[Karen and Rich Matthews]

Hi Guys,

We are at the stage of submitting our evidence along with our ITA. Karen's freakin a little in relation to the telephone interview so to ease her pain, would anyone be able to help with the sort of questions they were asking?

She's almost researched the whole of NZ history :laugh

Many thanks

Rich and Karen x

[neilw71]

Guys - just do a search for "telephone interview" - there are several recent accounts of the interview questions that will put you at ease. Its not something to be worried about if you do a little preparation.

Good luck with it all

Neil

[MB]

Rich and Karen - all the best. Might be a good idea - though you're probabaly doing so already - to copy and paste some of the questions you discover via Neil's suggestion and jot down some answers to them after you've put your heads together... then save them in Word or something so you can go back and add to / modify them as ideas occur to you.

And... is that another plane for me?
:yes

Cheers,
Matt.

[Karen and Rich Matthews]

Thanks guys will do :)

Rich

[Mike & Nicola]

I didnt prepare for the interview at all - she just called to say when would be good and I said "how about now". Just speak honestly about your expectations, and how you will adjust and everything will be cool.

Goodluck

Mike

[Lil]

Same here Mike, the questions are no more difficult than you would expect from someone you've told that you are emigrating for the first time. Why, where, how? Honestly, you'll wonder what all the fuss is about.

[Babette & Andy]

Agree with Lil and Mike - don't stress about it too much.

If you're submitting without a job offer, they'll want to gain an understanding of how you think you're going to obtain a joboffer: - i.e. are you expecting people to come knocking on your door with offers, or have you already started to make some contact with agencies / employers about opportunities in your field of work.

They are likely to ask what you'll do if you're not successful in finding work to match your experience: - they would like to hear that you'll then look into retraining/upskilling possibilities to make your skills match requirements better.

And so forth. Like Lil & Mike said above, be honest and use your common sense as to what you think they're wanting to hear.

Best of luck :hopeso
Babette

[Jennie & Rob]

Hi there - Rob had his interview a month or so ago following a night of no sleep, swotting up on NZ history (NOT) and amazingly they have given us full residence visas. This was in spite of his 280 ermmmms and 16, "to be perfectly honest".
The lady seemed very nice and was just genuinely interested in whether we had researched our move and really knew what we were doing. She asked things like what support would we have in NZ (none we know noone), prospects for employment (all research has indicated that NZ actually want Rob's Oracle DBA skills!), how much money we would have, etc.

Not a single question on the history of NZ and the infamous treaty!
Hope that helps.
By the way - we heard 2 days later the result of the interview.
GOOD LUCK

[Karen and Rich Matthews]

Thanks guys,

Your words are a comfort, we'll let you know how we get on :yes

Rich

[Miggy]

Hi Karen & Rich,

We had the interview this morning - don’t panic! The lady we spoke with was great; she was very professional and made me feel really at ease. Having read previous threads I can now fully agree, there are no trick questions, they're not trying to catch you out, they simply want to know why you want to move to NZ and that you've thought it through and are aware of the potential problems that you could encounter.

Good luck, stay calm and be yourself. ;)

Steve

[Rammer]

Yeah, - good advice - Be yourself - :yes

I was fretting in the run up to my interview, I sat in the car park where I work and called dead on 12:30. But after about 5 mins I started to calm down and It just ended up being a friendly chat with a stranger.

Dont worry, and just be yourself. :yes

Ian & Madge

[xanctus]

the interview was quite easy actually...I wished that all interviews for job seeking as easy as that... :mrgreen: :P :P

[Simon & Emily]

I hope you guy's are right (and I'm sure you are ;) ) as we've had that e-mail booking our interview next Monday, 9th May. Simon's taken two nights holiday to make sure he's awake and with it :laugh , and the waiting is soooooo difficult. It looks like we may have to finish the building work on the house soon then ....

Emily

[jo b]

Hey

you do know people, although my husband has a brother in NZ he mentioned this forum and that we have met a numebr of people going to NZ so we already have a network of friends.


Just be yourself, be honest, positive and also imagine if it were you country what type of answers would you want to here.

ie. have you researched?

How will you support yourself if you don;t get a job i.e. what is your contingency plan. e.g will the wife work instead etc.

Good Luck don't stress about it.

Jo

[Simon & Emily]

you do know people, although my husband has a brother in NZ he mentioned this forum and that we have met a numebr of people going to NZ so we already have a network of friends.
Jo
Thanks Jo - I hadn't thought of that (doh) but I'm not sure if they want to hear that we're already building up a network of ex-pats :laugh

I'm sure it will be fine, and they'll welcome us in with open arms. But until we actually get that elusive stamp in the passport we'll always torment ourselves with the 'we're not good enough' argument.

Emily

[jo b]

Emily

I forgot to mention the day after our interview we were granted PR :clap

Jo

[Simon & Emily]

I know, it seems a lot of people are getting PR very quickly, and I hope we follow the trend :nice1

We're beginning to let ourselves get excited about it now - I hope that doesn't jinx it to much :( If we do indeed follow this trend, as long as they don't turn us down flat we should know by end May / June. This then gives us 12 months to finish building the house, sell it, pack it all up and book the flights. We feel that we are slowly moving forward - it's not the timescale, as I know things can only go at the pace set by NZ house, but it's the not knowing. We feel, as does everyone else here, that until we know one way or the other we cannot make any firm decissions, ie sell the (expensive) car, caravan, holidays this year(?), etc etc. I just feel that the rest of normal life has been put on hold awaiting their decision.

