SMC - Job Search Visa - Job Restrictions

[Tatton]

Hi all,
My first post so go easy! I've looked around and can't find anything specific to my query so here goes.

I can reach 140 points without job offer thanks to my degree and previous career being on the LTSSL.
Having read bostonian's Flowchart [http://www.enz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40055] I assume we will need to go for interview and possibly (if successful) be sent down the JSV route.

If this happens and I head to NZ for my job hunt, am I restricted to jobs within the Skills shortage lists?
I've since moved to a new career path, totally unrelated to my degree. (I'm sure that this might crop up at interview!).
If I find a role in my current career path might that be considered acceptable? Both myself and my wife have Masters degrees, so I would hope we are seen as good candidates!

TIA for any advice,
Cheers,
Tatton

[JandM]

Hello.

If this happens and I head to NZ for my job hunt, am I restricted to jobs within the Skills shortage lists?

The SMC JSV entitles you to take any job you're offered, but ONLY a job in the skill you proved on your ITA would qualify to get you your Residence.

I've since moved to a new career path, totally unrelated to my degree. (I'm sure that this might crop up at interview!).

Oh, dear... Your previous career, the one on the LTSSL, is the one that has entitled you to get this far in the process. You haven't proved anything to INZ about your present career, and, whether or not it is also a skilled job, the CO can't take anything about it into consideration. If you get to interview and talk about taking a job that is nothing they know about, you will disqualify yourself. (The visa is a kind of swap you make with INZ - you, using your proven short-supply skill for the benefit of NZ, for permission to live and work in the country.)

If I find a role in my current career path might that be considered acceptable?

No, for the reasons just mentioned. You would have to start from the EOI stage all over again, giving up on everything you've done so far.

[Tatton]

Thanks JandM for replying,
I must admit to feeling a bit disheartened now!

ONLY a job in the skill you proved on your ITA would qualify to get you your Residence.

I realise that the "skilled" job I'm using for my points is the role that ideally INZ would like me to take. Would taking a "non-SSL" job then deny me any opportunity for PR?
I suspect another option might be that my wife is actually very likely (once in NZ) to get a job on the appendix 6 list of skilled jobs. Once (fingers crossed!) this happens we could then do another EOI from NZ, correct?

I'm actually coming to the realisation that we might just be better off biting the bullet and applying with the 135 points we'd get if my wife is the principal, thanks to her work experience.

Hmmm. Would appreciate any nuggets of advice....

[zednic20]

Hi Tatton and JandM
As per Tatton's thread he is saying that once the CO is done with their interview of the candidate, (if successful) CO will most likely to give JSV (job search visa) to candidate because he doesn't have a job offer while applying for SMC. Is this true?

[JandM]

I realise that the "skilled" job I'm using for my points is the role that ideally INZ would like me to take. Would taking a "non-SSL" job then deny me any opportunity for PR?

If you put together an application based on your previous career, the skill that you qualified in and in which you have experience, and you get to the stage of being interviewed, the whole expectation on the CO's part will be that you'll take that skill into NZ. If you talked frankly in interview about actually doing something else instead, you'd be extremely unlikely to get any further.

If by some fluke, they offered you SMC JSV at that point, unless you got a job in YOUR proven skill in NZ, you would not be able to stay beyond the nine months of the visa. (You can work at any job during the job searching period, but only a job matching the qualifications and experience you have proved will get you the Residence visa.)

If, after the CO interview, depending on what you choose to say, you are granted Residence (not deferred, with the JSV), you don't have the restrictions on your choice. With a Residence visa, you can do what you want to. A Residence visa does not carry any stipulations as to your future career. And your wife would also get Residence, allowing her to do what she wishes, too.

If you got the SMC JSV, that would only allow you entry to NZ as a worker. If your wife wanted to go along, she would have to do so on her own visitor's visa *, which would mean that, if she got a job offer, she couldn't start work until she applied for and gained a temporary work visa in her own right. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra.../requirements/

(*Notice, if she did this, she would have to be prepared for some very searching questions at the airport, as the officials there automatically assume that a visitor is going to be leaving again, and with any hint that the visitor has other ideas, start to suspect a potential overstayer. It is legal to job hunt on a visitor's visa, but not to start work. Official word from the Minister is that to state 'tourism and looking for work' as a reason is legal, but he was talking about applications made from outside the country, not passing the airport verification with one of the visa-waiver country cards filled in on the aircraft.)

BUT for your wife to get a job offer while in NZ as a visitor (leaving aside the idea of your having applied for residence) could be a start for both of you. If your wife has the necessary qualifications and experience in a skilled career to get an Essential Skills temporary work visa, she could at the same time sponsor you for a partner-sponsored temporary work visa (see the Joining Your Partner section on that same link given above). With a job in hand, she could apply for Residence with you as the secondary applicant. In either case, what YOU would then have would be a visa entitling you to work at anything.

Is your career change job without any hope of points, then?

[Tatton]

Thanks so much JandM for your detailed reply. It's much appreciated having a bit of experience to draw on!
Need to have a think about this over the weekend.
Unfortunately our professions aren't on the SSLs, although we could argue that they are on the Skilled employment (ABC) lists. The job descriptions there never seem to quite match up with real jobs I always find! No use without a job offer though.
Might try the SVF fastest finger first lottery in April and see how that pans out.

[JandM]

If you're young enough to be considering the Silver Fern route, are you perhaps within the age-range for a WHV? Or BUNAC IEP? That would enable both of you to be in the country and job-hunt. As I said above, if either of you can land the offer of a permanent skilled job, that will enable him/her to sponsor the other, and potentially start yourselves on the way to residence.

[Tatton]

I'm just on the threshold for SVF and BUNAC. I'd not heard of the BUNAC one so it's worth considering. The wife and son might have to come on a tourist visa as you mention above.
Thanks again for your help on this JandM. I may be slightly less optimistic, but am definitely now much better informed and clearer on our options!

[JandM]

Good luck with it all.

[JandM]

Hi Tatton and JandM
CO will most likely to give JSV (job search visa) to candidate because he doesn't have a job offer while applying for SMC. Is this true?

No, it's not true. Anyone without a job offer, applying under SMC, is going to get interviewed by the CO, and the interview is to let the CO evaluate their knowledge of NZ, preparedness to settle into NZ life, and therefore, critically, their EMPLOYABILITY. Here's a link to the official list of requirements. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/i43652.htm

If they look well prepared, so an employer is likely to get a good impression when they apply for a job, the applicant will get Residence. If the CO has their doubts, then that is when the SMC JSV is offered - we say, brutally, it's the 'we don't think you can do it, but here's one chance to prove us wrong' visa.