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Thread: SMC Job Search Visa

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Fiji
    Posts
    7

    Lightbulb SMC Job Search Visa

    Hi all,

    I'm currently in Fiji and have been granted a job search visa following a SMC visa application. This visa will allow only myself to travel to NZ and work after which INZ will approve my SMC visa if I can provide evidence that I have found permanent skilled employment in NZ. This is good. What I want is to take my wife and child with me to NZ. They will have to apply for a temporary visa in order to accompany me to NZ (as per the CO's advice). What I'd like to know is which visa do they have to apply for and what are the chances and processing time like. I searched the INZ website for a temporary visa option and came up with a Partnership Based Temporary Visa but looking at the visa guide, it says that this is not applicable to applicants who's partners have a SMC job search visa. Can someone please help me out here as to which visa would be more suitable for my partner and 2 year old child to accompany me to NZ. I dont need my partner to work until we get our SMC residence visa approved (they are both included in my SMC visa application). Looking forward to some advise from you all who have gone through this in the past. Thanks.

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

    Default

    There isn't anything suitable for this purpose, quite deliberately on the part of INZ.

    The whole point of the SMC JSV is for the main applicant to go alone and concentrate all their time and resources on getting a skilled job. As soon as they do that and get their deferred Residence, then their partner and any children who were on the original SMC application get their Residence, too, and can join them.

    This may seem harsh, but it was a rule change in response to what had become an even harsher problem. Under the old regulations, when a family was allowed to go with a JSV holder, they would find a home, maybe the partner, on an open visa, would find a job, and the children would settle into school. But if, in nine months, the JSV holder had NOT got a skilled job, they would all be told to leave the country. Of course, it was a heartbreaking thing for this group of people, having to tear up the life they had begun to make for themselves, and even worse if, despite all warnings, they had sold up their home in their original country and now had nothing to go back to. That is why the law is now as it is.

    The only way for your partner to get to NZ while you are there would be to apply for a Visitor's Visa in her own right (the same for the child), but it is very unlikely that it would be granted, for the same reasons as above.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Fiji
    Posts
    7

    Default

    Thanks for your reply JandM. I wonder if securing a skilled job offer from an NZ employer while still in Fiji would make a difference in this case. I have done an interview (1st on phone and 2nd on skype) with an NZ employer and they seem to be interested in hiring me. Will this be accepted by INZ?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37,822

    Default

    The SMC JSV has the other name, 'Deferred Residence'. This means that the Residence you applied for (for you and I'm assuming your family was also on the application) is waiting for you and will be granted when once you can show that you have the offer of a skilled job. So if you get your job offer, you won't have to worry about getting any different visas for your wife and child, because they will have their Residence like you will.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Fiji
    Posts
    7

    Default

    I guess thats right but INZ may take some time to approve my residence application after I provide them with evidence that I have found a skilled job offer in NZ. I may have to start the job in 2-3 weeks time after I get the job offer but I assume INZ will take a much longer time to approve the residence. So I believe that a visitors visa for my wife and child would work in this case while we are waiting for the residence to get approved. Am I thinking right! Thanks.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37,822

    Default

    I may have to start the job in 2-3 weeks time after I get the job offer but I assume INZ will take a much longer time to approve the residence.
    That's right. But you wouldn't HAVE to start at a certain time - your boss may WANT that, but you'd only be able to do it when once you'd got a suitable work visa, and that comes when INZ has processed it. You'd have to apply for the work visa in able to start, even though you'd already applied for Residence.

    And at the same time as the work visa, your wife can apply for a partner-sponsored work visa http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...milystream.htm and either a student or a visitor visa for your child (visitor visa for a child under school age) - put all the applications in together, linked with a covering letter, and the CO will fill in details unknown at first like your visa number as they become available.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Fiji
    Posts
    7

    Default

    I have already applied for the job search visa and my CO requested me to send my passport over to Christchurch so he can grant the visa on the passport. I sent the passport to INZ last week wednesday. Thanks for your advise.

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