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Thread: SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!! ): advice seriously needed r.e WHV and 12 month work limit!!

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Scotland
    Posts
    12

    Default SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!! ): advice seriously needed r.e WHV and 12 month work limit!!

    HI Everyone,
    I'm currently on the second year of my WHV in NZ, and ive calculated that after working a few weeks on a kiwi farm (a few months after i first arrived in NZ to make some extra money mid-travel) and until now (where i have worked full time in a proper job since May 2012 to now) i have worked a total of 9 and a half months ( will have been 12 months in April). I called IRD to find out if they could confirm this as i'm terrified that i'll end up working over my 12months if i have calculated the kiwi farm work incorrectly and cannot contact my old employer!!
    I'm positive that i only worked a few weeks on the kiwi farm , but i cannot remember as it was so long ago and it was so casual! The woman on the phone that i called at IRD said that i should call immigration and ask them, but i'm freaking out and i've no idea what i should do! She said that it only shows up in monthly things on their system, so even though i only worked a few weeks which ran through mid jan to mid feb - it will show as 2 months!! Which will mean i have to stop working in February!!! this is in the middle of me renewing my visa and i cannot afford to stop working in Feb, what a nightmare!
    Can someone please give me some advice on what i can do as i seriously feel like my life is falling apart.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    UK > Silverwood, Whitby, NZ
    Posts
    288

    Default

    Hi Luce

    This is well outside of the areas I've been researching for my own move, but I can see you are really concerned so I had a quick look for anything that might help, from both the WHV requirements and the employer responsibilities too. I am sure that it is the continuous period that you've worked that really matters, despite what the IRD say their systems record. Otherwise, if you worked 3 hours a week, one week a month for 13 months on a 23 month WHV you'd be in breach, and I'm sure that's not the intention. All of the guidance says you must not work for a period of more than 12 months, it is very ambiguous but I think that could be read as a continuous period of 12 months (after which it would be hard for any employer to justify that your job was temporary). Nowhere does it state that the 12 months is an aggregation of several different employments. Employers have no way of checking how much time you have already worked for other employers, Visa View doesn't show them this.

    This is extracted from the guide produced for employers: page 19:

    Working holidaymakers can’t take a permanent job but they can have several jobs with different employers. Some are only allowed to work for each employer for three months, and some are able to work for up to a year. Conditions are noted on the work visa granted.

    Again, that reads to me like you can work for each employer up to one year.

    A bit more tenuous, but there is also an extension available to those (from the UK who went on a WHV) who have worked in "horticulture or viniculture", but it seems to require a three month stint - for which you receive a three month credit. Now whether this could be "up to 3 months" with a matched extension only INZ could tell you. I suspect not, but it might be worth asking.

    This page - click here says:

    The Working Holidaymaker Extension instructions allows working holidaymakers who have undertaken three months seasonal work in the horticulture or viticulture industry a further three month open work visa. This further visa does not require them to undertake seasonal work; it is a credit to them for the time they spent in the horticulture or viticulture industry while on their working holiday. These instructions apply to onshore applicants only.

    And just a word of advice. I understand your panic, but you would have told INZ that you could support yourself, without work, for the duration of your WHV. You have had work, which should have put you in a better financial position. So I wouldn't say to them you can't afford to give up your work!

    If I were in your shoes, I would do research and then ask INZ rather than worry myself silly, as well meaning as people like me are, we are amateurs by experience and necessity.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37,824

    Default

    No, I'm afraid the total time you may work on the UK WHV is 12 months.
    Participants in this scheme must not work for a period exceeding 12 months. This may be in one consecutive period or interspersed throughout the total stay.
    http://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/34459.htm

    I agree with RedVee that total time actually worked is what counts, and the IRD are not the final word on that. Calm down and get in touch with your old employer - just because you couldn't instantly do this doesn't mean he's vanished off the planet. (Or, didn't you send emails back to family or friends, or post on FB what you were doing back then? That might be a record of exactly what weeks you worked.) What you CANNOT afford is to breach the terms of your WHV when you're just trying to get a work visa. If you have to get a loan to support yourself if you find you need to stop working temporarily, that's a better option than breaking the law. But you won't sort out the options you have unless you stop panicking.

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