[b&k]

Tried searching the site for this answer but no luck..

If I am granted NZ residency, am I allowed to study in Australia as a non-international student i.e. at the same price as an Austalian student?

[tigerlily]

I believe you can work there, possibly be a student there, but it's a catch-22 situation. To maintain your NZ residency, you need to be in the country for 2 years first ( at least half of each year and then they will give you an indefinate returning resident's visa). So if you got your NZ PR, and then went to Oz instead, you'd be able to be there for 2 years only. Then you would lose your right to work in Oz because your NZ visa would expire, and they only renew it for a very short time if you haven't met the being in the country for 6 months out of each year requirement.

[b&k]

I was thinking further ahead once I had a permanent residence visa. There are some masters courses in Oz which are not available in NZ.

I have been doing some more digging and have found out that you need to be a NZ citizen to get the same preferential treatment as an Aussie. So that means 5 years in NZ before I could consider further study.

I will look into UK distance learning too. Anyone in this forum got any experience of this?

[veronica]

I don't think ( but not 100% sure if it applies to studying ) that you have any rights in Oz as a NZ resident. I think that for you to live / work there you have to have NZ citizenship, that will take you 5 years after you have been granted residency.

[sarahw]

I doubt it very much - as Veronica says you'll need citizenship to be able to have the same rights as an Aussie citizen - we have PR for NZ (have been here 2 years) but still need to get visas (on our UK passport) when we go over to Australia - we are British in the eyes of Australia & not Kiwis - you'll need a NZ passport to have no special requirements to get in.