Well, its not worked out I'm afraid and tomorrow we are leaving Brisbane and heading over the Tasman to Auckland, New Zealand to start again in Kiwi-land.

Came over in June this year on a WHV with the intention to travel round Oz for 6 months or so while we waited for our 175 to come through (applied in Oct 2008), as at the time they were taking 12 months on average to come through. But like lots of people know, immigration kindly changed the rules once we got here and the visa now won't come through until at least end of 2013.

I know what people are thinking, "your stupid to come to Oz without your visa first". BUT, consider this. By applying for the 175 I ended up losing my job as I needed references etc from my boss for my skills assessment, which meant I became expendable so was the 1st to go when redundancies came up, plus we sold our house just at the right time etc so no point hanging around with no money coming in and rent to pay.

Anyway, to cut it short, we did try to stay in Oz by applying for jobs to get a work visa but have had NO luck. We tried and tried and tried but never had a single response to any jobs and I applied for A LOT, so even though we have 6 months left on our WHV, we have decided to up sticks and move to New Zealand.

Campervan which we travelled in for 6 months sold the day after advertising it, enquired for 1 job in New Zealand and already had a promising reply, so now we are both really looking forward to starting a new life in New Zealand.

Don't get me wrong, we both really liked Oz and would happily stay if the visa situation worked out differently. Lots of things we don't like about here too, probably more I don't like here than back in the UK, but its still a great country. I won't go into the things I don't like as I got crucified in another thread when we first arrived and I posted about some bad experiences so I'm not doing that again.

So, tomorrow we will leave Oz. Will it be for good......probably. Even if the visa comes through in 3 years I'm not sure we would come back, not even for a holiday. Off course things can change but I hope we can get our life back on track in NZ and look back on the 6 months traveling round Oz with fond memories.

All the best to everyone in the Oz forums

Sorry it's taken so long for one of us Mods to see this waiting to be okayed No excuse just the apology.

I understand your views and see your point entirely - hope everything works out for you in NZ. Don't be a stranger in the Aus world

Thanks for approving it, thought it had got rejected for a while there

Been in New Zealand 1 full day now and loving it so far

Life has a way of working out in the end. Perhaps you just needed Oz as a way of showing you that NZ is the place for you.

Best of luck in your NZ adventure.
X

Those Mods can be shockingly lazy at times!

Anyway Andy, sometimes you have to try somewhere to know it is not for you, no disaster.
Lots of luck with your move to NZ & have a great Christmas!

Best of luck in in Kiwi-land...

Really sorry to hear that. You've had a terrible time regarding this visa, even down to the IELTS test. Hope New Zealand turns out to be home.

Sorry to hear your story Andy. I hope NZ works out better for you. Maybe you will feel differently about Oz when you don't feel so let down over your visa.

Karma given!

Good luck to you Andy,
Followed your ups and downs and totally sympathise with you.
All the best with your new life in NZ

Thanks everyone, really appreciate your thoughts.

Its a shame it didn't work out in Oz but thats life eh. The timing just went totally wrong for us I think which is what it all boiled down too. I dare say if I hadn't lost my job by applying for the visa then we would have stayed in the UK until we found out the new about the 175 processing times changing and then decided what to do.

Its frustrating more than anything that everything we had to go through to get the visa app done has come to nothing really, but if we can make it work in NZ and then just write-off the Oz visa cost then we'll be happy.

All the best everyone! I'll keep in touch with everyone I can remember from here.

Andy

Wishing you the best of luck Andy.

I remember we were applying for skills assessment at the same time and I cannot believe what happened with the visa processing priorities - I do feel for you, having to go through the stress.

I believe everything happens for a reason - and therefore NZ must be the place for you.

I really hope it works out

Thanks FionaandAndrew!

All in all as long as we can make it work in NZ we'll be happy. I know there are a couple people on BE who have been totally screwed up by the processing priorities change, but luckily for us we were still under the 30yr old limit to get a WHV for NZ at short notice, so that will buy us some time.

Hope you enjoy your first xmas in Oz!!!

All the best!

Just a quick update for completeness sake here.

After only a week in New Zealand I had already secured 2 interviews. Then just into the new year I got offered a perfect job who happily filled out the work permit sponsorship form for me and I started the next week. The wife then found an ideal job for her to and is very happy in it.

We were initially in a short term serviced apartment for 2 weeks over xmas/new year and struggled to find a rental after this. Talking with the buidling manager just in passing about the problems finding a short term rental he offered us another apartment (no view) at half the price we were currently paying, could have it as long as we wanted and only had 1 week notice!

Anyway, applied for our work permit on 25th Feb, moved out into a proper nice apartment in Takapuna last weekend, and this morning had out 3 year Work Permit Approved!

So totally loving life in New Zealand! Just glad things are finally starting to work out at least (touch wood).

Glad things are working out for you. Good things come to those who persevere.

Thanks. Yep, its took a while and a lot of headaches but at least we are settled now, albeit in a different country than originally planned.

Still got my Oz visa in, in the hope they get down the line in 3 years and refund it like the recent ones. No point pulling it out now anyway and losing the money as its gone anyway.