logo

  New Zealand Immigration Guide









Lizelle
30th September 2004, 10:23 PM
Hija all,

I have been reading through some of the post for the last week (I have been away, catching up a bit), and I would like to relate my and hubby's story to some of the doomsayers:

We have been planning to immigrate for quite some time. Have looked at UK, USA, Canada, Aussie. My dad's girlfriend's sister live in NZ, and one day, about a month ago, it came to our attention that as we are from South Africa, we do not need a visitor's visa to go to NZ for 3 months.

That got me looking into NZ (never considered it before, don't know why), and I found out that we qualify for EOI (105 without a joboffer).

We are both 27 yo, and hubby is a project manager (on the list of OSL), with 2 years and a bit of experience (he changed degrees late into his studies), so that was not all that much. After looking into it for a while, we decided that the best route would be for him to go to NZ to search for work, and after that I will join him. I have started studying again, still have another 5 years or so to go, so we had to consider that when accepting a joboffer.

I looked into work visas, and found out that if you are on the OSL it takes about 2 weeks.

He flew to NZ on 15th September (about a month after we first thought about going to NZ), landed on the 17th. Before he went there, I checked out the ads for construction managers, and there were loads, I sent his cv to a couple of people, together with a note that he will be available for interview from the 20th. Got responses back from most of them to call as soon as he gets there.

The next week he went to the employment agencies, got an interview for the 27th of September. He went there (in Auckland West - Henderson area), and got a joboffer of NZ$62k before he went out of the door :cheers !!!!!

I will be flying there on the 29th of October, just waiting for the birth certificates and police clearance.
Hubby will apply for his work permit, and as soon as I get there with all the paperwork, we will go for the english language test, and start with the EOI (with a joboffer our points are 155, so I do not see any problems with that), and hopefully we get residence before I start to study next Feb (international fees are 4 times more than residence fees)

Now, luckily we do not own a house yet, so we do not have that much capital tied up. On the other hand, one NZ$ is about 4.5 South African Rand, so that eats up much cash.

But, all in all, we will be going there with about NZ$10k.

So, just to tell all those who are thinking about going, if you have the means at all, and the employment ads looks promising, my advise to you is to go, it might just turn out as wonderfull as our experience.

Cheers,
Lizelle (South Africa, Auckland next month :cheers )


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

bbq
30th September 2004, 10:30 PM
Lizelle

Brilliant post.. Good luck in NZ to you both

cheers

alex :cheers

ToadFish
30th September 2004, 10:32 PM
Howzit Lizelle

Congrats - sounds like it's going very well for you. :P

Is there a standard procedure for your husband requesting a work permit once he had the job offer? I didn't know you could do this without first having a work/residence visa.

Tony

karltsmith
30th September 2004, 10:38 PM
Nice one Lizzelle and congrats to you both....west Auckland is a nice place to be with the waitakeres on your doorstep!

Karl :cool

Lizelle
30th September 2004, 10:58 PM
Thanx for the congrats, I am still quite in the clouds about it, I think people keep wondering about the silly grin on my face :mrgreen:


Toadfish (??), on the workvisa:
The biggest problem seem to be to get the employer to give a joboffer without a workpermit, they don't always want to wait for the visa to be approved. But a workvisa is not required for a joboffer, although a joboffer is required for a workvisa.
For us, the employer is very kind, even offer to be of help if we need any (as a bonus, the immigration office is right next to the work).
As far as the process goes:
First, the employer has to show that he has searched for kiwi's to fill the post, but was not successfull. For us, because hubby is on the Occupational Shortage List, they assume that there are no kiwi's available, so no bother for the employer.

Also, the offer has to be for at least NZ$45k (except in very special circumstances).

Then, if the joboffer is for more than 2 years, you have to supply a medical certificate.

Also needed is the police clearance certificate. You do not need the english language certificate for a workvisa.

After that, you fill out the form, pay the fee, give it to the immigration people, and voila! (presumably), a workvisa.

