[CjChris]

Hey, folks!!

Today I had my phone interview with my case officer! :clap


She said we should hear something in a few days. She was very friendly and easy to talk to. I feel so relieved to have that over with!!

Thanks to everyone who posted their interview questions; that really helped me feel more prepared--and there were no surprises, which is what worried me most before I found the example questions posted on here.

I feel like I need a few bananas now! :raebanana :raebanana

or a few of these! :cheers

Christine (and Nathan)

[benandclare]

Bananas away
:raebanana
:raebanana
:raebanana
:raebanana

[Ana&Steve]

Yay!:raebanana :raebanana :raebanana :raebanana
Congrats, you're almost done! (well, with one big step, anyway!)
Ana

[Belmont Babes]

Christine that's great news. So glad the interview went well. Here are some for you: :raebanana :raebanana :raebanana

[R&A]

Awh well done - must be a huge relief to have that behind you, glad you felt it went well. And as for the bananas.......


:raebanana :raebanana :raebanana :raebanana

[Nathan]

All I did was stay out of the way.
I can at least post bananas.
:raebanana :raebanana :raebanana :raebanana

[Marie P]

Nathan these are for you :raebanana :raebanana :raebanana

Well done Christine :nice1

Best wishes ,

Marie x

[nickydwuk]

:raebanana :raebanana and some of these too :cheers :cheers

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

Well done, you can almost taste the blue stickers now...
:raebanana
....:raebanana
........:raebanana
............:raebanana

[jess]

woohoo!

:raebanana :raebanana
:raebanana :raebanana

[Lupin]

Blue stickers within sniffing distance

:raebanana :raebanana

[CjChris]

Thanks, everyone!! :D

...and yes, I did banish Nathan and the cats to the downstairs because I was a nervous wreck! I locked myself in the bedroom, and when I wasn't checking my phone to make sure it was still working, I was trying to bring forth a zen moment!!

SOOOOOOoooo glad it's over!:raebanana

[migratory birds]

Isn't that a great feeling!? Did your case officer give you any indication of what she/he was going to reccomend for you? WTR? PR?

My case officer and I had a wonderful conversation during my interview. She was so very welcoming and helpful, like talking with a friend. She told me at the end of our interview she was going to recommend me for PR and a few days later it was indeed confirmed.

Congrats!

[CjChris]

No, she did not say what she would recommend, but she said that at this point almost no one is turned down and they either get WTR or PR. She said she would email me as soon as her superior examined the interview notes and she receives my NZQA and TC reg. (which I FEDEX'd today) :clap

So, I hope it is PR!! She was like a friend, too, and what was totally cool is that her BF lives in the NZ city I said we want to settle! We had a little giggle over that one! :laugh

I did consider asking her which she thought we'd get, but I didn't want to push my luck since the whole interview seemed to go so well.

[thezorbster]

Another step over with Christine. Glad it seemed to go Ok and I'm sure that PR will be heading your way soon!

Few of these definitely needed :cheers and I'll have one on your behalf too!

[Sam B]

You'll get it, and we'll be making small talk at a forum meet in no time!!

[JasonS]

Congratulations! :raebanana :raebanana

We received our ITA back in November, and submitted our paperwork in March. We received a letter from our Visa Officer in May requesting some more info and now we wait again. I'm trying to gauge how much longer it'll be before we have an interview or get word on our status.

Judging by your dates, maybe we won't be too much longer either.

Thanks
Jason

[checkout]

any news/decision

[CjChris]

I'm still waiting to hear from my CO....every hour I check my email!!! I don't know if I'll receive "the news" by email, a phone call, or letter in the post...in any case, I don't want to stray too far afield for fear of missing something!:uhoh

Jason, when in March did you mail your ITA, and who was the visa officer who requested more info? Ours was Ricky Clarkson, who passed our application on to Katie Knowles, who did my interview (in Ricky's letter of request in May, he said our application would be evaluated on June 1 whether we got the info he requested back on time or not! Did your letter in May say such a thing?)

Christine

[JasonS]

We mailed via UPS our ITA in mid march, and according to the website, it was lodged Mar 29. Our VO is Rachel Knox, and yes when she asked for some more info, I was required to have the information back by June 1st or they would make a decision without it. There was no explicit indication of exactly when they'd make a decision, but I perceived that June 1st would be close to date of decision. We've not been contacted about an interview or anything else since submitting the follow up info.

We're coming up on 1 year since we submitted EOI, so we're getting anxious. We had 140 pts, so were selected right off, then it took them 4 months to send us ITA. I'm planning on going on summer vacation in mid July, so I'd like to have an answer before we go. Obviously I'm getting more anxious as each day passes by.

Where do you think you're headed if you're accepted? For us, Chch is desireable, Nelson is optimal, Welly is acceptable.

Best of luck!
Jason

[CjChris]

Jason, we are planning on North Island (we originally thought Christchurch was "the" place, but I wanted warmer temps, so we chose NIsland)...possibly Wanganui/Palmerston North/Hawkes Bay area.

I would email NZIS if I were you. I've read lots of posts on here where people hadn't heard a thing, so they emailed, and then seems like things started moving along. So, give it a try today! They are nice people and will not mind you politely inquiring as to the status of your application since you sent the new information.

Before my VO contacted me, I always emailed the general email addy and always got a reply from Hollie Vercoe, Skilled Migrant Administrator. That email is skilledmigrantslondon@dol.govt.nz

She's so friendly and will contact you within 1-2 days.

[suebeenz]

Jason, we are planning on North Island (we originally thought Christchurch was "the" place, but I wanted warmer temps, so we chose NIsland)...possibly Wanganui/Palmerston North/Hawkes Bay area.


Hi Christine. Congrats on your progress! Just wanted to let you know that the website got updated before i got anything in the post. (Not sure why, but the opposite was true for me, getting notified of ITA.) I have to say, I was going a little bit crazy checking the mailbox :yes

If you want warmer temps, I think you'd be best off with Hawkes Bay area. Someone else may have more to offer, but Palmerston North is quite windy (very large wind farm there - largeset in south pacific i think). Hawkes Bay benefits from sunny summers, and less rain in winter. I heard Nelson on south island quite warm/sunny? Can anyone else confirm there?

[JasonS]

I've avoided contacting them, I don't want to be a pest. I'll give them a couple more days and then try to contact them if I don't hear from them by end of the week, if I can make it that long :)

We prefer SI locations because ultimately that is where we want to spend our free time. We're afraid of being "stuck" on the NI and not getting to the SI. My wife is hesitant to take the ferry across again, after our first time crossing was on very rough seas. Half the boat was sick it seemed!

Suebeenz, Nelson is reportedly the sunniest part of the country. I've also heard Blenheim has a lot of sunny days. We currently live in Phoenix AZ, which receives a lot of sun, so Nelson is our optimal location based on number of sunny days, but IT jobs are relatively harder to find there, especially in my particular field of expertise.

Jason

[speckythecky]

Congrats Christine, have your bananas and a couple of drinks
:raebanana :cheers
:cheers :raebanana

Jason,
don't worry about being a pest and chasing things up, they don't put you to the bottom of the pile every time you contact them and it may speed things up for you and save the hair that you are pulling out, or nails that you are chewing, or whatever else you are doing to get through the stress,
Hope you hear soon.

[JasonS]

I couldn't wait any longer. I just sent London an email politely requesting a status update on our application. Hopefully, I'll hear back from Hollie or our Visa Officer soon.

Thanks for the encouragement everyone!

Jason