[migratory birds]

Recently approved for Permanant Residency...now figuring out logistics! Those which comes first questions...pre-move/early arrival tips appreciated!!

Once your visa approval was granted, how did you organize your move?

Did anyone keep their home before moving - and ultimately sell? Or move back after a time in NZ?

If you sold your home before you moved, when did you put it on the market in relation to your move? Did you wait to sell before you moved? Did you move with your house still on the market? Did you house sell quickly - before you were ready to move?

Are there any smaller, racially/ethnically diverse towns with innovative educational institutions, good bookstores, a great public library and a rich arts community? (OK, maybe I'm asking too much!)

For those who moved without a pre-scouting trip to secure housing, where did you land? How were those first few weeks/months?

If you didn't identify a community before moving, how did you travel through the country to visit communities of interest (my understanding is that public transit/trains aren't a well-established infrastructure in NZ)? Where did you stay while scouting out communities - reccomendations for reasonably priced hotels, bed and breakfasts, hostels...?

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ITA Dec 05/submitted Apr 06
PR approval Nov 06
Move date...TBD!

[wilson182]

Hi and welcome

We came over for a reccie in May 2004, and the kids and I went back to the UK to sort out renting our house. We were not brave enough to just sell up and come, and wanted a back up in case it didnt work. We used an agent to manage the property for us, and had a tenent for 12 months. We were able to market the house for the last month of the tenancy, and it took us eight weeks to sell the house. It was a bit scary for a while because we had to pay the mortgage from over here (my last major use of my credit card), and set ourselves a limit for how long we could do that before we considered putting tenants back in for another 12 months. As Murphys law would have it, we were on our last payment when we received an offer, but compared to some of the tales I have heard we were very lucky.