[askme]

I have submitted EOI online via NZ official website. Please let me know what to do next? How long it will take for all the immigration process? Is it good to hire AGENT or do it yourself? I am also looking for jobs in NZ at same time. I am an IT guy, have good skill in my area. I have done certification too (MCSE, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) will it help me in getting jobs and immigration process?

[Moorf]

Hi askme and welcome to the forum :nice1

Application timescales vary depending on where you live etc. Where do you live at the moment, what sort of I.T work do you do and where do you want to live in NZ?

Regarding agencies, personally I think the process can be easily completed without the need, and expense, of an agency. It's a personal choice, weigh up the advantages and disadvantages that apply to your particular situation.

Some of our members have used agencies, perhaps they could comment?

There are a few I.T bods on here so I am sure someone can help with advice re the current job market in various areas.

Moorf

[Jo and Andy]

Hi Askme.

We put the same question on the forum this time last year, with the help of everyone on the forum we did our EOI, ITA and now have PR all within 2.5 months of putting our EOI on and without an Agency, (which we were going to use). Just put any questions on here, people are really helpful.

With IT and your EOI already done I would say you probably don't need an Agency. Save the money, afterall it is a month or two's rent.

Good luck.

[Debbie]

HI Askme,
We used an agent and it has been great, very easy organised and kept up to date and informed all the way. The agent has made sure that everything has been done in the right order in the right way and (so far) everything has been streight forward. I see there job as knowing where they might be problems and dealing with them befor they happen and so far this has been the case.
We choose to use an agent as our application isn't run of the mill. Our choice of agent was difficult, we looked at several agents some were realy slow and unreliable and would have been more hinderance than help, one told us we didn't qualify without a job and gave us blaitantly (sp) wrong info, others were VERY VERY expencise. The agent we are using was the right one for us, if you want further info on why we made that choice PM me.
You can do it yourself and with a standard type skilled migrant visa application I would think everything you need will be on this forum. I thought of this visa application in the same fashion as writing a standard will or convayancing a house; you can do it yourself if you have the time, confidence and a good manual,(forum) to follow. When your needs are more specialist and you start to push the limits of the available info you need to consider paying for advise. But as I said, be careful who you buy your advise from, this forum is great, non of us are experts but we all have practical experience and if there is an error on here someone is bound to pick it up, your agent on the other hand you have to rely on there professionalism and honesty.
For me I didn't have the time or the confidence to manage the application, I felt that even with our non standard application I could probably manage the paper work but I could have filled it all in to the best of my knowledge and not known that it was wrong until it either cost us the visa or a lot of money.
All the best with your EOI Debbie

[Aydon]

We have applied without an Agent. I am in IT as well. How many points do you have without a job offer? We had 140 (Well I did, Mrs A. managed 0 points ;) )

After we submitted the EOI, we waited for a Successful Decision. Then the ITA came and we filled it in with all relevant forms then took it to NZ House in London in person - very easy and quick to do. The dates are in my sig.

There are a lot of IT jobs about, but it's difficult to get an offer without having the PR (Or WTR) - just one of those things about IT I guess.

I would put my CV into all the usual places (Check the Jobs forum for some IT related job sites) and you never know - but I wouldn't bank on getting a job in IT until you actually get there.

[askme]

Great advice from all of you! Thanks for that, I like 'Aydon' comment, yah it is really hard to get a job by posting CV on online job sites. Currently my EOI points is more than 130, without any job offer. I am living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia now.