children too - at the time they were 10, 3 and 1 yrs old. My 10 year old was given a Student visa and the 2 littlies were given 2 year extended visitors visas.

Children of school age can go to a state school for free with the student visa and I put my 3 yr old into Kindy with his extended visitors visa, just had to show proof of mine and hubby's work permits.

nukiwi

I did exactly the same, my OH sponsored me on his application it cost an extra $150 (this might be because we used an agent) and I too have an open work permit to work where I want.

wannabekiwi

Cheers gain for sharing your expertise and experiences.

Looking at the INZ 1015 Temporary visa application under the essential skills policy, it looks like we both have to do one of those and I have to fill in section "N" which says:
<complete this section if your partner is a work permit holder......>
but if his one isn't issued yet at the time I submit mine how can I base it on that????
What we don't need is to wait for his tempory work permit for weeks and then wait for mine another few weeks on top of it.
Am I on the wrong track here?
Our kids are 3 & 6, so I guess we need the student visa for the 6 year old one and an extented visitor visa for the little one?
Do NZIS split all those visas to charge as many fees as possible or is this some sort of test to see how well you muddle through ;-) ?

nukiwi

That's why we used a visa specialist, it sure took away all the hassle and frustration of form filling - worth every penny

Good luck.

rockape

As long as you have all the paper work, I:E Police checks, the rest should be striaght forward as long as the employer fills in a form1113 to say he can't find a kiwi to fill the position then should be no problem, I under stand from reading the thread people are going on about 6 month permit (WHY) 12 months gives you better and longer to see if you are going to settle.

And as someone mentioned medicals are cheaper, and why use agents its money you could spend on other things than filling pockets of others for doing nothing that you can do yourself.

As if I could do it anybody can.

So hope this helps.

Regards

Stan

wannabekiwi

I think we are almost there with all the paperwork and feel we could do it ourselves. We did the EOI ok and got selected straight away.
Got the police certificates, passed the IELTS exam, got all documents translated and certified, got all references.
At the moment we have the Skilled Migration Visa application running alongside the temporary work permit request.
I understand with the temporary one we do not need to have medicals done so could do them more cheaply once we are in Auckland.
OH's interviews are going really well and he might get a job offer by next week.
Looking at the replies above it might be better to wait until he will get back to the UK and then get the ball rolling.
It definately helps us to have a communtity of Ex-pats (to be)here where we can ask for help and always get so many great replies.

klicker

Hija !!! Good luck and all fingers crossed !!!!I hope to get a screaming phonecall.... when your OH has landed himself a fantastic new job !!!!!We are getting our PR in december, when my OH is coming over for xmas !! just imagine you maybe have a x-mas in NZ !! take care !! xxx from Susanne