[wiki]

Through work I've come across a family from the UK who look like they might have been ripped off by their immigration agent.

He's a kiwi in Edinburgh and charged them only £1000 and for that promised them he'd get all four of them (husband, wife and 19-y-o daughter and 20-y-o son) work permits which would be "transferred into their passports when they arrived at NZ airport"

This, not surprisingly, didn't happen so they were made to buy return tickets at the airport before they were let in.

They tired to contact the immigration agent for TWO MONTHS with no reply as they still didn't have work permits or IRD numbers he said he'd arranged.

They've not been paid in that time (although a couple of them are working with the promise they'll be paid when they got IRD numbers and didn't have to pay emergency tax.

Finally, a couple of days ago they got IRD numbers but still don't seem to have work permits.

They wanted my newspaper to highlight their case, but first I need to ensure with NZIS that they get sound in terms of being able to stay and work in NZ. I'm not totally familiar with the work permit side of things so can someone please clarify?

1. Do all four need police and medical checks? (only father had a medical before coming out, but all four want to work)

2. They kids can get working holiday visa as under 30, but what about the parents? They have a job offer for farm labouring (which is a shortage down here in the south)

3. They've been in NZ for two months, how much longer can they stay without work permits - and how long would the work permits, if applied for this week, take in your experience?

4. What sort of fees would four work permits attract?

5. Can you get an IRD number without PR or a work permit?

I feel really sorry for these guys. Sure there's a certain amount of naievity on their part, and I wouldn't have been waiting two months for immigration agent to get his a into g.

I'm surprised he only charged £1000 - and said that included all work permit fees...

I've told them to get their own work visas from NZ and to contact police in the UK about the immigration agent so he can stop doing this to other poor sods.

[wilson182]

Hi Wiki

How terrible for them, not a nice way to start in a new country at all.

My first and overriding thought as I read your post was........

If they are working and this guy has not sorted work permits then they could be in serious trouble. This should be their first priority. AFAIK, you CANNOT get a work permit without a job offer unless you are the partner of someone who already has one. If he has told them any different then he is lying.


Medical and Police Checks for work permits - I think they only need them if they are applying for permits over 12 months.

I don't know about Working Holiday Visa's - If the parents have a job offer in an area of skills shortage they should be apply for a work permit. The immigration site will tell them what paperwork they need, they will need a copy of a contract, but I think they may also need things like proof of work experience/quals etc.
When we applied in Chch approx 3 years ago, the cost was around $80 each (I think), the NZIS website should be able to clarify that. They should be able to apply with, for example, the husband as the main applicant. Once he has a work permit his wife will be able to apply for an open permit. We applied directly to the Chch immigration and were able to be issued permits the same day, however, other people have had different experiences of this - I would say it depends on your particular Immigration dept and how busy they are.

I am assuming they are English?, their passports will have been stamped with a six month visitors visa when they arrived. But, as I said before, they must be very careful wrt working at the moment until they are sure they have work permits. They can apply for a 3 month extention if they need to whilst they are getting things sorted.

HTH a little bit,

Wish them good luck for me

Debs