[Mark Liceaga]

Dear Friends,

In another thread, Moorf and others told me that with a Skilled Migrant Residence Visa, I can work as a Manager or a waiter legally. While looking for that skilled position, has anyone tried doing menial jobs, e.g. waiting tables, hotel cleaning etc to pay the bills? If yes, how was it?

Also will NZIS look unkindly later if you did or currently working a job other than the skilled needs list? Will this affect your application for citizenship?

Thank you for your advice and insights.

Mark

[Moorf]

I'm slightly confused. You have been granted Permanent Residency without a job offer in NZ?

I know that if you come over with a job offer and PR that you need to stay in that job for 3 months, and then you can give it up and do what you like.

[Bubbles]

I'm slightly confused. You have been granted Permanent Residency without a job offer in NZ?

That's what the man said Moorf. Just like me too, and Mark is correct.
I always thought that applying for residency on the basis of your skills ( SMC ) was a good thing, but now I have been granted those stickers without a job offer I can turn up and do what I like basically. If I choose to of course. ;) :nice1

Strange, but true.

[Moorf]

Yep, I'm totally aware that you can get PR with no job, was just trying to clarify that that was the case and that he wasn't coming over with a job offer that he didn't propose to fill... otherwise best to stay with that job for first 3 months imho....

[Mark Liceaga]

Thank you for your responses.

Moorf I have PR without job offer. I just want to earn a living asap while I'm applying for skilled needs.

Mark

[foolsgold99]

Yes you can do any job you like. When you come to apply for citizenship 5 years down the track, all they care about is that you're not a criminal.

[Avalon]

This is where things really went bananas with this new scheme.

If you came in on PR with a job offer - you got slammed with section 18a - meaning you had to stay in the job for 3 months and were restricted ( as the South African has found to his detriment). But it appears that if you came in on PR as a skilled migrant WITHOUT a job offer - there is no section 18a applied and therefore no restrictions on what you can do for a living. :confused:

So all this crap about the SMC being brought in to stop skilled workers getting jobs as wait staff or taxis drivers didnt really last very long.

Typical.

So it looks like MArk can wait tables till he gets something better :nice1

(Or has anyone come in on PR without a job offer and got a section 18a restriction????)

[Debbie]

In my interview I was asked what I would do if I couldn't get a social work post and my responce was that I would work no matter what and if that ment getting a voluntary job to get my foot in the door or taking a lower grade, (not on the skills list) social care job to get things going then that was fine. (I was lucky enough to be able to say that I have same savings that would enable me to manage on less or no income for a while.) NZIS still gave me PR with out a job offer.
So if it's a case of work and pay the bills and make NZ work out as your new home or go bankrupt whilst waiting to find your skill shortage job I can't see that there would be a problem.
Debbie

[StevieD]

Ditto - asked me on interview what I would do if I couldn't get a position in my chosen skills area, told him I would do anything so as not to be a burden etc...

Good answer - he not bothered.

Steve

[Avalon]

Thats what makes it so compltely odd - because the whole reason they stopped the Genral skills system is that people could get enough points to get into NZ without a job and were then taking unskilled work. Bear in mind at the time any capital you could bring over also counted towards your points so you could top up your points if you had to.

If this is what you could do in SMC - why on earth did they bother with all the pratting about????? Typical government departments - fixing things which aint broke at great cost and ending up with exactly the same result.

Ho hum - suppose ill never understand the immigration department ;)

[Mark Liceaga]

Hi Avalon

I am assuming the previous General Points System is less focused on Skills. The revised process, i.e. with SMC, gives greater assurance that people with needed skills get priority.

No one wants to be waiting on tables forever. But the reality is, you might have a PhD and still wait months for a PhD job (just look at other threads). Do you just sit and wait? Go to the library. Watch rugby? I'd rather work and pay taxes.

No system is perfect but there is no harm in experimenting. My 10 cents.

Mark

[Avalon]

Mark-

The previous system was skills based too.In fact - we couldnt get enough points on the old system to get PR without a job anyway - whcih is why we were trying so hard to get work. The way the numbers worked was different but really when it all come out in the wash there hasnt been much of a change in the way it works out.

What makes the whole thing annoying isnt so much you could now wait tables its that the whole point was to stop that happening. SMC was supposed to ensure that visas were granted on the basis that you do work in the area you are claiming skilled points for. At least that was what NZIS were rabbiting on about when the change was going through. Personally I dont really see why they needed to change it at all. They just need to be "seen" to be toughening up the immigration system, and as they are now doing say that "No Job = No Visa". Not sure how they thought that was ever going to work :confused: its actually been easier for that past 12 months to get a PR visa than before SMC started.

The other thing is that while section 18a isnt always a problem - it can be. Oh had to pass up a rather plum job change because he couldnt go contracting. All because he had come over with a secure job offer. If we didnt have that - he could have landed the perfect job. By the time our 3 months was up - the job was filled. For us Im still glad we had a job to go to - im just not sure that its fair to slap 18a on people who got jobs and not on people who dont.

Hope that makes a bit more sense.

[Jonathon1977]

In my interview I was asked what I would do if I couldn't get a social work post and my responce was that I would work no matter what and if that ment getting a voluntary job to get my foot in the door or taking a lower grade, (not on the skills list) social care job to get things going then that was fine. (I was lucky enough to be able to say that I have same savings that would enable me to manage on less or no income for a while.) NZIS still gave me PR with out a job offer.
So if it's a case of work and pay the bills and make NZ work out as your new home or go bankrupt whilst waiting to find your skill shortage job I can't see that there would be a problem.
Debbie

Debbie,

PM me sometime I would like to talk to you about Social Work posts in NZ.

[Hannah]

section 18A applies to those who have got enough points (ie. 140) with a job offer or who have been in jobs for less than 3 months (ie. those who start a job and then apply for PR). This is going to apply to most people i would imagine as few people are getting through now without a job offer. those who have been working for more than 3 months or those who have got PR without having to have a job offer will not have a section 18A. I guess its recognising the fact that those who needed a job to get PR have to fulfil their obligations (ie. do that job).

It's going to be a pain for me!!

[Avalon]

Section 18a has nothing at all do with needing a job to get the number of points.

Section 18a is applied only to those people with jobs or job offers - regardless of whether they need the offer to get enough points or not.

Over the last year - with the points so low - many people could get PR without a job offer in place. So section 18a was not applied.

Why should some poeople have to PROVE thay they are doing the skillled work for which they have been granted residence and some not have to prove it. When the ONLY difference is that some people managed to secure work BEFORE they got here.

NZIS are penalising those who actually managed to secure work before coming to NZ. :nice1


(edited to add: these views are based on the scheme when WE came through and where 18a was applied at the time. Obviously NZIS may have stopped applying 18a to people who get job offers - which would at least level the field)