Emigrating from Los Angeles to Wellington. Well, hopefully.

[LindsayAS]

[GrumpyGoat]

Your age is an advantage because you can apply for the working holiday visa. But you can not bring a child with you on that visa and you have a child.

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...idayscheme.htm

You could apply for a student visa to continue your education here. However, you will pay the international rates for university which would be very expensive.

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/stream/study/

Info on Victoria University (Wellington) for International Students:

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/international/

I am sure others will make suggestions as well.

Good luck!

[JandM]

Hello and welcome.

NZ is very strict on qualifications for ECE - sorry to break it to you, but almost NO overseas qualifications seem to be acceptable. However, there are increasing numbers of places to qualify within the country. Here's a link which may help. http://www.teachnz.govt.nz/thinking-...where-to-study Nobody gets to teach unqualified, and even people with years of experience in their own country (but a foreign qualification which isn't recognized) have to go back and study from the beginning.

I seem to remember seeing someone on the forum having a visitor's visa for their child when they were entering on a Silver Fern (another kind of work visa which doesn't allow people to bring their family). So you might well be able to do this if you ended up entering the country yourself on a WHV.

HOWEVER, there is also the partner-sponsored work visa. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...milystream.htm If you study the detail on that page, and the links off it, you will find that (assuming your partner is eligible, and your application is valid in other ways) once you can show evidence of living together even for a short time (and you could do this by entering the country on WHV), you can be granted permits for various lengths of time, and can renew them until you have a full year's evidence and can put in for PR.

[Mickfin]

Not to rain on the parade, but you will be asked for permission from your childs father to bring her. You will need written documentation from a court allowing you to do so. You will need to prove via a custody argeement etc that you have the right to bring her in. You are in for a long haul it seems. Best of luck.

[Margarita]

As an Early Childhood Teacher I can say that qualification levels for ECE over here is very high. To practice as a teacher you need a level 7 qualification which is Degree level. Once you have that you need to go through the NZQA assessment and there is no guarantee that it is going to be recognised and the equivalent to an Early Childhood degree here. As one of the lucky ones who did get her UK degree approved I still get surprised looks from visiting lectures of New Zealand students who still haven't heard of it happening.

Studying in NZ is a good idea but only if you can afforded to do it though a uni and full time. From experience finding a training position within a centre at the moment is almost impossible (although they are there in rare instances) One of the girls I work with who is a agency reliever has been trying to find a training position for months. She's started her training and just needs somewhere to work full time for the last two years of her studies yet no one will take her. It appears funding cuts has hit training places hard and employment is kind of on hold for these positions until everyone see's how it's going to affect their centre. I feel quite sorry for her as she's a fantastic teacher and it's a great loss to the ECE industry for her to not finish her training.