[Irish1]

Hiya,
I posted ages ago, when we were thinking of heading straight to NZ, and got good advice, so we have had our heads down and been saving mad for our move - but now our plans have changed - so new advice requried...please...!

I am married to a Kiwi, and we are living in Dublin at the moment.

We are planning to leave Ireland in Sep 09 and go to Australia for 12 months ( I have the WHV - my first overseas visa!! ) - but will be travelling back and forth to NZ on holidays - then after 12 months travel to NZ to live and work for a year or two and to use this time to decide where we want to settle down.

My questions are...
Can we apply for a visa now when we are not sure when we are going to be in NZ?

Can I apply for the visa in NZ when we get there? How long roughly would it take before I could work?

I am right is thinking that applying for the Temporary entry Work Visa would be the best way to go about it - then go for Permanent Residence when we decide if we want to settle there? If we get Permanent Residence is there a certain amount of time that I must stay in NZ?

Is there any other advice you can give me also?!

Thanks a million - I keep going around in circles on the Immigration website!


Irish1

[JandM]

Hello again.:)

My questions are...
Can we apply for a visa now when we are not sure when we are going to be in NZ?
I really don't know on this one.

Can I apply for the visa in NZ when we get there?Yes.

How long roughly would it take before I could work?No telling. With any visa application, you're in a queue waiting to be dealt with by a huge bureaucracy. Nobody can say how many applications will be in the basket ahead of yours on the day yours goes in, or how fast the workers will work, etc. etc..

I am right is thinking that applying for the Temporary entry Work Visa would be the best way to go about it - then go for Permanent Residence when we decide if we want to settle there?That's one thing you could do. Have you looked at BUNAC IEP - you can get that up to age 35. And I think it may be quicker to get, but I don't know if you can apply except in your country of origin - you need to get some detailed advice from the people themselves. http://www.bunac.org/uk/worknewzealand/eligibility.aspx

If we get Permanent Residence is there a certain amount of time that I must stay in NZ?There's no 'must stay', as if they'll chain you up,:D but how long you stay affects your getting RRVs, and, eventually, IRRV. Here's an old thread that explains what those are. http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-23241.html If you want to know more details about qualifying for IRRV, you could Google it on the NZ immigration site (it's basically spending more time IN New Zealand than not, over two years) - and presumably, you'd be interested in getting PR with IRRV eventually, as it'd make life much easier for you, with all your OH's family links being in NZ, future visits, etc., even if you don't live there permanently.