Emily

[Karen and Rich Matthews]

This then gives us 12 months to finish building the house, sell it, pack it all up and book the flights.

Emily

Wow, you guys don't do things by half!!! :laugh As you said, hopefully a year will see the whole process sorted and you on your way. Where abouts are you hoping to move too? Karen and I will be putting our house on the market this week, but we're still waiting on the NZQA to give an equivilance onKaren's Teaching qualifications.

The wait continues :yes

[Simon & Emily]

Hi Karen and Rich - we're hoping to move down to Christchurch area, perhaps Ashburton or thereabouts. It would all depend on where Simon can land a job, but we're not doing anything about that until we get the green light from NZ house.

As you said, hopefully a year will see the whole process sorted and you on your way.

We bought the house here about 5 years ago before we had the children, and have been doing it up since. We've been held up though on trying to get planning passed for an extention. After 18 months of different sets of plans we completely gave up and decided to try to move to NZ (a childhood dream for Simon). We are currently in the final faze of the house, just the kitchen to finish (only a small job then!) and the front outside area where we did get planning for a garage (should increase the value by more than the cost :nice1 ). We would then be OK to sell and take cash out with us.

It's such a stressfull process for moving - it's not just the timescale (which doesn't worry us as we're not in a position to move) but the limbo stage, where you just don't know if you're going to be able to pack everything up and move to where you want to go.

Hopefully the better weather will make it easier to bear .....

Emily

[Karen and Rich Matthews]

Just thought we'd let you know that we had our New Zealand residency interview last night. It wasn't what i was expecting. From what people had told us it was just a 'chat' to see if we would settle and more likely a New Zealand representative would do this. WE had a man from the UK. He was very formal and it was more like a Q&A session than a friendly chat.. He started off by saying that i had to keep answers brief so he could type as i was talking and my heart sank.

From what we can tell he asked the standard type questions, what would i do if i couldn't work, how would we settle, the cost of living- all i guess to make sure that we had done our reesearch. He ended the interview by saying that he couldn't see why there would be a problem and he would let our caseworker know his decision- so we could know by THIS MONDAY (argh). The only problem is that Mascalls school have got my employment details (dates) wrong. We are both really pleased that this bit is done, and as if by magic i have also been approved by Teacher's Council this week giving me a provisional licence to teach in NZ. So fingers crossed, all should start slipping into place.

Best wishes to you all and we'll let you know the outcome!

Karen and Rich

[clarabell]

Got my fingers crossed for you :nice1

[Jo and Andy]

We had lots of help form information on this site and PM's from some wonderful people, but remember that

THEY WANT YOU TO GO, NO TRICK QUESTIONS. THEY ARE (or are's was) NICE PEOPLE.

She asked if we had been there, No, did not seem to be a probleml, but we have extended family (BIL has introduced us to his family and met them several times, also to his friends).

We have not started looking for work yet as did not want to seem to pester companies until we were ready to move, but contact we have made have been very promising about the employement market.

Said if had PR we were willing to compromise on what job we got, to ensure employment, ie go in a a lower level and move up.

She was very friendly as told us that all should be OK, as long as Andy's medical was cleared by them, and even then it would not be a no, but could you do this.

Think of answers to questions like where are you heading to, - would like to go to but are flexible with job opportunities.
Do you have money to support yourselves - yes,

Can't remember the rest, I kept passing Andy notes of things but he just talked to her, and it was fine.

Fingers crossed for you. Goodl luck

[Karen and Rich Matthews]

:clap :clap :clap :clap :clap :clap :clap :clap :clap :clap

Just thought we'd update everyone. Rich and I were granted permanent residency yesterday. WE are thrilled and pleased that the NZQA and Teacher's Council came through. I have to say that's it's a huge weight off my mind......now to selling the house!

Thanks for everyone's help and support, it really made a difference :nice1

Karen and Rich

[jess]

Congratulations Karen and Rich!!!! :clap :clap :clap :clap

:mrgreen: :P :mrgreen:
:P :mrgreen: :P
:mrgreen: :P :mrgreen:

Jessica

[clarabell]

Thats brilliant!
:clap :clap You jammy spuds! :cheers

[jess]

I interviewed the day after Karen and Rich (and I think maybe the same British interviewer) and found out this morning that our PR was granted.

I can't believe it. I work for a children's theatre. They have to be one of very few countries in the world actually giving bonus points (future growth area) to applicants in theatre!!

Well, we're thrilled. Thanks for all the help provided thus far on the forum!

Jessica

:clap

[Marie P]

Great news Jess

:clap :clap :clap

best wishes

Marie x

[kiwidebs]

Hey, Karen and Rich, just caught up with this post. CONGRATULATIONS. So glad the NZQA finally came through. And yayyyyy on the PR. Get that house sold so you can get out there and live the life!!

Debs, Mark and the kids

[Babette & Andy]

Many Congratulations Karen & Rich, and Jess too :nice1 :nice1 Hope you've spent a nice weekend celebrating :cheers Fingers crossed for a quick housesale.

Babette