[Howie]

Hi! We thought that things were progressing well with immigration. We submitted everything for our ITA except our Canadian police check, which may take until April or longer to receive. We were hoping to move to NZ in February for a job offer that should be arriving any day (hopeful!). My husband is a student who will be graduating at the end of January. We will loose our housing here 30 days after he graduates, so we can't really wait until April to move. We will try to go to Canada to sort out the police check, but if this is not possible, and we do get job offers (we are engineers), is it possible to apply for a work permit now and then PR when the police checks come through? Do you still need the police checks for a temporary work permit?

Somehow, this is all going to work out (I hope),
Susan

[Hannah]

You don't need police certificates for a temporary work permit for less than 2 years length so you could apply for this first, to enable you to start work, and then submit your residency application later (this is what we are doing as it means we can start work sooner rathen than asking an employer to wait for the PR application, which takes longer).

[veronica]

Can't see that there would be a problem, they are short of engineers over here.

[Jimbo Logo]

No problem getting work visa/permit without the Police Check but be careful. If memory serves, the RCMP check is only usable if obtained no longer than 3 months prior to your PR application date. In other words, if you get it April 1st, you have to have your application for residency in before the end of July.

(or, well, that's how I read the NZIS info on the PR App anyway...)

[Howie]

Thanks for the replies. My husband just got an email last night saying that he should expect a formal job offer before Christmas in Auckland. Of course we're waiting to see if it actually comes through, but it sounds good. If it does come through, I guess we send it off to London right away and then sort out the work permit with them. We have all of our PR documents already sent in (except for the RCMP police check), so hopefully they'll be able to process our application as soon as the police check arrives. I can't believe we could actually be living in NZ by February. I'm so excited I could burst.

Susan