[stoorob]

My wife and I are very interested in moving to New Zealand in about 2-3 years time, but in the meantime will be reading up as much as possible on the country and joining forums like this one.

Why the long wait? We want to make sure it's the right thing to do and not just jump into it with our eyes shut. We'd considered moving to Canada for a while but after visiting (and loving the place) decided the long emmigration process and the very cold weather in winter to turn our attention to New Zealand. We've heard a lot of good things about the place and want to be able to bring up our children (when we decide to have some!) in a country that's more relaxed and provides more opportunities for them than here in Scotland.

I work in IT as a consultant\programmer while my wife is a medical secretary, so hopefully finding work won't be too hard for us, although you never know.

Once you get your visa accepted how long do you get to actually move over before it expires?

Stuart

[speckythecky]

Welcome to the forum,

having a long term plan is useful as things can take time,

use the search button to check for existing threads on any topic you have questions about, and if you can't find what you want, ask a question, someone will know the answer

[Kim39]

Welcome to our world Stuart, or maybe its better to say welcome to the loony bin:laugh In answer to your question how long? Well you would be looking at a time span of around 12-18 months once all has been accepted and you have those elusive blue stickers in the passport. We didn't come down the PR route unfortunately, but once the migrant levy has been paid the time frame is roughly this, but i'm sure someone will correct me if i'm wrong.

Glad to have you on board.:clap

Kim

[stoorob]

Cheers for the info!

I didn't think the process could take as long as 18 months, got the impression that it was quicker than that. So if we're planning on coming over in 3 years time, we'd need to start the application process in a year and a half?

Stu

[stoorob]

Ignore that last reply - was reading that wrong...thought you meant that was the time to have the application accepted and not the answer to my question....Monday mornings for you!

Stu

[speckythecky]

Everyone's process is different and so will take different amount of time, having a job can speed up the process, getting qualifications assessed can slow it down.
I would start doing your research and collecting evidence sooner rather than later. 18 months seems to be a long time but it is fairly typical