The New Points Table

goldwheels · Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2003 2:56 am Post subject:

Hi Gregg H
I have been down to New Zealand House in London to hand in my application for a work visa and the wife and kids visitor visa's on 19th November. They told me it can take up to 6 weeks for them to process the visas. Hopefully they will process them before Christmas as I am due to fly out on the 6th January. They told me that due to my circumstance they will try and push the application through. fingers crossed

Cheers Sean

Nice One

Gregg H · Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 7:54 am Post subject:

Thanks JCM and goldwheels. I'm really grateful for your help. Now time for a big decision.

Cheers
Gregg H.

karltsmith

Me and my family are one of the many whose migration has been seriously delayed by the recent sudden changes in immigration policy. Not once but twice! We were scuppered in July by three days awaiting a house valuation report to submit with our application. Then we couldn't apply because at that time we did not have job offers. My wife has since secured a post and we missed the latest deadline by three days awaiting medical reports which needed to be repeated because our the initial ones were then out of date! So far we've spent about £700.00 on medicals and police reports and have not been able to even get as far as getting an application in!

Not wishing to pour cold water on the hopes and dreams of some of you but if you analyse the new points system you will see it is very heavily weighted towards having a job offer in place before you apply for residency. Although you can enter the pool with 100 points or more it is likely in my opinion that you haven't got a realistic possibility of getting residence unless you can score 150 or more points. There is no set passmark under the new system only an annual requirement to fulfill NZ immigration quotas.

Those who are lucky enough to have job offers in place will automatically rise to the top of the pile to the detriment perhaps of equally qualified or experieced other applicants.

The big losers in all this inevitably are prospective migrants and NZ itself!

We count ourselves as very lucky to have found and employer who is prepared to wait and work through these problems with us but I don't think many will be so fortunate and no employer will wait forever while NZIS gets its act together!

We plan to travel on a work visa so Helen can start her job and apply in parallel for residency. We current have 170 points but after a year in employment we can get up to 190 points.

As with many things the devil is in the detail and we await with some trepidation the EOI documentation.

The bottom line is if you don't score very high points as a 'skilled migrant ' try to get a job on the priority occupation list and follow the work to residency programme, or get a long term work visa and get a few extra points for having a job and having some NZ work experience!

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

PS If your medicals do go out of date while you are waiting to apply DO NOT pay to have them repeated! You can get them countersigned by the original doctor to revalidate them! If you explain the situation in a covering letter to NZIS they will undoubtedly accept them without further cost to you! I have it on good authority that this was recently the case with Australian applications when they changed there rules!

Gregg H

karltsmith · Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2003 9:40 pm Post subject:

Hi Gregg,

Sorry you think I'm a spoil sport Embarassed

but I am being realistic! To back up my predictions check out this link and read the newsletter http://www.proteapacific.co.nz/newsletters/index.asp , a browse around this site is useful too. It confirms what I've thought since the I read the new rules! A piece of advice on this site is 'get a job first'! I don't necessarily endorse consultants in any way but for some cases they are the only way would be migrants can get in. My advice, if you think you are border line after reading the above link, is to have an assessment by a consultant first. The good ones pull no punches and give you a fair assessment of you situation. They charge a fee for this but it could save you thousands of pounds in the long run!!!!! fingers crossed

Stuart Mac · Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2003 4:51 am Post subject:

Yes I'd already said my 110 might not be enough and that a job offer might be needed. It annoys me that under the old system I would have had enough points to qualify for job search but there doesn't seem to be that option any more. On the other hand, I'm not sure as high as 150 will be needed either. To score 150 you need a job offer and I don't think the NZIS will fill their quota if they only pass people with job offers.

ruthj · Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2003 8:10 am Post subject:

Hi
Karl you mention about it being OK to get medicals revalidated - is that definite? SorryI have also sent you message in more detail!! We are waiting to apply for new category - got 175 points currenly and medicals will expire on 16 Jan 04. What do we have to do to make sure medicals are still accepted???
Cheers
Ruth

karltsmith · Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2003 9:37 pm Post subject:

Hi Ruth (&everyone),

Personal message en-route to Ruth.

General comment : Check out the Q&A sheet on the NZIS web site that indicates they will be flexible on this issue in the first few months of the new scheme. I think they were bombarded with critisism last time they pulled this stunt back in July, but to do it twice is outrageous! Briefly my Doc said that when a similar thing happened for Oz migration this year all he was asked to do was to revalidate the original forms by coutersigning and dating them! Hope this works for you all! We are going to do this with a very pointed covering letter outlining how this has affected our plans and our employers plans!

TG · Testing The Water Joined: 05 Dec 2003 Posts: 4

Can someone explain what the future growth areas are ?

~Qualification in an identified future growth area, identified cluster or area of absolute skill shortage

And:

~Relevant work experince

What is meant by "relevant' -- does it have to be relevant to degree, or job offer or both or ?

thanks.

(by the way, it seem everyone on here is from the UK -- I guess I'm the only one from the US...)

AJ Cartwright · Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 8:36 pm Post subject:

Hi TG 'relevant' in the old general skills meant that if you were claiming points for a qualification and work experience that the work experience had to be relevant to the qulifacation. It didn't have anything to do with a job offer because you didn't need a job offer to apply for general skills. You got extra points again in gs if you had a job offer that was relevant to the qualification and experience.

You don't need a job offer to apply for this new skilled migrant beast so I think 'relevant' still means the same thing now but......?

JCM

bigshotla · I'll Hang Around A Little Joined: 17 Nov 2003 Posts: 16

Hi - I'm in the US as well. Haven't posted yet (well....I guess I just did). I'm wondering if anyone's heard any more about this "marketing campaign" New Zealand has apparently started to attract Californians. Haven't seen a thing, and I'm here in L.A.

TG · Testing The Water Joined: 05 Dec 2003 Posts: 4

Regarding NZ's attracting 'entrepenurial Californians' -- that seems to be more talk than substance, I think...the way the points system is set up it seems to completely favour corporate job offer over self employment, small business startup etc.

(?)

bigshotla · I'll Hang Around A Little Joined: 17 Nov 2003 Posts: 16

I did find a posting by a recruiting firm looking for a few directors to promote new zealand in California. However, there was no date, or deadline on the post, so I have no idea if they filled it!

Is it worthwhile to wander down to the new zealand consulate?

Silversmith · I'll Hang Around A Little Joined: 19 Nov 2003 Posts: 32

A small query - say you go for your medical and from reading the other comments they can run out, whats the time scale for them are they valid for a year? Does the same apply for police reports do they have a 'shelf life'?