[San]

Just wanted to know from curiosity, is this necessary to have a graduation degree or diploma for any person want to immigrate to NZ? If a person is basic qualified such as 12yrs (Higher School of study in English Medium) of schooling and has experience of more than 10 yrs in IT (absolute skill shortage) with a few certificates of short durations in IT (ie. 1 month, 3 months etc.), is eligible for immigration?

Lets imagine he gets 120 points after a job offer (at the moment its 70). Is it worth coming on tourist visa and search for a job before submitting EOI because he will have not enough points before he is offered a job. Will he be offered job on his skills even if he doesn't carry a degree/diploma?

All responses appreciated as this may be helpful to many online visitors.

[San]

I will really appreciate if someone can help me with my above query. It will really help a friend's family of mine with whom we are grouping to immigrate to NZ... Thank you all!!

[jaycee]

Hi San, and welcome to the forum.

No, lack of a degree or diploma does not disqualify you from immigrating (oops, think that's a double double negative!!), provided you have points for skilled work experience. It will mean you can't claim any bonus points for the Skill Shortage Area though.

I can't speak from experience, but from job ads I've looked at (I'm in IT too) some employers require a degree, some don't. So I guess it might cut down on your choices, but I think in the end it's your skills that will matter. I'd suggest your friend has a look at some of the online NZ job sites (look through the Working in NZ category here for some links) to see how his skills match up with what is in demand. If the courses he has taken are industry-standard such as Cisco certification or MCSE, that will probably help.

As for going out on a visitor visa - plenty of stories here about that. It seems that most NZ employers will be much more willing to consider you if you're actually there - qualification or not.

Sorry I can't be more specific, but hope this helps, and good luck :)

[San]

Its really nice of you to help us understand the scenerio there, your suggestion was really helpful. I did discuss this with my friend and he has read your response online before me instead. It was so nice when he said yes he will go with us and give it a try!! thats was really nice to hear from him. Now we are planning and we are going to share the cost of living during our visitor visa and will be a confidence booster to each other :)

Was just wondering if the bonus points he can't take then his age points alone will not be sufficient. His age points will be lets say 25 as he is 32 now and what other points he can claim apart from 50 on the job offer (if he gets). That comes to only 75, but to get a PR he needs atleast 100 isn't it? I am little worried at that point. I know he has experience of more than 14 yrs in IT which is also from the Absolute Skill Shortage list of the NZIS documentation. Can you help me how to claim the minimum points? and, are you sure that he can't claim bonus points? I hope he can claim experience points though... he can get the letters of experience from previous employers.

[nippa&pippa]

We managed to get PR without any qualifacations or degree, just try get more points by aims for job in skill shortage, company and areas in the list provide to get bonus, and combine years of job experiences which will be given more points. We are lucky to get extra 10 point that i got a sister live in auckland.
Sophia

[jaycee]

San, if your friend can prove he has 14 years skilled employment in IT that should get him 30 points. Where are you from by the way? I'm asking that because unfortunately NZIS only recognise work experience from certain countries :( - there's a list on their website.

If he gets a job offer in IT, I think he may also be able to claim the bonus points for both work experience and job offer in a future growth area (ICT is one of the areas) - that would make 120. I'm not certain about that - ICT is quite a vague term!

As I understand it, you can only claim Skill Shortage points if you meet the person spec for a job on the shortages list. A degree with a major in Computer Science is a requirement for the IT professions.

Glad you're able to go together, I'm sure it will make things easier.

[San]

I really appreciate your responses and thank you very much for sorting out our queries. It will be like dream come true if things go well, we are so excited to go and have started organizing and saving for the trip to NZ.

Just to update you all we are from Bangalore, the silicon city of India. I have seen couple of job profiles and found that there are possibilities for me in Multimedia and graphics (9yrs of exp) wherein I have told my friend to look into the possibilities in his field, he has experience in web development and Microsoft technologies.

Is India listed on the coutries list whose experience is recognized? what about Skill Shortage Category experience? will that also not counted from India if India is not in the list? These questions pop out as I am wondering if we make the trip and our experience is not counted it will be a great problem as lot of money will be on stake in stay, travel etc. to NZ. Moreover, he has no graduation degree as well but we both have excellent command over English and there is no problem in following the NZ accent also as we both have experience in working with international clients in Bangalore.

Does anyone of you think there might be any problem in getting PR (apart from job finding).

[jaycee]

No, India isn't on the list, but I think experience there still counts for immigration if you apply for PR with a related job offer or current employment - so if you can get a job first, I think it will be OK :)

Experience in a skills shortage area counts too, even without a job, but again, I think the qualification requirement applies.

I don't think it would affect getting a Work Visa.

Can someone else confirm all this, as I would hate to give the wrong answer?

Please San, have a thorough read of the NZIS site, and try to figure out all of the options that may be open to you and your friend. I am of the opinion that the points indicator plays down certain 'technicalities' - it looks simple, but you need to have read all the documentation to get it right. Forewarned is forearmed :)

[San]

Its really nice of you Jaycee!! yes, your suggestions are really appreciated. These queries if gets cleared we will be more confident as I will hate getting any surprises there, I know the job market is limited there and finding the job is a big challenge but I would prefer to keep this one challenge and not any unwanted surprises... you know what I mean. You have really helped us so far. Thank you!

I will look forward for any other member responses to help us decide finally. We are planning to go by this November if things go fine.

[sidabrine]

Wow, this is really useful forum! It sounds like getting NZQA recognition is quite a lengthy, complicated and expensive process.

I reviewed my points and it seems that I could collect 120 points without getting my qualifications approved by NZQA. Do you think I should go ahead with that (what are my chances to be selected?), or should I sort out the NZQA and go ahead with 175 points?

I also wonder if I should check as many ticks as I think I qualify for and let the NZIS to "downgrade" my points as they see fit, or should I try to have my application as acurate as possible from the very beginning (there's so much of "small print" stuff that you have to take into account, such as whether your qualifications and current job fit each other, etc).