[Anna'n'John]

Ok folks,
We are just on the very first tentative steps to (maybe) embarking on an epic voyage of our life time. However, every step we seem to think about taking costs money.:roll Now we know we can't emmigrate for free but how much does all this finally amount to? :confused: Is there anyone out there from the UK who is out in NZ and has emmigrated recently? (I've said UK as it will be easier for me to calculate, coming from Britain myself, otherwise I'll have to translate dollars etc) Now come on there must be a person out there who has accounting tendacy, and has copies of all their expenditures leading up to their departure. Can you help? We need to know roughly how much money we are going to need to get to NZ. So have you hidden away the cost for EOI, visa, residency, levy, medicals per person, X-ray per person, police checks, storage and removals and any other hidden cost we are not aware of.
Thanking anyone who anwers in advance. :D

[Myrkk]

can't help you with the removal costs etc since I'm still in the UK but so far our costs are as follows

EOI $300
NZQA pre-asses $75
ITA £685
Police checks £10 each
Medicals £240 each for all 3 parts
NZQA full assess $636
Migrant levy [not yet paid] £105 each


note, some are in £s and some in $s that is correct.

[Belmont Babes]

These are approx from memory:

EOI £110
ITA £685
Migrant Levy £420
Medicals £700 (family of four)
NZQA £244
Removals £3200 (3 bed semi)
Flights ? not booked yet
postage approx £30
Police checks £20 (2 adults)
Birth certificate 1 A4 copy needed £10


Hope this helps

[jubjub]

2 yrs ago, with a 20ft container and a dog, inc airfares and all associated NZIS charges, it was nearly 15k, I am sure I did a thread at the time, but cant remember what I called it to find it again!

Oooh, found it, now the prices on there are a couple of years out, but some other folks listed theirs too, and I believe NZIS have put up their prices.

http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3416&highlight=cost

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

In May this year
Our 20ft container cost about £4K
airfares (Singapore Air London - Auckland), about £3K (2 adults, 2 kids)
ITA, Medicals etc about £2K
Costs involved in house sale about £2K

Comes to around £11K

No dog included here, and you may need to include costs associated with being here at first if you don't have a job to go to straight away - motel/rental, buying a car etc....

Motel - about $500/week - allow for 2-3 weeks
Rental - nice 4 bed - $400/week (obviously this depends on area but as a guide)
Plus whatever you would need for a car, and to live on until you get work.

All in all it adds up to a lot I'm afraid - hence most of us can't afford it without cashing in equity on our UK houses.

Hope that helps.

[tigerlily]

For us, airfare and the cost of shipping our belongings is the most costly part. USD$5 K in airfares and another $6K in shipping.

Add on as well the set up costs when you arrive (deposit on rental, phone, utilities, buying foodstuffs for your kitchen all over again...)

[Tia Maria]

Family of 2 adults, 2 children (no pets):

Costs of actually getting here about £12,000

But the shock for us was on arrival. There is the potential to spend a lot when you first arrive. :(

We're in Devonport, Auckland so:

Motel: $600-$800 a week (it took us about 8 weeks to find permanent accommodation and only then because we bought a villa)

Rental: $750-$850 a week

Allow for the fact that you might not be working for a few weeks, as a general rule of thumb in life it is always good to have savings to cover 3 months worth of living expenses. This will give you peace of mind if you can't find work or have an injury etc.

We didn't really allow for the fact that we were in holiday mode for the first few weeks and wanted to go sightseeing, eat out, buy beach towels (:D ) etc, so try to budget for this.

Allow for set up costs on arrival - car? Items to see you through till your container arrives? Mobile phone? etc etc.

There are people who have done it on a budget but things will be less stressful if you have some emergency funds.

It is a lot of money but if you added up the cost of say a 4 week holiday to Australia combined with moving house in the UK and buying a new car, this would cost a lot also!

Probably from combining all these posts you could come up with a master list and can ask people on the forum to fill in any specific gaps you have.

If the final total looks too horrific (and it always does in black and white), then start asking for some early Christmas presents - "Hey Mum, you know what I'd really like for Christmas - a complete set of medicals for the whole family", or "Hey Dad, nothing says I love you like fully comprehensive insurance"

Cheers

Tia

[NewlyWedPoms]

Dear All,

are the costs (applications/paperwork) roughly the same if you apply via Skilled Migrant Scheme as the Work For Residence Scheme?

[Anna'n'John]

Thanks all for the run down.:nice1
I don't know whether it makes me feel happier knowing all costs in detail or thoroughly depressed at how much it's going to cost. But as has been mentioned it should be money well spent, and anyway even trying to move in your own country probably costs just as much.
We better start putting every little penny in the bank, tighten our belts and live on baked beans on toast for a while.

[Tia Maria]

Forgot to say we started this list for you:

www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=13682

Oh and for anyone else who might find it helpful! :)

Cheers

Tia

[benandclare]

Hi there
been here about a month and our stuff is in storage so far (20 footer) :cheers .

We had a budget of 10K for the move (for two adults and a 16yr old) and i reckon it cost us 8 - 9 K (definatelt not more than that) and that included my nurses registration stuff.
Good luck

[Lupin]

All in allowing for hidden costs (replacing used cars loses you money as does a multitude of other things) and the obvious we calculated our emigration cost us about 12,000 GBP.

[owens clan]

when we boarded the plane at Manchester in March this year (only on visitors visa ) we had spent £8,500 on E.O.I / I.T.A, Medicals, Container/Storage,Flights.
but since being here we have spent around $9,500 in rent.
$2,080 Fuel, $7,200 Food (not including eating out), $1200 Gas/Lec, $1,200 Phone bills, $4,000 replacment stuff until ours arrived from england(if or when our ITA was approved).
Ita approved Sept 07 $1200 levy, plus days out Birthdays, tools for work, Car and Car-insurance, school uniforms, pre-school and other things .

So be aware of how fast your money can be just used up on every day things before you get setteled.

I spoke to an Ex Pat who had been here for 10 yrs and he told that when he arrived with his wife and 2 kids 5 and 7, they rented a cheap car and bought a good tent and were able to live at camp grounds for 6 months until they got everything setteled with house buying (Maybe for some but not for others).:laugh

Good luck in what you choose to do:nice1