[jondodkins]

First want to say hello to everyone :-)

We need some help. My girlfriend and I have received different information from different sources, including within NZ immigration and would like this cleared up so we know how best to proceed...

We're both working in permanent full-time jobs in Wellington, having gotten general work permits and visas when we first arrived here from the UK in Jan 2007 (because we didn't know we wanted to stay at the time). So now we'd like NZ residency, but don't know whether to go via W2R or Skilled Migrant categories.

Some more info:
- I'm 23, my partner 29
- We both work for government departments 'accredited employers'
- I'm in IT, 'future growth area', and have qualifications relevant to the role and my partner is a graduate - so we both have enough 'points' via skilled migrant for EOI.

Should we be going for work to residence? That's cheaper apparently but are we eligible? Do we need to go the skilled migrant route or does it not matter?

Many thanks for any advice :-)

Jon and Kate

[IanW99]

First want to say hello to everyone :-)

We need some help. My girlfriend and I have received different information from different sources, including within NZ immigration and would like this cleared up so we know how best to proceed...

We're both working in permanent full-time jobs in Wellington, having gotten general work permits and visas when we first arrived here from the UK in Jan 2007 (because we didn't know we wanted to stay at the time). So now we'd like NZ residency, but don't know whether to go via W2R or Skilled Migrant categories.

Some more info:
- I'm 23, my partner 29
- We both work for government departments 'accredited employers'
- I'm in IT, 'future growth area', and have qualifications relevant to the role and my partner is a graduate - so we both have enough 'points' via skilled migrant for EOI.

Should we be going for work to residence? That's cheaper apparently but are we eligible? Do we need to go the skilled migrant route or does it not matter?

Many thanks for any advice :-)

Jon and Kate

Hi and welcome to the forum.

You don't say what the conflicting information is so can't really tell you which is right?

From what you have posted, I would say that you could go with either the WTR or the PR choice.

In this case the only real advantage of the WTR approach is that it is quicker to process and probably should have been your choice when you first came to Wellington.

At this point, I would choose the PR approach as you won't have to go thorough the whole process again at the end of the WTR.

You don't say how long your general work permit is for, so you may need to check that it still has long enough to run whilst they are processing your PR as you won't want it to run out whilst you are still waiting.

Ian

[jondodkins]

Many thanks for your response Ian, I've looked into this further and believe the EOI and skilled migrant would indeed be the best way forward for us.

Cheers