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Thread: Which Work Visa Should We Pursue?

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    Default Which Work Visa Should We Pursue?

    Hello All!
    My Fiancee and I will be married in August and hope to move to the Christchurch area from the US in November. We would like to live and work for an extended period of time (more than 3 years) and look for Full time jobs. We will both be 23 years old when we move.
    I have a level 9 Graduate Degree in Business Management and she has a level 7 Bachelor's Degree in Primary Education. Neither of us have job offers yet, though we are working on it.

    From my research, there are three main visas we could pursue.

    1. The Skilled Migrant Visa. Our scores on the points indicator were 120 and 110. With these scores, we know we are not guaranteed the visa, but is it worth doing the Expression of Interest anyway? Will this visa allow us to obtain full-time permanent jobs once we are in country? What steps would need to be taken to secure residency from this visa? Will they consider our case as a partnership, or individually?

    2. Working Holiday Visa. We would use this visa to get jobs in New Zealand, then try to obtain another visa that allows residency. Our challenge here is that Working Holiday only allows us to obtain part-time jobs, where we would rather have professional full-time jobs. Has anybody gone this route and how did it work for you?

    3. Work to Residency. This particular category seems to be rather limited. Is this something that we would apply for after being in country with a Working Holiday Visa?

    Thank you all for reading, any advice is greatly appreciated. We are so excited to move over there!

    Cheers!

  2. #2
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    Manks is offline Serial procrastinator and general busybody
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    Quote Originally Posted by outdoorsagain View Post
    I have a level 9 Graduate Degree in Business Management and she has a level 7 Bachelor's Degree in Primary Education.
    Be careful about your assessment of your qualification levels. Most Masters/Graduate degrees (MA/MS) are actually level 8, i.e. 50 points. Refer to the Ops Manual page for the USA for details.

    With that level of points, I wouldn't submit an EOI for Residence via SMC. If you look back at the recent selection criteria, those EOIs with less than 140 points either had a job offer or bonus points for qualifications and experience in an area of skills shortage.

    Given your age, I would go for a WHV. Have either of you ever visited before? Do you know what NZ is like?

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    Thanks for the quick response Manks!

    After reading more thoroughly, I do think I might only get an 8 for my masters program. Thanks for the Heads Up!

    So if we go for a Working Holiday Visa, what would we apply for afterwards to make our stay more permanent? Is that still a Skilled Migrant Visa- assuming we get jobs/ job offers?

    And yes, we spent about 6 weeks touring around the South Island in 2011. We absolutely fell in love with the culture, the people, and the landscape of New Zealand.

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    Manks is offline Serial procrastinator and general busybody
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    If you get skilled work, you would have other options available to you, such as Work Visas and those others you've already highlighted. Residence through the SMC route is obviously more targeted towards those with qualifications AND experience, so it may not be the best initial route.

    Have a look at the requirements for a work visa and focus your efforts on finding work within that criteria once you're here. Then you can apply for a visa at a later date to extend your stay.

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    You can look for work of any kind while in the country on a WHV. You can get an opening for a permanent skilled position with the co-operation of a would-be employer - if they take you on initially on a temporary contract, while making you the offer of a permanent position, this enables you to work for them while submitting an application for Residence under the Skilled Migrant Category, or else a work visa.

    About your qualification - notice that many skilled jobs require a Level 7 qualification specifically. Do you perhaps have a bachelor's degree leading up to the master's, which might fulfil this requirement?

    About your fiancée's work - in order to teach in NZ, she will need to be registered with the NZTC. http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/os/

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    Thanks JandM!

    "About your qualification - notice that many skilled jobs require a Level 7 qualification specifically. Do you perhaps have a bachelor's degree leading up to the master's, which might fulfil this requirement?"

    I do have a bachelor's degree leading up to the Masters.

    And my Fiancee is already working to get her US qualifications transferred to NZ quals.


    That's a great idea to work out some kind of temporary contract! Thanks for all the great help!

    Cheers!

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    One more thing - whenever one of you gets the offer of a permanent job, that person can put in for Residence under SMC as the principle applicant, with the other as secondary, so both will have Residence from the one application. If, on the other hand, the one with the job offer decided to go for a temporary work visa, they can at the same time sponsor the partner to apply for a partner-sponsored temporary work visa, which is a separate application but can be worked at one time, and which gets the partner an open work visa (no proof of skills required, allows any job) matching their partner's for length of time. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...milystream.htm

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    Wow, That's a big relief! I was worried that we would both need to secure permanent jobs in order to both apply for residency. I'm glad to hear that if it takes one of us longer to get an offer, we won't be in trouble.

    Thanks for all the help everybody!

    Cheers!

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