MrsGreen2013

Morning All !

So had a great skype chat with a potential employer last night who now wants to speak to my references, Seeing as we were planning on coming in FEB those plans may have to be shifted a bit! looks like 8 weeks now!!

I know many of you have said dont bother with the agents but i guess they have hoodwinked me as I have it in my head that they will be able to help if things get a bit tricky. However how hard can it be to fill in the forms?

Our application is quite straight forward

Claiming points for:

My Degree
6 years work experience in a comparable market
Job Offer as a PA (checking the Job Description matched the ANZCO requirements)
Salary over $45k (seems to be a stipulation with PA work)
Job Offer outside of Auckland
Age (34)
etc etc my degree is currently being assessed by NZQA once that is back I should have 155 points

Once selected - how long are the application forms?
What did you find the trickiest bit of the application?
starting to pull together the paperwork now so I am ready, police certs, NZQA etc etc


New Zealand Shores have been fantastic but want something like £2500 .... thats like 3 months rent!!!!!!!!

MrsFychan

looks all straight forward, agents can't bend the rules and you have to give them all the documents anyway so do it yourself. only time I think anyone would suggest you use agent is when there are legality/medical issues which is where you would need a specialist agent and not the normal run of the mill ones

tiger mama

We nearly got sucked into it too, they do have a good way of very pleasantly convincing you that you'd never manage it without them. In the end we opted out, we were told a few wrong things by the immi lawyer we were speaking to and it just left us thinking actually we are trusting this person to get it right and we felt better about doing it ourselves.

I agree that if you have a complicated case an immigration lawyer would be a better idea perhaps. If you have a medical problem, or a complicated family situation, if there's any risk convincing them of genuine partnership for some reason, any police history etc. - but in a normal straightforward case you are just paying somebody an awful lot of money to fill in your boring details.

We completed the EOI but then had a change of plan and decided to go the work to residence route so have filled in an awful lot of forms in the last couple of months. It was very boring and required a lot of checking and rechecking but nothing that wasn't achievable ourselves. From what I understand (though someone correct me if I'm wrong as obviously we didn't get that far) the ITA paperwork for a PR visa is no different to the EOI in that it's not much extra work?

Persephone

Do it yourself!

Once you've filled in the EOI there's not really any more paperwork. The ITA is just a copy of the EOI with a list of documents you need to provide. You send it back with a covering letter and your proof that you are eligible to claim the points you've claimed for.

The trickiest bit-perhaps being patient when waiting to hear from NZIS

How come you need your degree assessing? Just being nosy here

MrsGreen2013

Seems The University of Central Lancashire are not on the damn exempt list!! god damn it. Seems strange and a bit worrying to me as they are a large UK institution - if it comes back negative i am up the creek ! however i believe even with a level 3 qualification i will still have 145 points ..... skin of my teeth!

Persephone

Generally an EOI which includes points for a job offer will get selected even if it has only 100 points so no need to worry

Surprised it is not on the list though I saw that UWE was not on the list recently as well. I can't remember what came of it, whether NZIS accepted it or not.
All the best!

MrsGreen2013

Thank you !! time will tell

MrsFychan

could they be under a different name on the list, husband was University College London but was something different on the list.

MrsGreen2013

No I don't think so, they were on it last year so that's a bit worrying, with out the quals I have 105 points which includes a job offer ! At least that's something!

Persephone

Yes, it's strange. As I said, someone recently had a degree from UWE which had been dropped from the list. It's in Bristol but is not connected to the University of Bristol so I don't know what's going on.

You should get a level back from the IQA that should say where your degree stands, I'd be surprised if you didn't get any points for it.

MrsGreen2013

Me too UCLAN is a big Uni and not an affiliate of another Uni so hopefully - they do have a few arms to the Uni so maybe NZIS thought too many were getting through that way and they need to fully assess but hey Jo what will be will be

MrsGreen2013

Thanks everyone for your input x

BEVS

Looking at your post, you really don't need an Immy Consultant unless you have a skeleton in your closet or a health issue.

NZQA should be able to give you the level require.