[Too many dogs]

Hi everyone...

After never before being part of any kind of forum whatsoever, I posted my first message yesterday and I was told this morning that it is proper etiquette to introduce oneself first! (Oops!:uhoh Sorry...) So here is the introduction!

My parner and I are in the early stages of applying for immigration. :raebanana We are working with an agent in Wellington. As my log in name suggests, we DO have too many dogs (5) but we can only bring 3 with us. One is too old to travel and the other we were never supposed to have in the first place! He will be sent to a good home after we have checked it out.

Neither Miguel nor myself had any intention of going anywhere. The subject of emigration came up during a conversation I had with a friend and the seed was planted. It took alot of convincing before Miguel finally conceded and now I am petrified!

I suppose my main reason for wanting to leave South Africa is the crime. It is not getting any better and I worry about what kind of future we will have here. We don't have children, so their quality of life is not an issue. The issue is our quality of life! I am afraid to live here.

I want to be in a country where one can camp in the middle of nowhere and not be afraid that you will be robbed and murdered during the night (not necessarily in that order). I am looking for less stress and more time to ourselves as a couple (and the dawgs!)

I am sure that our decision to emigrate is the right one. Now I am afraid that we will not be accepted!! The expense of this process is astronomical and my greatest fear is that after we have parted with all that money (which we can't really afford to play around with) we will be denied PR. :wah That will break me!

Did anyone open a NZ bank account before their arrival? We are thinking of doing that - but to get our money into that account will be another mountainous obstacle! (who do these banking people think they are? It's our money - not theirs!) It will take a cunning plan to transfer our money into our account!

Anyway, I am at work and need to end this post so that I can do some!

Oh, how do NZ bosses treat their staff?

Thanks and have a great day!!!

Tracy

[brianw]

hello Tracy, this is brian from midrand in joburg. we are leaving 10 August, and also for the reasons you stated ...

[ENZ]

I was told this morning that it is proper etiquette to introduce oneself first!

Hi Tracy,

Welcome to the forum. I just noticed that someone must have mentioned this to you. There really is no forum etiquette about introducing yourself before posting. It's entirely up to new members whether they introduce themselves or not. Of course, it's nice for people to read introductions and to get to know a bit about new members, but nobody should feel obligated through etiquette to make their first posts in this part of the forum.

Hope that clears things up and I hope you enjoy yourself here.

Douglas :)

[Sam B]

Hi Tracy, and welcome to the forum. I didn't think there were any rules about having to introduce yourself, lots of people just start posting.

My NZ boss is lovely, the nicest boss I've ever had, but there is another boss in the office for a different team who is not as nice, so I guess the answer is - they are all different.

Hope all goes well for you. We went to a NZ expo in London and opened a NZ bank account there with Bank of NZ. We had no probs transferring money into it before we came.

[Too many dogs]

hello Tracy, this is brian from midrand in joburg. we are leaving 10 August, and also for the reasons you stated ...
Hello Brian!

Are you also planning to ship your furniture? Any pets you are taking? How far are you in the application process? We are planning (if everything goes through) to arrive in Auckland end of February/beginning of March next year (need to sell our house first).

Where are you looking at settling?

:exit Cheers!

Tracy

[Too many dogs]

Hi Tracy, and welcome to the forum. I didn't think there were any rules about having to introduce yourself, lots of people just start posting.

My NZ boss is lovely, the nicest boss I've ever had, but there is another boss in the office for a different team who is not as nice, so I guess the answer is - they are all different.

Hope all goes well for you. We went to a NZ expo in London and opened a NZ bank account there with Bank of NZ. We had no probs transferring money into it before we came.

I suppose you have bad bosses everywhere - maybe the one's here are just a bit worse because they are so frequent! Getting a great boss is down to the luck of the draw...

We went into the bank to transfer funds to our agent and they gave us such a problem (we a looking for a different bank!) so it makes me worry what problems they will give us if we want to start getting our funds out of SA. The excuse is that they want to curb money laundering etc.

Which area of NZ are you living in?

[Island Moose]

Hi there, I have several good friends here in Canada who left SA with the other million white citizens. Most of them are professionals, and have really done well here. I suspect the same must be true in NZ as the typical S African has such a strong work ethic and strength of family.

Again I don't know (yet) about NZ, but we love the SA's here in Canada!

[brianw]

hi "to many dogs"

yip we shipping furniture, gettings quotes from Kings.co.za ans stuttafords vanlines. cant remember their web addy. but have had friends that have used both of them and they do a great job. you looking at around R25,000.00 for a 20 foot container. A normal 3 bedroom house should fit in, if you leave the TV's out and so on. we leaving the lounge (very large couches) in favor of all the woodworking equipment (my wife's hobby, go figure).

we unfortunately not taking the pets, cats and dogs (7 cats and 4 dogs), 1 dog and 2 cats already gone to a new home, but yes the rest gotta go, and my favorite the African Grey Parrot, Nando's ...grin, also have to go, would have loved to bring him over.

we are leaving 10 august for 4 days to Singapore and then on to Auckland where we starting our 3 week tour of NZ. have 6 interviews set up, so we have to go see the places and decide and all tho logistics as we will not have a car yet and no home. Wife also has job offers and 1 from here is South Africa to continue support on the software she develops via VPN/internet. We are IT people.

but what the hell i say "just do it" ...

have submitted my EOI yet (with jobs we got 160 points), will do it when we there as we coming on a visitors visa, then work visa, then pr.

the rate people are leaving SA is scary. for the SA people, last one out, please turn the lights off, oops forgot, ESKOM has done that already !!!!