Hope that helps
Grinning Zelly :mrgreen: :cheers :clap :mrgreen: :angel :cheers :yes :clap :clap :clap :clap

Lizelle
30th September 2004, 11:00 PM
Soon to be:
Silly grinning KIWI zelly

(I just couldn't resist) :mrgreen:

Lizelle
30th September 2004, 11:07 PM
Soon to be:
Silly grinning KIWI zelly

(I just couldn't resist) :mrgreen:

jesselyn
1st October 2004, 12:31 AM
congratulations lizelle!!! :clap happy for you :nice1

jes :angel

Lizelle
1st October 2004, 02:12 AM
Thanx Jes :P

Been grinning like an idiot for the past couple of days. :mrgreen:

Zel :cool

sarahw
1st October 2004, 03:14 AM
Wowee! That's great news - well done! Very excited for you. :nice1

I'd be interested to hear how long it takes to get PR from when the job offer arrived as we're planning on going in on a similar route to you.

Thanks and good luck!

Lizelle
1st October 2004, 07:34 PM
Thanx Sarah, :cheers

will keep you posted on the rest of the process. I am hoping to get PR before february, :hopeso , but will see how things goes

Cheers
Liz

jesselyn
2nd October 2004, 04:43 AM
something is bugging me lizelle :uhoh (scratches head, eyebrows together ) :?

umm what do you want to be called - lizelle, zelly, liz or zel? :roll:

jes :angel

Lizelle
3rd October 2004, 08:42 AM
:mrgreen: :oops:
jess,

I know, it gets very confusing.

Story goes like this:
My real name is Lizelle (with the thingy on the first e, but not very pronounced), but I am Afrikaans, and English people tend to get the pronounciation wrong.
Thus, I become Lizel (with the thingy on the i to make it sound different - can't remeber the name right now) in English, and I don't like that very much - though I still respond to it
My friends call me Zelly
Sometimes people shorten Lizelle to Liz when typing.

Thus, I kinda type what the person responding is calling me, or what cathes my fancy at that precise moment.

When I get to NZ, I intend to make it Zelly, because it sounds the same in English and Afrikaans, but when I am typing, Liz is quicker to type, but sometimes someone started with zel, so I type that (don't much like the sound of that either, sounds a bit weird - almost like gel)

Don't know if that makes much sense, but there you have it :nice1
:oops:

So, to prevent furhter confusion, I think I will stick to Zelly

Cheers
Liz (oops, see, I did it again) :roll: :cool
Zelly

(I just scrolled through this thread, and I see what you mean - didn't really notice it before)

PS. If you want to make it really confusing, my family calls me Haas (rabbit in afrikaans - was young and used to wear pigtails to school, and the name stuck) - thus I just kinda responds to everything that sounds sorta like lizelle in any way shape or form, and Haas, and whatever hubby decides on this week - at the moment it is Bromvoel (rough translation into english would be "grumbling bird") :P (unfortunately, it is also a VERY ugly bird, but hopefully he is referring to the grumbling :hopeso :laugh )

jesselyn
3rd October 2004, 04:57 PM
:eek we have the same problem umm sorta :uhoh

its only my immediate family who calls me Jesselyn (pls dont think i dont like the name i do :yes ) while some of my relatives use Jessel...

other ppl call me Jesse or Je. :P in school, they call me Jess.

then my friend des (from lourdes) started using Jes :smile which i like - its a lil feminine (i know, i know if you pronounce it, its still the same however ive always thought Jess is a guy's name :? ).

nowadays, in the bank whenever they use Jess i always say "im Jes with a single S" :roll:

btw, noticed in another thread you did it again - you forgot to use gel oopps zel tho :laugh
http://www.emigratenz.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=397 :mrgreen:

oh my goodness! first time i wrote a kinda long post and its about my name - jeez! :oops:

:cheers

jes :angel

jesselyn
3rd October 2004, 05:01 PM
ps. Zelly, im Jes with a single S ;) LOL

Lizelle
4th October 2004, 11:58 PM
Jes (with one S :P )

Yip, funny how you start out just quickly trying to explain something, and then you look at your post, and it just got long along the way :mrgreen:

I am still trying to stick with Zelly, getting better at it :nice1 :hopeso

Cheers
Zelly :cheers

jesselyn
5th October 2004, 04:00 AM
I am still trying to stick with Zelly, getting better at it :nice1 :hopeso


yep! :yes i noticed! ;) :nice1

jes :angel

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15