[jbunniii]

Things are moving along pretty quickly. I submitted my EOI in early April, it was selected on April 13, selection was successful last week, and I received my invitation to apply today. I now have four months to complete a rather daunting series of tasks - first and foremost getting the background check request to the FBI.

For what it's worth, I am appyling from the US for a skilled migrant visa, with 130 points listed in my EOI.

So far, so good. The next four months will be busy, and somewhere I should find time to actually visit New Zealand, as I've never been there.

Question for any Americans here: besides the long wait for the FBI check, is there anything else that needs to be given high priority as I proceed?

Cheers!
jbunniii

[MB]

Welcome and many congrats., jbunnii!

Another priority is to arrange your medical, if only because a few Americans have found it difficult to get their MD or clinic scheduler to grasp/do exactly what this kind of (pretty simple) immigration medical requires. A key phrase that worked for us was to book 30-60 minutes for an annual physical with additional paperwork. Explain to the scheduler the straightfoward nature of the checks -- no exotic immunizations or anything. A bonus of this approach is that you might have one annual medical 'free' on your insurance plan, hence you'd only pay for (some) lab tests and the x-rays. Quick tip: on the day try to have your MD write numerically expressed dates the right way round on the forms, in line with NZ dd/mm/yy format. :nice1

One more priority: if you have several past employers to contact re. skilled work experience, you might have to get the ball rolling early unless you already have paperwork form them that satisifes NZIS criteria (start and end dates; hours worked; nature of work; etc.). If your paperwork is sparse or incomplete, you might find that ex-employers are receptive to being instructed by you about the needed content. But this can take a good few days or weeks to get straight, especially if one or two employers don't get it right first time.

Most other ITA stuff is fairly quick and easy to get (e.g., degree certificate). If I think of anything else I'll post.

[clarabell]

Best of luck :mrgreen:

[Jo and Andy]

Well done.

Check for silly errors on the ITA though, I suddenly found it had put us down as having family in NZ etc, and someone had their name changed.

Good luck with it all,

[jess]

Hi jbuniii.

Welcome to the forum! :P

As Jo and Andy said, check your ITA for mistakes - almost everyone seems to have a phantom relative in NZ on that form. :? The other advice is good too.

One other thing -- our ITA packet told me to send our completed application to the Washington DC embassy. Someone on the forum (MB, who posted here as well) thought that was odd, but I didn't think much of it since it was typed on my blue instruction page. But I emailed the NZIS officer who sent the ITA with a question I had, and when I just happened to mention DC, she told me that she hadn't meant to put that, and that they don't take applications in DC. She then gave me a new London address. So if anything seems unusual to you, search the forum or ask around here to check on it.

This forum makes the process so much easier!

Jessica

[walter]

Hi all,

What serves as proof of degree from Universities in the US? I have original copies of my transcipts that list my degrees and dates of graduation. Is this adequate or do I need copies of diplomas?

Thanks,

Bruce

[jess]

This is just my experience, but I had lost my undergraduate diploma, and when I emailed NZIS I was told I had to have the actual diploma AND my transcripts. When I went to the University a few weeks after I got the ITA, they said it would take up to 2 months for a replacement copy so instead, the head of the registrar's office wrote a letter saying the date I received my diploma and her contact info for any further question; this was in addition to my transcripts. NZIS has not asked for anything else. (I had my interview, and they said my paperwork looked alright. No mention of the missing diploma so far.) I did mention the registrar's letter as an additional document on the cover letter.

Hope that's helpful. If you do have your diploma I would send it or a certified copy.

Jessica