kylel39

Good evening/morning everyone,

First of all great site with some very useful information.

My girlfriend and I (22 & 23) are thinking of heading over to New Zealand, not sure if it's for good but certainly for at least 2 years or so. We've never been but it's just something we've fancied doing - that or Australia. At the minute we're probably edging towards New Zealand as it seems a little easier to emigrate to, more job opportunities (just) and less spiders etc.

I'll apologise now for all of the questions and I'm sure many will be in the category of 'how long is a piece of string'. But any help would be greatly appreciated. I just wrote a post but it was just getting ridiculous so I'll try keep this one short(ish) and not bore you too much

- We've never lived together but have been together for over 6 years so this would be our first time moving out - but we're pretty comfortable with that though. We'd be looking to rent (fully furnished) and have seen one's approximately $400-$600 for a 2/3 bedroom.

- I work as a Quantity Surveyor/Estimator and my girlfriend works as a Registered Nurse - both on the Long Term Skill Shortage List etc.

- Although I'm only 23 I would say I have 6 years experience in my profession as I completed a BSc in Quantity Surveying on a day release basis whilst working full time (4 days per week). My girlfriend has 2 years post grad experience in October.

- Money wise we could probably save up £10,000 between us so realistically we would need to have a job lined up prior to arrival. What's the likelihood of this because I see they ask you this on your visa and it'll likely have a strong bearing on approval and how long it takes. I just couldn't see any employer waiting on me gaining a visa to provide me work or is this common?

- Here's a really good 'how long is a piece of string question'. If we both worked (which we plan to), I reckon a combined salary of $110,000 (inc a car) is very reasonably achieved. Would this be enough to live a relatively comfortable lifestyle whilst setting aside some savings. We wouldn't have any dependents and we'd just be doing the normal things young people do - going out on a Saturday, going to the cinema, eating out occasionally etc. Regarding where to live I'm honestly no sure at the minute. There is a lot of work with the rebuild in Christchurch, so for me that's a big draw. But what city/town would you realistically advise? We like the idea of some sun which I think the south of the North Island has the most of? But we'd want to be somewhere where's there's enough going on also.

- Another point is my girlfriend would likely be achieving very similar wages to what she does in the UK but for me I could achieve double or just under which is a big draw obviously. The wage I could expect to receive now would be the wage I could expect to make in say 6-8 years

- Finally (I think), we're going to downunderlive in Glasgow on Sunday, has anyone been and was it useful?

- Oh one last thing, when submitting an EOI and applying for a visa, am I right in thinking that it would be one application for us both? I score approximately 155 points without a job offer for either of us.

Again, any help received would be greatly appreciated and hopefully we may even see you all one day

Kyle

Persephone

Hello and welcome,
Lots of questions so I'll try and answer some of them.

Your visa application, you would normally apply as a couple with one partner being the 'principal candidate'. You usually decide on who this is by comparing points totals and also whether one or both have occupations which are in the Long Term skills shortage list. That is a lot of points for one so young. I am not sure whether your work experience will only count from when you finished your BSc

This will be a problem. For your girlfriend to be included on your EOI you have to show that you have a genuine relationship and have lived together for at least 12 months. If you can't then she cannot be included on your EOI and any points you have for her qualifications cannot be counted.

kylel39

Hello and thank you for the welcome and of course for taking the time to respond to my post

That may pose a problem then, without her as a joint applicant as such, my score comes down to 130/135 depending how you look at it. I'm assuming there's not really a way round this other than two separate applications which would be far from ideal? I can understand why its like this but it's a bit of a shame if this is the only way. Would prom pictures from 2007 not cut it Ha

Another question regarding the English proficiency part, is it only the IELTS that can be used as evidence? I'm assuming an SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) Higher wouldn't be of use?

Thank you for your help and hopefully some others can assist with a few of the other queries also. I guess we're in a rather unique situation in terms of our age/relationship etc.

Persephone

Hmmm, the living together thing is quite rigid when you're looking at residency/SMC. Applying separately could lead to issues if only one of you is granted a visa of course.
Have you considered working holiday visas [WHV], I am assuming she is under 30 [not ruling out the possibility that you are her toyboy]
Have you looked at the recent History of Selection Points on the INZ website? This will give you a good idea of what's being drawn at the moment and can give you some idea as to the chances of you being drawn out if her points are taken off.
An option could be for you to apply, she gets a WHV, you live together for a year in NZ and she applies for residency under Partnership. Or both get WHVs. Or live together for a year and then apply. The other visa options require you to have a job before you can apply for them.

You should not need to sit IELTS if you were born and brought up in the UK. On the EOI you tick 'Meets the minimum standard' and a box comes up where you explain why and how you meet that standard. It is unlikely they would ask for any physical proof [as far as I'm aware Scottish English is acceptable]

Nurses however need to sit IELTS as part of their NZ registration process.

First things first is to look at your visa situation. There are ways round this but it all depends on your particular circumstances

BEVS

HHmm.

At your ages why not go for the working holiday visa. One each. That gets you both here.