[MJ71]

Hi everyone

We are in Durban, South Africa and pretty much leaving for the same reasons as everyone else in SA. We have small kids so they are a big part of the consideration.
Tracy we have 5 dogs too and it breaks my heart but we will only be taking two. I have started getting quotes and looking into kennels.

We submitted our ITA on the 26th April and are waiting for an answer. I am also scared that we get turned down as there is no way we can stay here in SA much longer.

We will be moving to Cambridge or Matamata but probably Cambridge.
Sam do you have kids? How do you find Cambridge?

As to your question about getting funds out I would also like to have some good advice. We don't have a fortune either but would like to get as much of it out as possible without the tax man helping himself to too much of it particularly my husbands provident fund.

Michelle

[brianw]

R160 000 per person per year, with Tax clearance R2 mil.

[Tentun]

Hello

Fellow South African here (although we no longer live there - currently in the UK for 7 years). Born and brought up in Durban though.

But same reasons prompted us to leave SA in the first place now we are happy in the UK but wish to find somewhere similar to SA to bring our children up (little boy now 2, more on the way soon hopefully) as we find the UK just doesn't give our son the childhood we had in SA.

Anyway, just wanted to say Hi. It seems that lots of Saffa's have made the move and are happy in NZ so hopefully we'll all settle in ok.

Welcome and good luck.

[Sam B]

I am living in Cambridge in the Waikato. I had several telephone interviews, and I chose to live here because my new boss sounded so nice on the phone. She's an angel.

[Too many dogs]

Hi everyone!

Michelle, we got a good quote from Qualified Pet Services to house all 3 our dogs in one unit. Mail them on services@qualifiedpet.co.nz. I am a bit shocked at the cost of the innoculations though...

We found our shipping agent last night and she is wonderful! We are not taking all our household furniture - just what is a necessity. All in all, about 10 cbm, so not too bad. We also got a good price.

I think one of the most traumatic parts of emigrating is leaving pets behind. We don't have human children - just the furry variety - and I can't imagine leaving them, although we will probably regret it during the 4 months of paying quarantine!

Getting the money out...Mmmm... We have a plan involving family. I just wish that things would move a bit faster... I am naturally impatient so all this waiting is killing me!
Our agent says calm down. Easy for her to say - she's already there!

I also heard from somewhere that SA's are favoured because we are hard workers but I am still worried that we might not find anything in time. With the sale of our house we have enough to pay the quarantine and live comfortably for 5 months without work. I hope 5 months is enough...

No sense worrying about something you can't control is there? (did I mention I am a natural worrier too?):laugh

Well, see ya later!

Tracy

[Bruckner]

Just wanted to say welcome to the forum!

Emily

[Too many dogs]

Just wanted to say welcome to the forum!

Emily


Thanks Emily! Hope to soon be joining you in NZ!

[Oliver]

Hi Tracy
I'm from Port Elizabeth and arrived in NZ about a month ago. It's been great so far. I've had almost no difficulty with adjusting to life here. There are so many similarities between life here and life back in SA! As for the bosses, well, I'm very happy with mine. He's been very welcoming and has gone out of his way to make me feel at home.
Good luck with moving all your goods (and dogs). My container is arriving on Tuesday (only got informed today), so it's panic stations at the moment as I was told a month ago that it would take another 3 months! This is once in my life when I'm not pleased with efficient service!
Regards
Oliver

[debsandandy]

Hi Tracy
We are about to leave for NZ from Cape Town in September. We also have a Zoo at home: 4 cats and 3 dogs, and we have decided to take them all as they are all our family.
Keringa Kennels in Jo'burg is doing the whole thing: picking them up from us at home, flying them to Jhb, keeping them for the last 30 days where numerous tests have to be done, and then they fly off to Wellington for 120 days to a fantastic quarantine station called Shado Lans. If you contact Keringa, they will send you all the relevant documentation that needs to be filled out for exporting the pets. You need to start the process no less than 6 months and no more than 12 months before departure, so best to start getting the relevant info you need now before you are left in the lurch.
We are leaving SA with a heavy heart, but feel we need to do it now for the sake of our 3 year and 9 month old boys. We applied and were successful with our residency, and my husband and got a great job on the Kapiti Coast in Wellington, which I believe is very nice. Please let me know if you need more info on the pets, as I am Very Clued up by noW!!!!
Cheers
Debs

[Too many dogs]

Hi Tracy
I'm from Port Elizabeth and arrived in NZ about a month ago. It's been great so far. I've had almost no difficulty with adjusting to life here. There are so many similarities between life here and life back in SA! As for the bosses, well, I'm very happy with mine. He's been very welcoming and has gone out of his way to make me feel at home.
Good luck with moving all your goods (and dogs). My container is arriving on Tuesday (only got informed today), so it's panic stations at the moment as I was told a month ago that it would take another 3 months! This is once in my life when I'm not pleased with efficient service!
Regards
Oliver

I'm not sure if it's just because I am sick (Bronchitis) but I am feeling very despondant right now. Everything seems to be taking soooo long (our passports have still not arrived! Thanks to the strike...) and some agencies I have been contacting have been downright rude! On the other hand, some have been great - so I know who I will NOT be contacting! You see, I am not seen as being on any short list of occupations - I am a multi multi-tasking super efficient Office Manageress/PA and apparently we are not important. Damn, I'm going back to bed. Talk to you all when I am feeling strong like a Ninja.

T