Andy.W

Hi guys, Can anyone help.
We are thinking of emigrating to New Zealand in the next 2 years and we are booking a holiday in November to have a look round. Im a chef and my wife also works in catering so we would like to look at areas with good hospitality oppourtunities, can anyone recommend some busy cities that we could include in our trip in November to possibly drop some C.V's off.
Also could anyone recommend the best type of visa for our situation and where we could get some help from as there seems to be so many conflicting sites on the internet, we are already confused
Many thanks in advance
Andy and Terri

j19fmm

Hi, to help people a bit more you might add your ages, will affect Visas available x

BEVS

Kia Ora and welcome to this wee NZ forum. Hopefully we can all pitch in to point you in the right direction.

To get you started I suggest you browse the actual New Zealand Immigration website.

If you look to the right of their front page you will see a section called 'What are my visa options'. Click on that .

Once you've had a browse , come back again with any thoughts and questions.

We are all more than happy to help.

MrsFychan

check out the Long Term Skill shortage and Immediate Skill shortage list and see if Chef or your partners job comes up

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...ls.htm?level=3


there is an option at the bottom of the page to search both options. from just putting in chef it seems to come up with it on the Long term skill shortage (LTSSL) so that could be a way in.

M_and_M

I have only visited north island. Rotorua seems a big tourist attraction. And Taupo. Am sure there are many others. Waikato too springs to mind.

chippy64

With more and more hospo sites opening, ChCh would be worth a look.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/bus...offee-and-food

UKNZ

Hi Andy
The two biggest cities are Auckland and Wellington.
The other areas which you need to look at were there is tourism and catering needs/jobs are Hawkes Bay/ Napier area, Taupo, Rotorua (smells too much for me) and Coramandel areas.
Look at the trademe.co.nz website at the job section, it has many adverts for catering jobs at various restaurants and hotels. I would also suggest looking at the real estate section on this website, plenty of leases available to open up your own cafe, restaurant or bar.
A work Visa needs to be arranged, talk to the NZ embassy and start filling in the paperwork now. If you don't make the required points to get a visa then you will need a job offer to up your points but that is a catch 22 situation as most employers want you to have a work visa first. Do you have enough finance to put a deposit down on buying a lease to open up your own cafe - this might give you enough points to apply for a work visa?

RobDon

How old are you and your partner? A Working Holiday Visa might be your best option at this stage.

Andy.W

Hi again, Thanks for all the welcomes and info we will be checking out the links tonight. As for our age we are both 27 at the moment and we have been working in the catering industry for the last 10 years. As far as opening our own business i dont think that would be possible for us at the moment but it is a possibility for the future! We've heard that the south island becomes quite cold in the winter and thats put us off a little, so we would prefer the north island and the larger cities seem quite appealing to us. Does anyone have any views about Aukland and Wellington ?
Thanks for all your help so far
Andy and Terri

MrsFychan

I can only comment on Wellington and they don't call it Windy Welly for nothing. Saying that I do enjoy the fact that the CBD is right by the harbour so trips into town are often followed by walks along the harbour and a pop into the Te Papa (musuem) to keep the kids amused.
There is often something going on
The further north out of Wellington you go the more sunnier it is and I'm guessing less wind.

Andy.W

Hi guys, we really need some help! We are just about to get get prepared to move to nz in the hope of a new life but really don't know where to start.

We visited last year (November) for a couple of weeks to actually see if we liked nz and fell in love with the place! We stayed in auckland and wellington and instantly felt at home and were devastated when the holiday was over.

So we are just about to start sorting our house out to rent at the moment, so we have something to come back to if it doesn't work out, but that's really all we know what to do so far

As for a visa we are completely stuck as to what to go for, we are both 28 at the moment so are thinking of trying a working holiday visa and then trying to get a job offer while we are over there and then applying for a work visa while there, but we don't even know if this is possible?
Also we are finding it difficult to actually find the limitations on working with a holiday visa,

Ideally we would like to live in the larger cities but we are open to travelling round to find what's best for us but we are finding actual wage amounts hard to come by as well as most job sites don't advertise wages!

This might seem a bit if a ramble but we are both a bit confused as to what to do first and any insights would be greatly appreciated many thanks.
Andy and Terri

Assanah

A friend of mine came on a working holiday visa, and found himself a good job that did fulfill the requirements in order to get a permanent visa. He is now a content permanent resident and is about to get married to a Kiwi girl. So yes, it can be done. But not just any job will get you a long term visa. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the legal requirements. Maybe someone else is or have a look at the NZ immigration webpage.

LauraNotts

Hi Andy,

I'm a nurse and came over on a 1 year WHV, currently on an essential skills work visa for a further 3 years.

There aren't many conditions to the WHV:

You have to satisfy residence requirements for the country you apply from i.e British and ordinarily resident in Britain when you apply.

If you apply for a 2 year visa you will have to pay for a medical which is pretty pricey but probably easier to get IN New Zealand as you can go to any doctor and not the few and expensive ones in the UK so if you want to get here fast go for the one year option and extend it later.

One thing to be very clear on is that you cannot accept PERMANENT employment on a WHV.

Beyond that you're pretty free to do what you want when you want provided it's legal and someone will pay you for it. I found that it was pretty straightforward for me to apply for a work visa once I was here and established, the paperwork is more time consuming than difficult. There is a cost associated with Work Visas which is significantly more than a straight 1 year WHV but it's easily meetable if you plan.

Just in case you were curious: Medical: $200 (ish - I forget) Blood tests: $180 X-ray: $90 and application fee for Visa: $270 and you will also need a police certificate from ACPO in the UK. This again is not difficult just logistically challenging. That costs about £50 to request and extra for international postage and couriering etc.