[mushfm]

Hello There

I hope everybody is well here and over there :exit. This is my frist time posting on any type of forum so please bear with me. About 5 years ago my OH and I travelled around New Zealand in a 4x4 with a tent on the top and fell in love with the place:nice1. From that point on, our lives have been driven by the possible chance of migrating to nz.
I changed my career from a machine operator to a carpenter and went back to college to get my qualifications. My OH already had a degree in agriculture and several year's experience so she's just been waiting for me really.
So what I would like to know from you good people and especially any of you in the building trade is as follows: I've heard that the building game is in a bit of a slump at the moment. Is this true?
Also what do you rate our chances for getting work?

[Kiwi-In-Texas]

Hello and welcome...Good luck with your plans...





Suzanne.

[Leanne]

Welcome to the forum. Best of luck with your plans!
:)

[JandM]

Hello, and welcome, and good luck.:)

[AndyR]

welcome to the forum!

[Nick88]

Alot of carpenters have moved to Aus for higher pay creating a bit of a shortage here, so you ought be alright. It depends alot on just how much the property slowdown affects the new house market, and that is crystal ball gazing.

What sort of agric does your OH do? You might have to follow her work possibilities.

[CJ22]

I've heard a head of a building company in NZ say the slump won't slow down their building program at all, because it takes so long to put the houses up (from conception to final sign-off) that the situation changes drastically before they're done, so they just have to go ahead and build and hope the market has picked up when the stuff is available!

[dusk]

hello and welcome :)

[bartons]

Hi and welcome!
OH is a qualified carpenter and when looking for a job 3 months ago had no problems finding one within a few days, and that's in Dunedin which is not that big a city, so at a guess you'd be alright in the bigger cities. There seems to be a demand for carpenters doing maintenance work (as opposed to new-builts), too. In fact OH has decided to go self-employed as there seems to be enough work (small to medium maintenance stuff) just in the area where we live.
Good luck with your move!
Mareike

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

Sorry, can't help with your questions, but hello and welcome.

[Silverwing86]

Hi Mushfm,

Unfortunately I can't really help with your questions either, but also wanted to welcome you to the forum and wish you the best of luck with the rollercoaster ride that is emigrating !

Cheers,
Silver

[benandclare]

Welcome along guys :clap

Played golf with project manager for large building firm here in Christchurch the other day and they're experiencing big slow down in new homes and he knew of another big firm who'd had no orders for new houses for 6 weeks :exit

[mushfm]

Wow

Thank you guys for all your kind hello's, I didn't think there would be that many so quick.
We're not that fussed on the area that we start in, so that will help in the hunt for work I suppose.
It's all about networking, which is not easy to do from over here.
Would you think most people have job offers before applying, or apply then find a job when there out in nz?

[dusk]

it's a bit of a mix to be honest as far as job offers go - depends if you need the job offer for the points score (a job offer is worth 50 points)

[mushfm]

We have 135 points at the moment, but it would be good to seal the deal with a job offer, just to make sure we get selected.

[andrewp]

We have 135 points at the moment, but it would be good to seal the deal with a job offer, just to make sure we get selected.

Mushfm, I don't think you'll have a problem with 135. People have been selected with much less in the last few selections. To me it more depends on how quickly you want to move. Without a job offer the process can take a year if you let it - time to get the house on the market etc. If you go the job offer route, sure - everything will happen faster, but then you also need to be able to move faster. I would only select this route if I didn't have a house to sell in the current market.

[Red Devil]

Hello and welcome to the forum... best of luck with the job hunting :nice1

[slider]

Hello, and welcome to the forum :)

[mushfm]

Hello again to the late-comers thanx for all the encouragement.
If we go ahead and apply with the points we've got, can we notify them if we get a job offer in the meantime and would this quicken the process up?

[IanW99]

Hello again to the late-comers thanx for all the encouragement.
If we go ahead and apply with the points we've got, can we notify them if we get a job offer in the meantime and would this quicken the process up?

:yes and :yes

Ian

[mushfm]

Thats a good reply!
It did take a bit for me to get the nodding heads.

[Mapledrakes]

Hi there, we're still here in the UK at the moment, but our job search (carpenter also) has taken about a month (lots of phone calls and daily checks of all the websites...trademe/seek/myjobspace/search4jobs.) I heard there is a slump at the moment and yes, there seems to be fewer trade jobs on the web, but we were lucky eventually and found a job in Blenheim (still keeping our fingers crossed all goes well - early days). BUT, we didn't try Auckland which seems to be where a lot of the building trade jobs are at the moment. I also have a friend of a friend in Wanaka who is a carpenter and they say that there is plenty of work there although it seems they use a lot of agencies there,and also a lot of subcontract work. The agencies are not really interested unless you knock on their door. This is just our recent experience.. others who are on the spot may have better info. Everyone has been really helpful though, you just need to plug away and present a really good CV......Good luck!

What area are you heading for?

[mushfm]

Hello Mapledrakes

I hope everything goes to plan

We're not really fussed on our location, it's all so beautiful a ripe for exploring. We'll just go where the work takes us.

I think an agency can't give you a job offer because it would only be a tempory position.

So what does the employer have to do, to satify the immirgration when giving a job offer?
Also is the job offer a permenant position?

[lockstock]

Welcome aboard - you certainly seem on a mission! With your combined skills and experience you should have very few problems, slump or no slump. Best of luck!:nice1

[mushfm]

Hello Lockstock
Thank you for your confidence and encouragement. We are treating it as a mission I suppose which we certainly don't want to fail.

[AndyR]

welcome and good luck with everything

[Mapledrakes]

Hi Mushfm

Haven't been looking on the forum for a few days - trying to sort everything out in case it's a quick move........

The employer had to offer a permanent position so we can apply for a temporary work visa (Form NZIS 1015 I think). We are just filling the forms in now and hope to go to NZ House London next week when our medical results come through. Wil let you know how it goes. The temporary work visa is quicker than a Permanent Residence visa if the employer wants you there asap. Some people have said that this can be issued within days if you're on the Long Term Skills Shortage list. This is the route we are taking and we will submit our EOI once we are there. But you are in a better position than us as you have enough points to submit EOI without a job. I think if we'd had enough points without the job offer we would have gone for the PR straight away and had a bit of a hoilday first.......but that's just me dreaming. OH may have a different opinion!

Oh I forgot the employer has to send you an "employer supplementary form". I'm not sure exactly what information this includes as we're still waiting for it to arrive. Maybe someone else can help.

Hope this helps
Debbie

[mushfm]

Well best of luck

Thanx for the info

Please let me know how you get on