[eastw77]

Hi my wife is a New Zealander and we our currently living in the UK. My wife wants to return to home as she has had enough of the Scottish weather!! I am in the merchant navy and currently am working a 6 weeks on 6 weeks of rota on a ship in the gulf of mexico so it doesn't matter where I live for my job. I have a few questions that I hope you could help me out with...


Will I be able to get residency if I am coming and going every 6 weeks?
I would also prefer to keep my british residency for tax purposes would this be possible?
Would it be OK to just come into the country every six weeks on a holiday visa or would I end up being in the country too much to remain a non resident?
My company will only buy me a oneway ticket, would a letter from them saying they will be paying for my flight back to the ship be ok to gain entry on a holiday visa?


I have probably got more questions but thats all I can come up with at the moment. Hope someone can help

cheers,

easw77

[peebles16]

Sorry eastw77 can't answer your questions but just wanted to say welcome. Sure someone on this fab forum will help you out

[wiki]

That's an unusual case and I think you'd be best approaching NZIS direct.

We got partnership PR for my OH in June and you really do need to be spending the bulk of your time in NZ to qualify for IRRV and then citizenship... something like 183 days a year, I think.

The number to ring them is £1 a minute, so if you could go in and see them personally at NZ House in central London it would be worth your while.

The thing is, they really, really want kiwis to return home, so will probably know of some exception that could be taken to allow you to join her whenever you want.

As for the tax residency, that may well be complicated by your time away. It's pretty much the case that if you want to live in NZ you need to be paying your tax money to them and not anywhere else!

I'm not sure about the practicality or cost of the holiday visas - as a UK citizen you can come into NZ for up to 3 months at a time, but would need a return ticket (or at least a cheap ticket out to Australia) or else they'll start to get narked.

I think there is a limit on how many times you can visit, but that may just be for people on limited work permits...

good luck

[dharder]

I would also prefer to keep my british residency for tax purposes would this be possible?
Would it be OK to just come into the country every six weeks on a holiday visa or would I end up being in the country too much to remain a non resident?

Welcome to the forum :)

Unusual case indeed! I think as a British Citizen, you can enter NZ for six months at a time on a tourist visa, but there is a limit within a given time (I think it is 9 months out of every 18, but don't quote me on that) how much time you can spend in NZ.

You usually are domiciled for tax purposes in a country where you spend more than 6 months out of a tax year in (it is actually a number of days, 180 something?). Resident (or domiciled) for tax purposes is not necessarily the same as resident in other areas, so you would definitely need to talk to the Inland Revenue in both countries to figure this one out.

Good luck with figuring all this out :)

Daniela

[Silverwing86]

Hi Eastw77,

Also don't much about the specifics of your situation, but wanted to welcome you to the forum as well.

I do believe though, that there are special tax rules in most countries for people with seafaring jobs. Not sure what they are exactly, but you might have a look around both the IRD site (http://www.ird.govt.nz/) and the UK tax site for more information. You could also contact them directly as your questions are fairly specific.

Good luck !

Silver

[sarahjones]

The number to ring them is £1 a minute,

When we were in the UK and applying, I found the £1 a minute number on the NZIS London web site, as well as a number for calling from overseas. Thereafter we always used the overseas number, less the International code. We used this for several calls and were never queried about where we were dialing from. The number was standard STD so should be at normal rates.

However, I don't know if it is still like this.

[IanW99]

When we were in the UK and applying, I found the £1 a minute number on the NZIS London web site, as well as a number for calling from overseas. Thereafter we always used the overseas number, less the International code. We used this for several calls and were never queried about where we were dialing from. The number was standard STD so should be at normal rates.

However, I don't know if it is still like this.

We used to do that as well, but unfortunately they no longer allow it (the number no longer exists). Or at least they didn't the last time I checked.

Ian

[sarahjones]

I just found the following here http://www.immigration.govt.nz/branch/londonbranchhome/ContactDetails/


Telephone Information Services
* A 24 hour telephone information service is available seven days per week
* Information Call Centres - UK: 09069100100 (calls are charged at premium rates 1.00 GBP per minute)
* +64 9 914 4100 from outside the UK - standard overseas call charges apply
* Requests for application packs are to be made using the above telephone numbers.

I don't know if 09 914 4100 will work dialed in the UK, or if that too will cost £1 per minute from the UK, but not from overseas.