[stndrd]

Our original plans were to have me/wife/kids come over on visitors visa's and then secure work, now I am curious if it would make more sense to get a whv for me and have the wife/kids get the visitors visa's? Does the whv make receiving a job offer (IT) easier?

Also I know that the whv is full for Americans until May 1st and we wanted to leave for Welly in June, so is it possible to get the whv that quick?

thanks,
Brian & April

[veronica]

As I understand it you can't get a WHV if children are involved... check that out with immigration.

[Jonathon1977]

The WHV does not cover your partner or kids but having a work permit gets you one step closer to some interviews. Once I had my WHV and a plane ticket it seems the interviews came out of the wood work. If both your wife and yourself are young enough to get WHV you could both apply but the kids would have to come over on a vistors visa. Most of the WHV slots are filled until late next month depending on your country.

Once you get a job offer you could go straight to work but you would need to submit your EOI straight away. Depending on the age of the kids I am sure you will want to send them to school and provide them with other government services ASAP.

I applied for my WHV in September of 2005 and was approved and issued an Electronic Visa within 24 hours. Then I searched the net and arranged some job interviews for November. This invoked my WHV but luckily I swung a job offer (IT job). I then flew back home (WHV allows to you to leave and renter NZ), had the partner apply for a WHV and submited an EOI. Then came back to NZ in Feb 2006 with the partner and started working with the remaining 9 months on the WHV. While here I transferred my case to the Welly office and they issued me an ITA same day since I had been selected in the most recent pool. Now I just need to finish gathering the forms/fee and submit the ITA to get PR.

(Please note that my job offer in IT is what enabled me to have the points required for EOI selection.)

We did all of this on a leap of faith and hope that we do not stumble in the process but all seems to be working out as planned.

[stndrd]

Thanks for the replies!

I spoke with nzis and they said that I could get the whv and my wife/kids could come over on visitors visa's, although looking at their website it shows you cannot bring chidren. So I'll check back with them another time to make sure which one is correct.

Is it typical for employers to hire individuals w/ a whv (with intentions of pr) on a permanent basis even though the whv is only intended for 3 month positions?