Junior/Graduate Structural Engineer with job offer

[legalimmigrant]

Hi,
I graduated in Structural Engineering a few years ago in the UK, but due to the credit crunch and family restrictions, I was not able to obtain employment and get experience.
If I manage to get a job offer in NZ (there is some interest from a few employers), given that my employer can prove he has not found any suitable applicants in NZ, how likely is that my Working Visa application will be rejected on grounds that I haven't got any post graduate work experience?
If I get offered a permanent position, can I apply for a 2 years Working Visa, or I have to apply for another type of Visa, and which?
(keeping in mind that it seems that one of the above mentioned potential employers needs urgently to fill this position, so I will need a quick route for the Visa)
Thanks a lot!

[Karen Phillips]

HI. If your degree is either on the List of Qualifications Exempt from Assessment (LoQEA) or the New Zealand qualifications Authority (NZQA) deem it equivalent to a NZ degree (This requires an Individual Qualification Assessment and costs $746 and takes about 7 weeks) or your degree is Washington Accord approved there is no mention of an experience requirement on the Long Term Skills Shortage List (LTSSL). With a job offer you could therefore apply for Residence under the Skilled Migrant Category or get a Work Visa either under Essential Skills (probably for 3 years as a Level 1 skill) or a Work to Residence - LTSSL visa for 30 months which allows you to apply directly for residence after 2 years. Because your occupation is on the LTSSL, the employer won't have to prove there are no NZers available. Sounds like this could work for you. Cheers. Karen

[JandM]

Sounds good - good luck on getting the offer!

If the employer needs a quick start, it's the Work Visa (Essential Skills) that could be processed the most quickly, and you can also apply for Residence under SMC at the same time (and with a lot of the same evidence), so the processing of that would take as long as it took without inconveniencing the employer.

[legalimmigrant]

Hi Karen, thanks a lot for your reply. My degree is on the Washington Accord, phewww....Just one more question: I think I am going to apply for a Work Visa under Essential Skills (LTSSL), which, as far as I know is a 2 years visa. If the employer will offer me a permanent job, can I apply for this visa, or he has to offer me a job only for the duration of the visa, so for 2 years? So basically, must lengths of contract and visa be linked? Thanks!

[legalimmigrant]

Hi JandM, thank for your reply, I have only one more question related to the Work Visa (Essential Skills). If I will get job, visa, and start working in New Zealand, after about 1 year I would like to bring in my family (my partner and our kids, both less than 5 years old). I guess I can apply for their visa later on, once I have settled down, is that right? Or I need to apply for them when I submit my Work Visa application? Cheers!

[JandM]

If you don't apply for visas for the rest of the family at the same time as your own, you absolutely MUST mention their existence to INZ, and account for why you're not wanting to bring them when you move, or very soon after. Otherwise, it can cause a big problem later. For one thing, anyone who is thought to be hiding anything might be accused of fraud towards INZ, and any visa granted on the basis of fraud can be revoked. For another thing, all partnership has to be proved to INZ on the basis of a continuing live-in relationship. They particularly require proof that the partners are living together in the 12 months running up to the application, or else strong reasons why the partners have to be apart (e.g. one person has had to go away for work, or study, or a visa has run out so they have left to continue to be legal), and evidence of how they have kept in touch and maintained the relationship in the gap.


(Because partner-sponsored visas only require the partnership to be proved, not extra issues like skills and work experience, they are the ones most targeted by crooks, paying NZ nationals or visa-holders to lie to get them into the country. INZ know this, so partner matters are always VERY closely checked.)

[legalimmigrant]

Thank you once again for your very helpful reply JandM!
I thought it was everything clear, but now, with the Work Visa application in my hands, I have got some more questions...
1 - Is the "Essential Skills" work visa generally faster and relatively easier to obtain than the "Work to Residence: LTSSL" visa?
2 - Clearly I would prefer to apply for the "Work to Residence: LTSSL" visa, since it leads more directly to residence, but, if it would get rejected, could INZ then offer me to apply for the Essential Skills visa, given that it seems easier to obtain, with the same application? Or I will have to start a new application from scratch? In this case, I might then prefer to go on the safer side and apply for the Essential Skills visa, as you suggested earlier.
Cheers

[JandM]

Karen will know about this more than I do. Is it London you are submitting to? (I very much doubt you would be allowed to slip from one category to another without doing a separate application. The fees you pay are for processing, so in order to get to the point that they were telling you you weren't eligible for one sort of visa, INZ would have processed that first application.)

[Karen Phillips]

Hi. (JandM alerted me to your question - sorry, I was just off to a breakfast meeting!) In a nutshell, I am finding that Essential Skills and WTR:LTSSL visas are all taking about 3 weeks (allow 4) if there are no complications with medicals, insufficient evidence of partnership etc. If your job is on the Long term Skills Shortage List and you meet the LTSSL criteria (which from what you say, you do) then there is no reason why a WTR visa would be rejected and not an Essential Skills. Do be aware though of what JandM has said about mentioning your family right from the start. You can get a Temporary Partnership-based Visitor Visa for your wife on which you can add both your children if they are under school age. If your wife wants a Temp Partnership-based Work Visa, your children will need separate Visitor Visas each until they are school age (5), when they will need student visas. Hope this helps. Karen

[legalimmigrant]

Thanks Karen, I confirm that yes, I will apply from London. What I have not specified, cause I did not think it would make a difference, is that my nationality is Italian, though I have been living in the UK since 1998 (my degree in Civil Engineering has been obtained in England).
I am getting a bit paranoid cause I had previous experience with US Immigration, and after being sponsored 4 times for working visas (1 of a year, the others only for seasonal work), the 5th time it got rejected and they didn't even say why. I understand NZ is a different story from the USA, but my concern is, a part from not having any post graduate experience on my field of study (which anyway you said it does not matter, given that is not a requirement anymore - while up to about 2 years ago I remember it was, I got lucky there!), that in the last 4 years after my graduation (2009) I have been working in restaurants as a waiter to earn a living, plus I have been out of work for the last 9 months for various reasons. Is applicant's age a factor they also consider? (since I am 45 yrs old!). Now that I am about to fill the form, I dread what they would think reading Section E2 of the application....that's my main worry, but anyway I can't do anything about that. Thanks for your great help anyway, you and JandM are the my guiding stars in this forum!

PS: by the way, interview done, got the job!!!