[np2nz]

I am being laid off at the end of this year (Dec 08). I know it is sad, but hopefully I will find another job soon after that or I will get to move to NZ and start a new life. And I would prefer the later one.

I am about to submit my EOI (hopefully within a week) and I am hoping that they will select it and send me an ITA some point. But I may not have a job at the time of my ITA submission. What would happen in that case?

At what point you would have to prove your employment etc?

Thanks for your time and advice.

[ourquest]

There is no requirement to be employed at the time of submitting the ITA, so you should be fine. What NZIS are after is an employment history showing that you have worked for the time for which you will be claiming points, and that it is related to your qualification if you are also claiming points for that. Whether or not you are employed at the time of the ITA is not relevant to them; in fact you could be in NZ and looking for a job if you wanted to be, NZIS are fine with that too.
Best of luck.

[np2nz]

ourquest,

I really appreciate your time and advice. It made me feel a lot better now.

One more question, I have heard that I need to have at least 3 years of work experience in the occupation that I am applying under. Do you know if those 3years have to be continuous?

I am applying as a Systems Analyst and I have over 3 years of experience, but there are gaps in between.

This is how my work history looks like (all Systems Analyst):

14 months full-time
28 months part-time (was in gradschool)
Gap of 2 months (travelled around the country)
10 months full-time
Gap of 8 months (gradschool again, was a graduate research assistant)
12 months full-time with current company

Thanks.

[TonnyTessa]

I also had a gap when I was doing my PhD. They haven't so far kicked up a fuss (EOI selected no poblem, and in the ITA there weren't any question about the gap, submitting that some time this week or next). If the grad school study was in the same field I imagine it shouldn't be a problem

[M-Squared]

I'm probably just having a brain fart this morning, but where's NP? In your location it's "NP->US->NZ". Whereabouts are you in the US? Personally I'd be tempted to hop on a plane and come as a visitor, then get interviews (line them up before you come) and hopefully get a job offer and just stay once you get a work permit. :)

[np2nz]

TonnyTessa,

Thanks for your reply. Probably the reason they are not making a big fuss of your employment gap is that you mus have had at least 3 years of continuous employment before or after your PhD.

Do you have a job offer in NZ? Are you going to be teaching in a university?

[np2nz]

M-Squared,

NP = Nepal and currently live in Utah. I would love to fly to NZ and look around and while there get some job interviews. But my life is not that simple. First of all, I have to get a visa to go to NZ and second of all, I am married and have two young children and they all want to go.

[ourquest]

One more question, I have heard that I need to have at least 3 years of work experience in the occupation that I am applying under. Do you know if those 3years have to be continuous?


IanW99 will know the absolute answer to this. For now, I don't believe there is any requirement for continuity in your employment, particularly as you have good reasons for the times you were not employed. They are also fairly short periods. I haven't looked at the NZIS policy document for a while, but the usual issues are that the work experience has to be recent, which might be 24 months out of the last 36, for example (don't quote me on the details here though). The part-time work definitely counts towards the total, where 30 hours per week is considered full-time by NZIS and so if you worked 15 hours per week you can then claim 1 year full time for every 2 years of part time which you worked.
Hope this helps.

[np2nz]

ourquest, Thanks again. My part-time work was 20 hrs/wk during the school year and full-time (40 hrs/wk) in summer break (but when I wrote it above, I put everything under part-time to make it easy).

I do not have documents showing part-time and full-time hours separetly, but I have some documents that show total hours worked each year.

I hope that IanW99 will see this thread and let me know for sure that there will be no problem because of some gaps in my employment history. Thanks IanW99 in advance.

[BkyMonster]

I don't think the work experience in an area of skills shortage has to be continuous, nor recent. I have read of people applying under skills shortage for jobs they haven't done in more than a few years. If you do need at least 3 years of work history, and have been working part time, then you will need proof of enough hours to meet the requirement.
Honestly though I'm not sure where the 3 years requirement is coming from.:confused: I thought there was a section on the EOI where you indicated 2-5 or 6 years of experience and above for 10, 15 points respectively? I may not have that completely right but something similar at least.

On our EOI/ITA my husband had access to two different areas on the LTSSL, a qualification with little to no experience and experience with no qualification (I guess we could have gotten one assessed...but we didn't). Our CO has had no real issues with either of them that we couldn't fix by sending more documents, and either one would have been enough for selection from the pool at that time.

Hope that helps and doesn't confuse you more. :D

[skibumwa]

Hi np2nz,

If you are living in the USA, is it safe to assume you are a US Citizen or Resident (Green card holder)? If yes, you are eligible for a free (no fee) 30 month Work to Resident (WTR) visa from the NZ - Los Angeles Consulate office. :nice1 If you work in IT as I do, you might want to try to do a "reccy" or interview expedition as I did back in April/May 2007. Check out my post from my very useful trip to give you some ideas:

http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12190

I would not have been able to move here last year July and soon-after get my Perm Residency without that taking that 'reccy' trip... :cheers

Good luck!

John

[np2nz]

...Honestly though I'm not sure where the 3 years requirement is coming from.:confused: I thought there was a section on the EOI where you indicated 2-5 or 6 years of experience and above for 10, 15 points respectively? I may not have that completely right but something similar at least...

Thanks. It helped me a lot. The 3 years thing comes from here (http://www.immigration.govt.nz/NR/rdonlyres/063ECB35-F5D5-44D8-8325-7041A727A9D5/0/1093.pdf), "Degree-level (Level 7) qualification majoring in computer science, information science or information technology AND three years of relevant work experience" (page 9, Information
Technology (IT) Professionals).

But you brought up a good point. They are asking 3 years here and they are asking 2-5 years on the EOI. Why can't they just ask for 2 years when they are accepting 2 years on the EOI?

Thanks again.

[np2nz]

Hi np2nz,

If you are living in the USA, is it safe to assume you are a US Citizen or Resident (Green card holder)? If yes, you are eligible for a free (no fee) 30 month Work to Resident (WTR) visa from the NZ - Los Angeles Consulate office. :nice1 If you work in IT as I do, you might want to try to do a "reccy" or interview expedition as I did back in April/May 2007. Check out my post from my very useful trip to give you some ideas:

http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12190

I would not have been able to move here last year July and soon-after get my Perm Residency without that taking that 'reccy' trip... :cheers

Good luck!

John

John,

Thanks for sharing your amazing story. You are very brave. I don't think I am brave enough to do what you did. I work in IT field, but my work is not very technical like software developers, unix admin, linux admin or Oracle DBA. I am just a Systems Analyst, even more like a Business Analsyt.

I wish I was a US Citizen or greencard holder, but I am not. I was a student for many years and now on work visa. Thanks again.