Then you both look for permanent work here in your fields and uplift 2 year temporary work permits. Breathing space.

You both properly live together as of now or when you land here with a view to establishing the criteria for the long term relationship and then go for residency under the SMC.

What do you think Persephone?

kylel39

Hello Bevs and thank you for your response.

I'm assuming we could still apply for jobs that suit our occupation no problem? Just explaining that we've have a WHV at the minute but after a year/23 months, we plan to apply for either a residence SM visa. Ahh I've just read that we can't apply for permanent work while we're there, we'd have to reapply for a work visa? Would the best idea be just heading out there with one of these visas and get a job when we're there or arrange a few interviews approximately 4 weeks prior to going?

I see that you can get a working holiday visa for 12 or 23 months? With the one that is 23 months an xray and medical is required....would there be any benefit in our situation going for the 23 month option seeing as we plan to stay a little longer than that anyway? Also am I correct in thinking the working holiday visas have a quick turn around...around 5 days?

Does anyone have advice on what location would be best suited to us? Ideally we want to be somewhere sunny and I've seen there is a vast range of difference between various places. Sounds silly but as much as it is an experience, the weather is certainly a factor Some receiving an average of 1500 hours of sunshine per annum compared to the likes of Nelson with 2500 roughly - which is a massive difference. But Nelson is pretty quiet I believe and we would still like to do (some) things we do back in Scotland like go out for drinks etc. Christchurch seemed to be about midway with about 2000 hours of sunshine?

Also regarding our proposed combined salaries, do you think a comfortable lifestyle with some savings is attainable?

Thanks again for all your help. Would love to hear from someone in similar situation/professions.

Kyle

simonsi

Gets my vote even though I'm not Persephone

simonsi

Yep it will be. But validate your assumption on your salary, why the big jump in your UK salary potential?

kylel39

Thank you

My girlfirends would remain much the same in all honesty but it's mines that would take a hike due to hopefully the following;

I'm currently working for a small-medium family business, were requesting wage rises etc isn't particularly straight forward.

I'm sure if I looked elsewhere - which I don't want to at the minute as I'm pretty comfortable and looking to emigrate - I could up my salary by about £6-10K.

Also there's not the demand in Scotland as there is in the likes of Australia or New Zealand, especially in a small town compared to a City.

Hopefully this goes some way to clarifying the situation without sounding too pretentious I think my estimation was a reasonable figure ($65,000 for a Quantity Surveyor and $45,000 for a Nurse) and I've aired (hopefully on the lowish side).

Thanks.

simonsi

Got it. No idea on yours but I think the nurse salary expectation should be bettered in reality, more in the $55k-ish region I would have thought.

Look for the jobs first, then consider locations where there are jobs for you both...

TeamEmbo

I have heard in the past from others that a quantity surveyor here is not quite the same as in the UK, don't ask me in what ways as I really don't know! This is the link to NZ Institute of QS so you'll be able to spot if there are any real differences http://www.nziqs.co.nz/about/whatis.html The second link is to CareersNZ which shows pay rates for QS http://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs/cons...tity-surveyor/
Good luck, hope you get the visa thing sorted

TeamEmbo

This might be helpful too http://www.enz.org/salary-quantity-surveyor.html

kylel39

Hello,

Thank you for that, yeah the role remains the same but I think they sometimes call it (in Australia anyway) a Contracts Administrator which is basically just a Quantity Surveyor working for a Contractor. Even over here the title of the role is often changed but the principles remain the same.

The salary guide you posted I think makes my figures seem pretty realistic so thank you for that :-) At least I know I'm on the right lines with what I'm saying and it's not complete rubbish Ha

Regarding location I think there's quite a demand (hopefully) for both our occupations - certainly in Christchurch due to the rebuild. I think most of the cities there should hopefully be work available for both of us So hopefully we could effectively choose a location rather than be dictated by job offers but maybe not. If this was the case where would you advise?

Thanks you.

Persephone

That was my first thought as to the best course of action. Both have jobs on the LTSSL so there should be no problem with getting work visas once jobs are found.

Better to go for residency, live together and have both of them on the same EOI.

Very good Simonsi


Kylel39 - have you done any research on jobs yet? It can be possible to gain a job offer without being in NZ, this depends on the employer, job etc etc. It's not always possible. If you both had job offers then you could go straight for the work visa and forget the WHV.
Also keep anything that relates to your relationship, when you live together have the bills in both of your names etc. You will need to prove that you have lived together and the more stuff you have the better!

kylel39

Hello,

Yeah I've done some research and certainly think it would be possible to receive a job offer prior to arriving, I was just keeping all my options open. Thanks for the heads up on bills etc. and hopefully if going down this route it would be easy enough to gain residence.

You'll all probably hate me for saying this but I'm also looking into Australia...one of the two anyway. Both seem to have their pro's and con's and a good job market for us two. Although it seems either way I'll be going down similar route and process.

Thanks again and I'll keep you all posted with any progress made once I've visited downunderlive on Sunday .