[Tentun]

Hi Everyone

I need some help please from anyone who has successfully submitted an ITA.

I know we have to prove the work experience we claimed on the EOI. I'm claiming 6 years only as much of my work experience is not relevant to my degree so it probably won't get accepted anyway and I've left it out but I do have 6 years relevant experience.

5 of those years are fine, have letters from employers stating dates, type of employment etc but the one year that is missing is proving to be a problem. It was over 15 years ago and although I've written a letter to the employer I have not had a response. I don't even know if the business is still at that same address and I don't know how to get hold of them, it was in a different country, they're not on the internet??? What do I do?

Without this last year of employment I can't prove that I can claim points for 6 years work experience and might risk getting my ITA chucked out!

Help!! Anyone been through this.

[zardell]

I have no personal experience, but I do remember reading on this forum of someone in a similar situation and they somehow contacted an ex-work colleague from the company in question and validated their claim that way.

I have to say that we did have a similar situation in the respect that one of my OH's work places had closed down, so we sent off to the Inland Revenue for confirmation of tax P.A.Y.E contributions relating to that time, but fortunately it transpired that we did not need to count that time towards our points - we apparently had enough without.

Sorry I can't be of any more help.

Julie

xx

[StevieD]

Yeah, Julie is right, sounds a bit of a pain but it isn't that bad. PAYE data is enough for them.

I would put down ALL experience, even if it isn't related to your degree, it all adds to your profile, even if you don't get points for it. Shows the person at NZIS you haven't been slacking etc.......

Good luck

Steve

[zardell]

I would put down ALL experience, even if it isn't related to your degree, it all adds to your profile, even if you don't get points for it. Shows the person at NZIS you haven't been slacking etc.......



Good point.

Also make sure that your previous employers have confirmed the hours you worked each week.

I doubt if this would be your situation, but for example,if a person works part-time for 2 years, NZIS will only count that as one years work experience.

Julie

xx

[Angelonthemove]

Depends who your case officer is. We sent stuff not relevant to the years and he got annoyed with us.

We had someone as a reference for the years we could not get hold of the old employer. Made it nice and easy and wrote the letter with the dates and job title and company OH worked for then his old work friend signed it. Has to be on some kind of headed paper so his friend is self employed contractor so made him some lovely headed paper with his phone number so they could contact him to verify. (which they didn't) All they want is confirmation of dates, job title completed. If you have any old paperwork relating that you could also send to prove you worked there like an internal memo. You must know someone who is willing to do this for you.:nice1 All our jobs were abroad too so made it difficult.

[barryp]

I agree with (angelonthemove)'s post completely.

In my case, I had fifteen years' worth of relevant experience. (Also three years' worth of non-skill-area experience, which I pointedly did not document beyond the CV - NZIS doesn't care about it.) I had exactly one corporate-HR-letter documenting just two of those 15 years. I had to improvise with all the rest, including:
- Tax statements
- Contractor agreements
- (My) invoices
- Press releases
- Printouts of two-sentence emails from people I had worked with and maintained contact with since that time (included job titles, work dates, and their contact ph#)

I got no pushback at all on any of that material, copies presented chronologically in reverse with gaps noted on a cover sheet (e.g., "Worked as a transport planner between X and Y" and "Took three months' holiday beginning on Z"). I also added a note about why official HR letters were unavailable - namely, because those companies no longer existed.

It's OK to improvise, so long as you're being truthful, omitting irrelevant information, and provide supporting evidence as you are able to find.

[Tentun]

thanks chaps! You have all made me feel MUCH better about this situation. I am going to have to improvise and just hope for the best. I don't maintain contact with any of the old work colleagues so it probably won't be possible to get a letter from them stating that I did infact work there but I'm sure I could find something useful to submit and perhaps if I explain it all very nicely on the covering letter I will be let off the hook.

Does anyone know if it will be acceptable if one of my letters just states that I worked from 1st September 2002 to 31st August 2003 in a FULL time role??? Ie. no specific hours per week but just the FULL time bit?

Thanks for all your help.