[Denzil3003]

Can anyone give me an idea of what amount of time it generally took them from making the decision, filling in EOI, getting selected, getting ITA and moving?

I'm in the "making the decision" stage but need to manage family expectations and consider work and other stuff I have to sort out in the UK before making any move and currently have no idea how long things tend to take...

[Silverwing86]

Hi Denzil3003,

Your question is a difficult one as there is no straightforward answer to it, it all depends on your specific situation.

The general rule of thumb, according to the INZ website page for Skilled Migrant Processing Times http://www.immigration.govt.nz/branch/londonbranchhome/tipsandprocessingtimes/skilledmigrantprocessingtimes.htm
is that once you have submitted your EOI (Expression of Interest) and it has been selected from the pool, it should take a maximum of three months for them to assess it and either Invite you to Apply (ITA) or request further information.

Once you have received your ITA, you have four months to submit it. As you can read on the aforementioned page, it should then take a maximum of four months for INZ to assign you a Case Officer. How long it will take from there to actually get PR all depends on your specific case.

Again, all this is 'rule of thumb' and there are various reasons possible why timings may be different in practice (backlogs, changes of policy etc.).

If you are claiming points for i.e.; a Job Offer, qualifications or work experience in an area of Absolute Skills Shortage, your EOI/application should be dealt with more quickly. For more information, see here http://www.immigration.govt.nz/community/general/generalinformation/news/skilledmigrantcategoryeoi.htm for the most recent fortnightly EOI selection I could find (12th September).

Other factors that can take more time are, for instance, medical issues. Once dealing with Medical Assessors, who come into play if there are any questions or issues of a medical nature, it's anyones' guess how long or short the timeframe will be.

As you can see from my signature, our process was rather lengthy due to just such medical issues and we had sold the house before we had a definitive and positive result from INZ (stress with a capital 'S' !!), but we got here with PR in our pocket in the end and that was all that mattered to us ;) !

It's a lot to take in and difficult as it's not really clear cut and one is also faced with the everlasting question of what order to do things in, i.e.; wait to get PR before selling the house (if you have one to sell, of course) or putting house on the market right away as it may take a long time to sell; try and get PR without a Job Offer or find a job before putting in an application for PR (it may be more difficult {but not impossible !} to find a job when you're not actually in NZ yet and don't have PR yet), go to NZ on Visitors' Visa and find a job there before going for the PR, etc.. Somewhere along the line one has to take a chance and go for it, what that point is for you is of course, very personal.

Please don't let all this deter you though, for us it was well worth any hassle or stress we had to go through to be able to live in the wonderful country. Been here eight months now and are absolutely loving it, we wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world, we are truly home !

Hope all this helps in some way and good luck with the decision making process !

Silver

[Denzil3003]

That's really helpful thanks Silver. The difficulty I'm having is that I'm wanting to move out there with my OH but we won't be applying as a couple because we don't yet meet the time criteria to count as a partnership. I think it's inevitable that when we do take the plunge one of us is bound to go through the process quicker than the other...

I don't have a house to sell so that's a bit easier but working things out with my career is a bit trickier - they could be really supportive and make it happen for me or they could make life quite tricky...

I think I really need to decide whether I want to go straight into the PR route or approach work about a secondment in NZ and take it from there...