constablechuck
13th March 2007, 05:04 PM
My wife and I have been in NZ / Christchurch for three months, the immigration process has been easy so far, I'm a citizen by descent and my wife obtained a 12 month work holiday visa, it took about 15 minutes for her to fill out the application online and she was approved the same day, no hassles, however she will be applying for PR and I will sponsor her under the partnership catagory, she will have to get her medical done and a Police Record from the FBI, were just waiting on the FBI to send the record, she requested it nearly four months ago and were still waiting for it, it's ironic that the only stress in the immigration process so far is hoping that the FBI didn't lose her request or worrying they won't take so long to process it that her WHV will expire before she gets her PR.:(
Life here has been good, we visited many of the local restaurants, parks, library, museum, Antarctic Centre and a lot of other places and attractions, Christchurch is a beautiful area, there's far too many things to list, there are low priced quality Japanese cars for sale here, insurance is cheap, fuel is a bit expensive but you can get anywhere in Chch in about 15 minutes, so I only fill up about once every two weeks.
The people here seem friendly and outgoing for the most part but there are problems here like anywhere else, the kids go out and drive around acting a bit crazy on Fri and Sat nights but they seem harmless enough, this past Sunday evening someone mooned us while we were waiting at a stop light and on new years eve some people got into a fight at Cathedral Square and one of them got blood on the back of my shirt. :uhoh
There are times that we miss family and friends but we expected that, the more we get settled into life here the less we miss where we came from, we have our favorite places to visit, eat and shop, in general things are good, in time we plan to get to know people and make friends.
I think the way expats feel about NZ has a lot to do with where they come , where they settle in NZ and their own personal lifestyle, we came from a mid sized town in PA and Christchurch seems to fit our lifestyle well, however Auckland would probably be more urban than we like, I think some of the expats that don't stay are the ones that end up having to decide where to live based on employment and financial reasons.
Life here has been good, we visited many of the local restaurants, parks, library, museum, Antarctic Centre and a lot of other places and attractions, Christchurch is a beautiful area, there's far too many things to list, there are low priced quality Japanese cars for sale here, insurance is cheap, fuel is a bit expensive but you can get anywhere in Chch in about 15 minutes, so I only fill up about once every two weeks.
The people here seem friendly and outgoing for the most part but there are problems here like anywhere else, the kids go out and drive around acting a bit crazy on Fri and Sat nights but they seem harmless enough, this past Sunday evening someone mooned us while we were waiting at a stop light and on new years eve some people got into a fight at Cathedral Square and one of them got blood on the back of my shirt. :uhoh
There are times that we miss family and friends but we expected that, the more we get settled into life here the less we miss where we came from, we have our favorite places to visit, eat and shop, in general things are good, in time we plan to get to know people and make friends.
I think the way expats feel about NZ has a lot to do with where they come , where they settle in NZ and their own personal lifestyle, we came from a mid sized town in PA and Christchurch seems to fit our lifestyle well, however Auckland would probably be more urban than we like, I think some of the expats that don't stay are the ones that end up having to decide where to live based on employment and financial reasons.