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Thread: Work to Residence Visa Approved!

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    42

    Cool Work to Residence Visa Approved!

    I suppose ours was a simple case really. Myself (UK citizen), my wife (German citizen) and two young boys (51% English, 49% German ), all fit and healthy. Got two job offers after two months of clicking "Apply for Job" on Seek.co.nz and following a few Skype and phone interviews (including one at 3am). Applied for Work to Residence Visa and accompanying temp visas for the family after accepting the right job for us .. visas were all approved within 2 weeks without any hitch via the Hamburg VAC and the London INZ Branch.

    So it's taken from April 2013 to September 2013 to get everything sorted for our move to S. Auckland, where we will be looking for somewhere to live near Bucklands Beach / Cockle Bay. Our flights are booked for November 3rd!

    I know that many people have a tricky time with their visa applications and during the process I actually stopped visiting this forum because it made me even more worried about all the things that can and do go wrong. So I'm posting this just to give some hope to those at the beginning of the process, that it is possible to get through this route unscathed with minimum fuss, presuming:

    1) You don't have a very complicated background in terms of where you've lived
    2) You don't have a complicated medical history
    3) You have the motivation to engage with prospective employers despite the difficulties with the various "easy-option-only" recruitment agents

    Good luck to everyone!

    cheers,
    Dom

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37,822

    Default



    Thanks for the encouraging update.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    NZ - Tauranga
    Posts
    389

    Default

    Thanks for sharing. very helpful.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Auckland
    Posts
    172

    Default

    Thanks for sharing dom_donald!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    161

    Default

    Thanks for motivational update.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Bangladesh
    Posts
    208

    Default


    Pretty clean. Thanks for the positive note- best of luck.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    42

    Default

    i must admit, I was pretty fixated on the SMC route and at the beginning I didn't even really know about the WTR route.. I was only able to get 140 points without a job offer and I was always worried that, even if I got a job offer, I wouldn't get a residence visa within the timescales needed to avoid a gap in employment (with a family to support, this was a risk). Despite 18 years experience in Technology / IT, I couldn't get LTSSL bonus points for my experience because I didn't do an IT degree back in 1992... hmm...

    In the end, the WTR route was much simpler, cheaper and quicker, with the focus then being simply on finding a job with an accredited employer. I'm lucky in that I had skills which are needed but not particularly available in NZ. I didn't get a single response from any IT / software / technology related job, despite my 40 or so applications. My success came from other management skills (risk management, bid management), which was unexpected.

    As many others have commented, I was disappointed with the majority of recruitment agents, even though I understand their predicament. It's a daunting task to find a job half a world away without being there. My success started after I began getting up in the night to speak personally to companies and becoming a real person. It took some motivation and cost a lot of nerves during the whole recruitment process, but in the end it worked out.

    The medicals were the next hurdle, and TBH, this forum turned me into an emotional wreck - reading all the stories about plans being scuppered at the last minute due to some unexpected blood test result.. that's when I decided not to check back in until we were sorted. It's pretty much like reading customer reviews about hotels, products or anything else on the internet - people tend to log on to express frustration or get help for problems.

    I found INZ to be helpful and uncomplicated and the VAC to be very efficient. My brother had a similar experience several years ago.

    I now have to stop myself reading the threads on how bad certain things are in NZ.. I know why we're going and we'll make up our own mind

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37,822

    Default

    I now have to stop myself reading the threads on how bad certain things are in NZ.. I know why we're going and we'll make up our own mind.
    Good for you. Remember, a lot is in the mind. One person's major irritant is another person's puzzled, 'What?' If something bugs you terribly, so it REALLY matters, there's almost always a work around to be found. Otherwise, most people learn alternative ways to do things - even if it's not what would have happened 'back home', it nevertheless works.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Reading UK to Wellington NZ
    Posts
    76

    Default

    Congrats mate

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    Pilipinas->Auckland NZ
    Posts
    299

    Default

    Congrats!

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