nukiwi

Hi everyone,

I've not been on here for a while but at last we have been granted PR :-)

We moved out here to NZ on 25th August 2008 and knew within a couple of months that we'd made the right decision for us both (no kids). We originally came out on a Temporary Working Visa because hubby didn't quite have enough points to do the Skilled Migrant route. Hubby is in IT and works in downtown Auckland and he's loves his job. To gain the extra points he needed he had to work 12 months before we could submit our EOI. This we did at the end of August 2009 and were selected the following week. Our ITA was submitted on 14th September 2009 and at that time we were told it could take 6-9 months :curse: Our application was assigned to a case officer and our medicals referred to the MA……this is where it got really stressful. Hubby's medical came back clear but mine didn't :-( When our medicals were originally submitted my white blood cell count was slightly lower and my doctor assured me that this was nothing abnormal and this is more than likely due to the fact that I'd had flu about 4 weeks before and suggested I have a re-test a month later. We decided to submit the application anyway but of course immigration wanted a re-test. This re-test was received by them on 4th December 2009 and we were told this was taking 4-6 weeks to come back, so we thought we'd have it back by Christmas……no such luck. Our agent (dealing with our application) telephoned NZIS to find out what the hold up was and to her amazement, due to Christmas shut down and MA's taking their holidays, it could take 2-3 months We knew that everything else was fine and that my medical was all that was outstanding. Finally 10 WEEKS LATER, my medical came back CLEAR. It's strange because although I knew my re-test was fine, it took that final word from them to put my mind at rest. We were then told that within 2 weeks we would have our letter……….3 weeks later, nothing…..then finally on 18th March 2010 we had the news we had waited for for 6 months.

I have to say we couldn't believe it took so long especially as we are here in NZ and had been for the last 18 months.

We are both so relieved and its great knowing that we can stay here.

We absolutely love living here. Okay it has it's problems but so does everywhere else in the world. We started our adventure on the North Shore where we rented a lovely house for 6 months but after about 3 months we realized that we didn't want to renew our tenancy. Luckily I met some very good friends off BE and they all lived down in Manukau, so we decided to look around the area. We fell in love with it immediately and moved down to Eastern Beach into a lovely one level house with sea views and just 5 min walk to the beach. We have been here for the last 12 months now and have just signed for a further 18 months. We do still have a house back in the UK which we are renting out but until the market picks up we are not going to sell.

We did all the research before we came out but nothing can prepare you for what it's actually like living here. We find the cost of living far higher than we expected but living in Auckland we also know it the most expensive place to live. However, we are so much happier here and having such great friends has made us settle in so much more easily. We miss family and friends back in the UK but have no intention of ever going back to live.

For those of you in the process of emigrating, yes it is very stressful but it is certainly worth it. Hubby has never been happier in his job and I love being at home but will probably look for a little part-time job at some point.

Since being here we've not had an overseas break, so we are off to Sydney in 2 weeks time and we can't wait We were beginning to think our PR wouldn't come through before we left but now we can relax and enjoy a few days of luxury :-) We have booked to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge and have lots we want to do whilst we are there. We are staying in a fabulous hotel over looking the bridge and opera house. Its always been a dream of mine to hold a Koala but this isn't allowed in Sydney so we will have to wait until we go to the Gold Coast.

Well that's our update and if I can answer any questions, please feel free to ask.

Good luck to all of those starting the process and I hope your dreams come true like they have for us

killercat

What a lovely thread it so nice to here peple making a sucess of things even with all the obstacles, Gives me hope lol. enjoy your break in Sydney and although you cant hold a koala we cuddled up to one in the koala sanctury on the way to the blue mountains. If you get a chance to i would recomend going there they are truly breathtaking.

nukiwi

I often check to see everyones updates and I know NZ is not for everyone but it's where we want to be. Just miss family and friends so much

Good luck with all your plans and if we get chance we will definitely check out the koala sanctury

bevissa65

So glad its working out for you both and well done on gaining PR. Hope we still love it enough in another year to be posting a similar thread Enjoy Sydney. Bevissa

j19fmm

Thank you for the great update, and so much detail. It always helps to hear the 'not so smooth' applications!

nukiwi

Thank you....I look forward to reading your post this time next year I'm sure you will be as happy as what we are

Just been and collected our passports with the long awaited residence permits in them Now we have them we are going to leave feedback on the service we received........certainly going to have our say now they can't chuck us out

BEVS

Lovely to see you.
How thoughtful that you came back to let us all know how you are getting on with your new NZ life.
.

nukiwi

Thanks BEVS. I won't leave it so long next time!

Am Loolah

Great update - glad you are happy and enjoy Sydney.

nukiwi

Thank you Am Loolah. We've not had a holiday for 3 yrs but what is strange is that although we are looking forward to it very much, it doesn't seem real. Normally we like to go away to get some sun but after the summer we've just had here.....then a little cooler would be good