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ulto
21st April 2009, 12:40 AM
I am wondering about de-facto visas. I am in two minds about applying for residency. I do have the points and all that, I am here now working away in an IT job. Thing is I am not sure what to do now.

See my contract expires the middle of december which is more or less the same time my WHV expires. My OH is working in a permanent job and has been verbally given a work visa when her WHV expires in december for a year I suppose. So I have 2 options.

One is to get on her visa as a partner. Does anyone know how much this is? I think its about 280 dollars or so. Also how long does it take to get. Is there a 6 month wait like one for PR. Besides the hastle of getting the paper work and all that I think it should be ok.

Option 2 is to go and apply for PR (I have some of my EOI filled out and all!!).
This is much more costly then the above however it has the advantage of being a resident of NZ for 2 years and of course the path to permanent residency and the kiwi passport many years down the road (hello OZ!!):pac:

See the original plan was to work for about 9/12 months and the do more travel. Get a RTW plane ticket and travel China/Japan, home for a few weeks then South America and back to NZ. Then god knows where.

Since the world economy has taken a hit and jobs are hard to come by I think those plans for postponed for now anyway. I still want to do all that travelling but it can wait a year or 2 more. I am only 27 (28 tomorrow!!) so I have time. The OH has a good job at the moment and there is possibility of me staying on in a very good multinational IT company with opportunites there. So we would be mad to leave come the end of our visas. Plus i dont want to be back in Ireland on the dole queue wishing I was back here.

I think we will be back in Ireland sometime April 2010 for a wedding and basicly to see home again. By that time it will be about 20 months since leaving. But I am not sure what we will do then. Thing is I am not so sure will that visit be just a visit home for a few weeks, as part of a longer RTW trip I outlined above or a permanent return home.

I just dont want to waste 2500 kiwi dollars for a visa that we will only use for a few months when the option might be there to get some sort of extended visa. Then again I dont want to let this oppertunity pass and me regreating not taking the chance of PR when I had it.

TBH NZ is class. Loads to do. Pay isnt so good but with the winter coming up I plan to be hitting the slopes every weekend!

However I wouldn't mind taking a year or two out working in Canada or OZ or both even sometime in the future.

I suppose I am looking for someone to make up my mind about which visa!!:pac:

JandM
21st April 2009, 05:23 AM
I think I know of the person who will have to come up with a decision for you - goes by the name of ulto...:exit

BkyMonster
21st April 2009, 09:23 AM
My partnership visa based on OH's work permit took a couple of weeks but time scales change all the time. Shouldn't be 6 months though. Also the fee paid is dependent on the country you are from I think.

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