Qualification of pharmacy technician

[ahmedwaseem2000]

Hi,

My sister was looking to migrate to New Zealand. She has been successfully assessed as a pharmacy technician by vetassess.

Her details are below:

qualification: diploma in pharmacy.
years of experience: over 8 years
IELTS: scored over 6 in all bands
age: 34 years
marital status: Married, 2 dependent children

I am not sure where to start off to check if she would qualify for a permanent residence visa. And, also, I would like to know if the assessment from Vetassess is accepted by New Zealand authorities.

Thanks,

[JandM]

If she were to get a job offer, pharmacy technician is a job that qualifes as Skilled Employment for the purposes of an application for Residence under the Skilled Migrant Category http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...nt/default.htm. See the conditions here. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/46411.htm This whole section http://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/6954.htm is about what points are needed to apply under SMC - Section SM6 is a chart telling what is available, with the last column showing what other page to look at for the details. (Notice, if successful in applying under SMC, Residence is what you get. PR is a different visa, which you can qualify for after at least two years of Residence. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...quirements.htm)

I have never heard that Vetassess is acceptepted by INZ - I had never heard of it before, and had to look it up. She could ask, but New Zealand has its own body responsible for assessing foreign qualifications, the NZQA, so I expect she have to submit her qualifications to them http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualificatio...ualifications/. (If she does this, go straight for the International Qualifications Assessment, and don't bother with the PAR.) However, NZ and Australia share the ANZSCO list of descriptions of careers, so it seems likely that, since your sister's qualifications turned out to suit Australia's standards, they would also suit New Zealand's.

Not talking now about a Residence visa, but about work visas - if you look here http://www.immigration.govt.nz/templ...ACHEHINT=Guest for 'pharmacy technician', you'll find that it appears in the Immediate Skill Shortage List, and what that means is explained on the page. I thought it's interesting, as it shows that in certain areas of NZ right now, there is a shortage of pharmacy technicians, so if your sister wants to try for a job offer, it's likely she could do so. On the strength of that, she could get a temporary work visa to allow her to start work (and to sponsor in her husband and children), and could also apply for Residence at the same time.