[dharder]

Hi,
I've been lurking for a while, and have already found lots of really useful information, put some to use as well when looking for a shipping company (we've decided on John Mason after three quotes).
We are a family of 6 and looking at moving from London to Auckland in November 2007. My partner is from NZ, so we are trying the partner visa option for me, not that that sounds any less involved than any of the others... I work (like many others here) in IT, and was wondering if I should apply for a skilled migrant thingy, but think we will probably go down the partner route.
We have a place to live in Auckland, the little ones down on the waiting list for kindergarten, and been in touch with the primary school the older ones will go to. So why does it all still feel like such a mountain to climb?!

Anyway, it is good to have come across this forum,
Daniela and Co

[Trigirl]

hello and welcome :)

[gil]

Welcome Daniela and Co! Where in Auckland will you be living?

Any significant change is like a mountain, and even when you're half way up, there's still a way to go!

good luck,

Gil

[R&A]

Hello!

I sent my partnership residency application off earlier this week. So long as you and your partner can show proof you have been living together for 12 months it is definitely a much more straight forward route to getting residency.

I hope everything works out for you. Is your OH from Auckland originally?

[wiki]

We are a family of 6 and looking at moving from London to Auckland in November 2007.

was wondering if I should apply for a skilled migrant thingy, but think we will probably go down the partner route.
Daniela and Co

Hi and welcome - we are also going down the partnership route, although did consider skilled migrant too since OH has a Phd, but in the end we went for partnership because it takes the pressure off trying to find a job remotely. All we need to do is prove the relationship - which shouldn't be so tough for you guys if you have four kids!

Good luck :)

[Johnnyrs]

Hey Daniela & Co,
Good luck with the process ahead of you. I am a kiwi & brought my English wife to NZ with me in October 2004. We did the partnership residency thing. Slightly more complicated for us as 2 of the 3 (at the time) kids were step children, but it all went pretty straight forward. Not cheap, but we've never regretted it once. I don't know if this helps, but we had a few letters from my family (my Dad was a JP so that helped) saying things about how great my wife was & how there would be support here. As far as the visas go, we kind of went down the "can't give enough info" route.

Just a suggestion-there are a load of things to go through & organise & plan etc.. but I found ticking off the list slowly, rather than trying to organise & plan it all in one big thing meant it didn't seem too daunting - this worked for us.

Cheers,

[Moorf]

Welcome to the forum Daniela, looking forward to seeing your progress :nice1

[Mexican in NZ]

Welcome Daniela!
I believe is better to go thru the partnership rute as you get your residency way faster....I got it after just 4 months of applying....b4 they gave me a work visa thru family sponsorship(by husband)
Good luck and keep us posted, ok?
xx,
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[Ana&Steve]

Hi and welcome!
Ana

[Kim39]

Welcome to our world folks:nice1


Kim

[dharder]

Thanks for the welcome, everyone!

We will be living in Glen Innes (or Glendowie, depends on who you ask, I think the street is the border between the two :)), but are in zone for schools in Glendowie. Since schools are the main reason for me to leave London (we live in East London and schools have been an issue for me for a while now), this really mattered to me.

Thanks for the reassuring posts about the partner route being the one to go, it helps to know that it has worked well for others! I'm just amazed at the amount of cash you have to part with every step of the way...

Ah well, we'll get there, I'm sure.

Thanks again everyone,
Daniela

[StevieD]

Welcome to the forum - bit late coz we flying out on Friday so a tad busy :laugh

Steve