[sunny side]

Hi,

Myself and OH are travelling to NZ on a visit visa to see our family. We will also be looking for work, houses and schools for kids.

We have submitted our EOI but so far no news maybe because we don't have any jobs or offers and ofcourse below 140!!?? I heard that it is very easy to covert visa whilst in NZ.

Just wanted to know how easy / difficult it is to convert visa while in Auckland and also to get a perm job.

Appreciate similar experiences of others in the recent past.

Thank you very much in advance.

Mari

[goodonion]

Hey,
I think some people here did that - I know I am going to..

I returned last week from two months in NZ, during which I did some interviews (big thanks to angelonthemove :clap ) and finally got a job offer in Northland.
Sadly, that was an evening before I needed to leave the country and I couldn't change my flight, so - I am now in a position where I have a job offer to start work on June 1st, but I can't apply for the visa, as I am supposed to do that in Bangkok (which is over 10 hours flight..)

If I understand correctly, it's sort of ok to arrive on a visitor visa and just go straight to immigration with the job offer, police certificate and medicals to apply for the visa itself.
It might not be what the law means for you to do, but I think that as long as you don't actually start working while you're on the visitor's visa - it's not too bad. I sent a question to immigration NZ regarding that.

Hope this helps!

[ruthyroo]

Just wanted to point out that it's not a process of converting from one visa to the other. You are granted whatever visa is appropriate to your situation at the time. The vistor visa lets you into the country, and you can look for work / job offer but you can't start working until you have your WP / PR. So as soon as you get that job offer, you have to go through the whole process to apply for a WP / update your PR application to include your job offer. If you've got an idea what kind of jobs you are likely to get, you can have a trial run and work through the process and make sure that it ticks all the boxes and that you have all the appropriate paperwork with you.

We arrived on visitor visas, purely because we ran out of time to obtain our WPs. We already had all our paperwork / job offers in place, and visited NZIS to get our WP about one week after arriving. They weren't remotely interested in what visa we arrived on, just that we ticked all the boxes for the WP that we were applying for there and then. I guess what I'm trying to say in a very long winded way is being in NZ on a visitor visa won't earn you any brownie points with NZIS - they are looking for evidence that you meet the requirements of whatever WP / PR you are applying for. So focus on that and meeting those criteria - and the more homework you do on that the better!

Good luck

[mgbridges]

After reading the Immigration website several times I'm still not clear - is it possible to just walk into an Immigration office in NZ and pick up a Work Visa (with payment of the appropriate cash, of course)? Or do you have to have a sniff of a job first?

We've submitted our EOI (115 points) and I'm coming out for a recce next week. I've got a couple of interviews lined up but wondered whether it was worth trying to pick up a WP anyway?

Or am I just being crazy/naive?

Cheers,

Martin

[KerryS]

After reading the Immigration website several times I'm still not clear - is it possible to just walk into an Immigration office in NZ and pick up a Work Visa (with payment of the appropriate cash, of course)? Or do you have to have a sniff of a job first?

We've submitted our EOI (115 points) and I'm coming out for a recce next week. I've got a couple of interviews lined up but wondered whether it was worth trying to pick up a WP anyway?

Or am I just being crazy/naive?

Cheers,

Martin

You need a job offer for a work permit.

[ruthyroo]

You need a job offer for a work permit.

Correct. And for some jobs you not only need the job offer, you also need your NZQA assessment , your professional registration, all your certified wotsits, and (if you're looking for a 2-3 year WP) you need your police certs and your medicals.

The best way to work out if you are eligble for a WP is to sit down and work through the application form as if you were applying for one. Same for PR.

[kanatakiwi]

I arrived on a visitors visa, but with all my paperwork, police check, medicals, X rays and stuff in hand. shortly after arrival I applied for a work visa and PR at the same time. Even though no job offer, got the work visa very quickly, an PR is in the processing cycle. I have a kiwi husband so was applying under partnership so that would make a difference, but there was never any discussion about needing a job offer to get the work visa.

[KerryS]

I arrived on a visitors visa, but with all my paperwork, police check, medicals, X rays and stuff in hand. shortly after arrival I applied for a work visa and PR at the same time. Even though no job offer, got the work visa very quickly, an PR is in the processing cycle. I have a kiwi husband so was applying under partnership so that would make a difference, but there was never any discussion about needing a job offer to get the work visa.


Applying under partnership has completely different rules to those applying as a skilled migrant, for which a job is definitely needed. An employer has to complete a supplementary form to the main application and state why they are offering the job.

[kanatakiwi]

thought that might be the case, thanks for clarifying.