[Andy-Dee]

Hi All
We have just found this forum and think its really useful, we have had our EOI selected 29th May and are still waiting to hear - so lots of questions:

How soon and how will we be contacted?
Is there a way in which we can speed up the process?
What happens next?
How do we go about getting police checks?
Ditto medicals - do they have certain Doctors?

We have 135 points, no job offer, OH is an IT Project Manager and I am a HR Consultant. Looking to settle in the Christchurch area - we have one daughter aged 6 into gymnastics and horse riding so info on good schools, gym facilities and horse riding clubs would be useful.

Glad to be joining the forum family.

Dee & Andy

[Aydon]

Our dates were as follows:

EoI Entered 18th July
EoI Selected 20th July
Decision Successful 8th August
Received ITA 13th August

I believe the only way to speed up the process is to have a job offer - job offers are fast tracked through the process - non-job offers are done as normal. We did not have a job offer. Oh - and we were in the UK - I am assuming you are too.

Police checks are done through your local Police station - it costs £10 per person to get one done - can't remember the form to ask for, but they should know.

Medicals and X-Rays have to be done through specified Doctors and Hospitals - there is a list on the NZIS website (And I believe one comes with the ITA pack).

If you haven;t already, I would suggest getting your house on the market - we left it until we had received the ITA pack and, although in reality we got here with 5 months to spare, at times it felt like we had left it too late. You have to activate your visa within a year of receiving it.

Costs:

Our medicals were £226 for the two of us and the X-Rays were £70 each. The medical costs vary depending which doctor you use. Many people have recommended a doctor in Manchester (Can;t remember the name) - we were lucky in that our local surgery in South Wales was an approved Doctor, and our local BUPA hospital was an approved X-Ray place.

The ITA Application was £520 and the Migrant Levy (Payable when you receive your visa) was £115 each. I don;t know if there is a cost associated with children.

You also need copies of your birth certificates, marriage certificate and proof that you have been living together for over 12 months - we used joint bank account statements. I would suggest gathering up as much paperwork as you can find now and getting it all together in one folder so that it is in easy reach when you need it.

Welcome to the ride of your life :D

[High]

Our medicals were £226 for the two of us and the X-Rays were £70 each. The medical costs vary depending which doctor you use. Many people have recommended a doctor in Manchester (Can;t remember the name)




The doctor's name was Million, and you can get the Police Clearance forms from the met site - they're called "Subject Access Requests"

[marcia]

Welcome to the forum.

Re the police forms we went into the local police HQ and asked for the DP1 form (data protection form) filled them in there and then and paid our £10 each, you will need two forms of ID one with picture in (passport, driving licence) and one with your name and address on - we used council tax bill which had both names on, (we have also used this as the proof of living together for 12 months, just sent them this years and last years!)

If you have a specific query try doing a forum search, there is loads of info on old threads, and ask away, it's a really friendly forum and someone can usually point you in the right direction!

[Gumbygreeneye]

Can I suggest regardless of whether you get the ITA (which I hope you do), apply for the police certificates now.

The website advised 40 days to return the forms from when you send them. The receipt they give you when they take your money says it takes 40 days from when they send you the receipt! (which took two weeks to arrive). This can have you in hot water if the rest of your paperwork is ready to go and you have a job waiting. In fact after waiting 40 days from when we sent them, I called to ask how long and they said they had lost them despite having taken our money!

Should the same happen to you and the rest of the stuff is ready to go, if you speak nicely to your emigration officer, they can accept the paperwork incomplete to help speed up the process and you can send the reports afterwards.

[Leachie]

You can download the Police check form, from your local Police district Website; it's now called a "Subject Access Form" to find your local office use www.police.uk.

You will need identification for each person 17 or over applying for residency.

I was told that, if my wife’s name (Mr/Mrs) was on any of our utility bills or bank statements then that will cover us both.

[Andy-Dee]

Thanks for the great response - knowing how to do stuff on line is good for us and will save time. Still hoping to hear from someone NZ side on facilities in and around Christchurch, we quite fancy the Rangoria area.

Dee & Andy

[Aydon]

My friend who has been here for 4 years owns 5 horses and a 27 acre block south of Christchurch. However, when they first arrived they lived in Rangiora so I will ask her if she has any tips of good places for that (They don;t have children though). She's away for a day or two but will ask when she gets back.

[Aydon]

There are LOADS of Horse riding schools and Pony Clubs in or around Rangiora. North of Rangiora is better. Plenty of places to ride out of schools as well. The commute into Chirstchurch isn;t very good though - but for riding it's excellent :)

[Andy-Dee]

What do you mean by 'places to ride out of schools' do you mean hacking? Also what do you equate to a 'bad' commute, currently I spend 30mins to go 8 miles and hubby spends an hour for a 24 mile journey to Manchester and thats leaving early and trying to avoid peak time.
Whats it like where you are in Motukarara?
Dee

[Aydon]

A Bad commute would be 50 minutes into Christchurch in heavy traffic.

In Motukaraka it takes me 25 minutes to get to the centre of CBD at 08:30 when there are no schools. When the schools are back then it can take up to 40 minutes.