[ciscodave]

Hi,

I have been offered a Job and my company have advised me (they are an accredited company with the NZ immigration) to apply for a WTR Talent Visa. As I understand this comes with a few restrictions can any one tell me if the following is true.

You cannot apply for PR until you have been in NZ for two years, if not when can you apply?

You might not be able to get free health care.

School and college fees might be more expensive.

Hope you can help.

Dave

[IanW99]

Hi,

I have been offered a Job and my company have advised me (they are an accredited company with the NZ immigration) to apply for a WTR Talent Visa. As I understand this comes with a few restrictions can any one tell me if the following is true.

You cannot apply for PR until you have been in NZ for two years, if not when can you apply?

You might not be able to get free health care.

School and college fees might be more expensive.

Hope you can help.

Dave

Good news, no you don't have to wait two years to apply for a PR if you want (I believe it is just simpler if you do?), you could apply immediately when you arrive if you want (and re-use your medical and police checks).

If your visa is for 2 years or more then you are entitled to the same free health care as any other resident.

If you get a student visa then fees are just as per normal residents.

So, it would appear that none of it is true.

Ian

[ciscodave]

Thats good news, I am Planning to go out this year and my wife and three children will come out next year. So will they be able to come out on my WTR visa or will they need to apply after I have my WTR?

Cheers

Dave

[IanW99]

When we applied, all the applications went in at the same time, so we all got our visas at the same time i.e. one WTR, one general work visa and two student visas.

I assume that this is what should be done normally? Don't think it will be a problem for you to come out at separate times as long as they follow within 12 months of the visa being granted.

Ian

[ciscodave]

Thanks Ian,

thast been a great help

Cheers

David

[IanW99]

David, realised from another of your posts that there might be some confusion over schools and colleges. In NZ colleges are just secondary schools, not like UK at all.

So my answer was regarding children going to school not higher education e.g. university.

For a 17-year old, we were given a student visa which was not suitable for going to university, when we talked to NZIS they said the only option was to apply for PR (or pay international fees). Then after we started the PR process they told us that they could have changed the visa, but now it was too late as a PR application had been started - on their advice?

So make sure that the student visa is the correct one, or be ready to apply for PR quickly.

Regards
Ian

[Tia Maria]

For those on Talent visas does the timing for Citizenship start when they got that visa, or when they apply for PR two years later?

Cheers

Tia

[half_pint]

Hi Tia,
I've been told that the timing for citizenship (5 years) does not begin until you have PR.
Another reason for wanting to go for PR immediately!
Rebecca

[ciscodave]

Trying to fill in the EOI for PR and I have been told yesterday by NZ immigration that although my job is in the long term and short term skills shortage and I have 10 years experience, I cannot claim the bonus points has I do not have a formal qualification in that area. Is this correct as it leaves me with 85 points instead of 100 which is needed to go for PR, therefore it means the only option I have is the WTR route.

They also told me that under the WTR health care and secondary education is the same as PR but university and collage would incur international school fees which are pretty expensive has I have one child who is 17 and another who will be 16 when we go out and wants to go onto NZ A level equivalent, does anyone know if my 16 year old going to will have to pay international fees?

Help!!!!!!

[IanW99]

Trying to fill in the EOI for PR and I have been told yesterday by NZ immigration that although my job is in the long term and short term skills shortage and I have 10 years experience, I cannot claim the bonus points has I do not have a formal qualification in that area. Is this correct as it leaves me with 85 points instead of 100 which is needed to go for PR, therefore it means the only option I have is the WTR route.

They also told me that under the WTR health care and secondary education is the same as PR but university and collage would incur international school fees which are pretty expensive has I have one child who is 17 and another who will be 16 when we go out and wants to go onto NZ A level equivalent, does anyone know if my 16 year old going to will have to pay international fees?

Help!!!!!!

Are you sure you only have 85 points with a job offer? I thought the job offer gives you 50 points on its own?

As I corrected myself earlier colleges in NZ are just secondary schools.

So on a WTR you would have to pay international fees for University and Polytechnics.

16 year-olds would still go to school or college (kids leave school at 18 in NZ), so on a student visa he would be entitled (and expected) to go to school where he should be able to study NCEA level 3 (approx the same as A levels).

From our experience it is unlikely that any school will want to accept your 17 year-old as they will only have a short time till they would leave.

Ian

[ciscodave]

Hi Ian,

85 points is what they come up, made up as follows

Job offer 50 points
Age 45 10 points
experience in job 8 years 25 points

Total 85

What they would not give me was the extra points for :

Offer of job in future growth area 10 points
Experience in future growth areas 6 years + 15 points

Which would have given me a total of 110 points

they said it was because I did not have a formal qualification in my area and therefore I was unable to claim these points. What I find strange is that I cannot find anywhere on there web site where it actually says that