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Thread: How to plan the move

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
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    Default How to plan the move

    Hi All,
    We've decided to make the move back to NZ in late September/Early October this year but it's a bit dauting the amount of planning that I think we need to get done. Been browsing through the forum and ther are lots of individual points to consider. My question is how best to go about planning it all and what are the interdependencies? I think there are 4 main bits to consider:

    Flights: started looking and for a family of four it's around £2000 one way. Not sure how good that is or when the best offers are but seems like the first thing we can do.
    Visa: My wife's a kiwi so visas for me and the kids should not be a problem. We have family to stay with on our arrival but it's not local to where we'll end up.
    Moving house: We rent and much of our furniture isn't coming with us (sell it on ebay). Think at most we'd need a 20ft container.
    Jobs and new home: I plan on contracting in Wellington so will put out feelers a month or so out and will find somewhere to stay alone while we find a place to rent and our stuff arrives.

    So with that in mind is there anything else I should be focusing on or potential spanners likely to get thrown in the works?
    Cheers!

  2. #2
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    May 2012
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    Welcome to the forum.

    You should be able to register the kids as NZ citizens if you've not done so. Then only you need a visa and it should be straightforward to get one as a spouse.

    I moved the entire contents of a 70m2 apartment--with a motorcycle--and we didn't fill 20ft. Lots of people on here with houses seemed to do fine with 20ft, and a fair bit of purging.

    Get the visa and citizenship thing sorted soon--then you've got some breathing room.

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Hello and Welcome!

    Flights: We just bought our tickets from San Francisco and it cost us $2600, but we are also going in April.
    Visas: Get going on that. It didn't take very long at all. It was quite pricey to get a Visa for me and Citizenship for our 2 kids. Hubs is a Kiwi.
    Container: We are filling up our container and we have a 3 BR house plus a canoe. You should be fine.
    Can't help you on the jobs front. I haven't tackled that one yet.

  4. #4
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    Citizenship for the kids is called, 'by right of descent'.

    Good luck!

  5. #5
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    Thanks all,
    The wife has looked into the visa thing and said it's each £95 for the kids with an NZ passport which does seem the best option. Also said that I don't need to do the full medical, being the spouse of an NZ citizen but I'm not sure on that point. Will investigate and will post know how it goes!
    I've moved several times in the past and would be fine 'purging' what possesions we don't need. Just never done it with kids and we seem to be constantly cleaning up and buying storage containers for their crap! I'm sure they'll form an instant and permenant attachment to whatever of theirs I want to 'dispose of', regardless if they've not touched it in months!
    Cheers

  6. #6
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    When I applied for residency through my husband I had to do a full medical assessment. I would double check that. It's a lot of paperwork but it is all fairly straight forward. You also have to do a police clearance. In the states, it took some time to get the results back.

  7. #7
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    Like LVKris said, you'll definitely need a full medical, chest x-ray etc and police check for both you and your partner. You don't have to arrange the kiwi police check for your partner as they do it automatically.
    The benefit of getting your kids Kiwi citizenship before arriving is that they won't need medicals. Once you arrive you can change their citizenship status from by descent to grant. That way if they choose to return to the UK, they will be able to pass along NZ citizenship to their children.
    Also, don't purge too much. Migrating is expensive. NZ is expensive at first. Bringing as much stuff as you can, including health and beauty products, can save you money while you get on your feet. If you're already paying for the container, you might as well make it worth it.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
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    United Kingdom
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    Smile

    Quote Originally Posted by Fulhair View Post
    Thanks all,
    The wife has looked into the visa thing and said it's each £95 for the kids with an NZ passport which does seem the best option. Also said that I don't need to do the full medical, being the spouse of an NZ citizen but I'm not sure on that point. Will investigate and will post know how it goes!
    I've moved several times in the past and would be fine 'purging' what possesions we don't need. Just never done it with kids and we seem to be constantly cleaning up and buying storage containers for their crap! I'm sure they'll form an instant and permenant attachment to whatever of theirs I want to 'dispose of', regardless if they've not touched it in months!
    Cheers
    We're also going in Sept this year, from the uk to nz. Have all passports back. Both hubby and I are kiwis, but been in UK for 11years and have 3 small folk. We did citizenship by descent, and it is £91 for each application, and then another £49 or 47 for each nz child's passport, we also had to renew our NZ passports, as been using UK ones. So we found it expensive and for all that was £605.
    You'll need birth certificates, any passports they currently hold, proof of you in the community - gas bill etc. Each child will need 2 passport photos for each application, ie 4 all up. The folk at the NZ house in London are pretty helpful, it's the department of internal affairs and they can also send you out any forms you need, or you can print then off the net.

    It is full on getting flights to NZ, we got one way for sept for just over £3000 for 5 of us, ie 2 adults and 3 children. Best airline we found was Singapore, and everyone who has flown with them says they are good.
    We have a friend who is going home for a visit end of this month, with Singapore and we are going to get her to check out what Changi airport is like, we have 9hr wait.

    Have not had any experience with visas for spouses, but have an idea the other folk are correct about medicals, and dept of internal affairs can give you any other details you need.

    We are at the stage of clearing the clutter before getting shippers in, to quote on half or whole container
    happy planning

  9. #9
    Manks's Avatar
    Manks is offline Serial procrastinator and general busybody
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    Welcome! You'll find lots of great advice here (and in fact you've already had some great tips)
    Quote Originally Posted by Fulhair View Post
    Flights: started looking and for a family of four it's around £2000 one way. Not sure how good that is or when the best offers are but seems like the first thing we can do.
    May be check out the specialists that advertise in the newspapers on a Saturday. Flying one way never equates to half a return fare so this doesn't surprise me. In fact it's often almost as much as a return. Travel agents may be able to do some sneaky tricks in the booking system to get access to cheaper fares so worth an ask. When I returned to the UK for my one and only visit so far, the Flight Centre travel agent here said she could often get cheap flights with Singapore by doing something in the system. I was flying at Xmas though so there weren't any available.

    Quote Originally Posted by Fulhair View Post
    Moving house: We rent and much of our furniture isn't coming with us (sell it on ebay). Think at most we'd need a 20ft container.
    As others have said, furniture is expensive and poor quality compared to the UK. Heck I'd even be tempted to do a massive Ikea run to buy things I don't need and then sell it on Trade Me when you get here LOL. The flaw in that plan (unless you bought it all now) is that it could all be liable for GST when you get here. We have put the contents of a 3-bed house into a 20ft container twice and just about filled it. But throw away wisely.

    Quote Originally Posted by Fulhair View Post
    Jobs and new home: I plan on contracting in Wellington so will put out feelers a month or so out and will find somewhere to stay alone while we find a place to rent and our stuff arrives.
    When we arrived in Welly (just the two of us) we rented a fully furnished apartment on the Terrace while we waited for our stuff. It worked perfectly for us. It was in a serviced apartment block but owned by a private landlord, so our rent was half the price of if we had gone direct to the apartment company. It had everything we needed and was really central. Anything we didn't have (we only needed 2 extra kitchen utensils) we asked our landlord for and she brought them in.

    I made lists of everything - people we needed to notify, bills/accounts we needed to cancel, things that I did actually want to sell/get rid of, and ticked it all off as I went along. Both of our international moves have been at relatively short notice (4 and 8 weeks) so I had to be somewhat organised!

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    [I]The wife has looked into the visa thing and said it's each £95 for the kids with an NZ passport which does seem the best option[/I
    If they have NZ passports, then no visa is required.
    Geoff

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