Early stage towards SMC !!

[nms.sun3]

Hello -
We are still in the early stages of our Residency visa - SMC application. We have got our PAR results early this week and hoping to file the EOI by next week. Meanwhile we have also collated all the documents required for IQA as our educational degrees are not exempt from assessment.
About myself :
Age : 30-35
Full time Bachelor's in Engineering ( Electronics and Instrumentation) completed in 2004 from University of Madras.
9 years 10 months IT experience across various MNC banks as of today.

About Spouse
Masters in Research from a University in UK.
2.5 years work experience as Early stage research scientist from VU University at Amsterdam.

We got Level 7 and Level 9 from our PAR results.

EOI Points:145
Age : 25
Educational qualifications : 60(50+10)
Work experience : 40
Partner qualifications : 20

My questions to fellow enz members are

1. Can I claim for 10 years experience as I will be completing by 10 years by November 2014? Hoping ITA will be lodged only by December.
2. Will INZ call all my previous employers to verify my employment or only the latest one?
3. Do I need to sit for IELTS as I have more than 7 years of my work
Experience in countries where official language is English. I have requested my current employer to furnish a certificate stating that official business language is English.
4. Is it mandatory to have the roles and responsibilities mentioned in all my experience letter ? Onay 1 out of my 7 has roles and responsibilities mentioned?
5. Does my partner have to sit for IELTS as she has masters from UK ? Her old IELTS score of 7 expired 4 years ago.
6. Currently I work for one of major banks of New Zealand based in Singapore. Will this add any weightage during ITA stage.

PS : Apologies for any typo or formatting as I had posted this from handheld device.

[JandM]

1. No. You can't claim for anything in advance. If you do, the EOI will not be accepted because there is a 'mistake' on it, or worse, it could be interpreted as being an attempt to deceive. The official way to look at your situation is that there's no way to know what will happen in the future - if, for instance, your employer went out of business the week after you submitted, you would have no way to finish out those extra weeks of experience you want to claim for.

2. INZ can contact every one, and very likely will do.

3 and 5. You can both submit proof of English ability other than IELTS, as stated in the regulations Here are the rules on this point. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/41495.htm, but notice that in case of doubt, the CO can still require IELTS in the end. If submitting other proof, it needs to be a specific letter from the employer, or from the university, stating that (name) attended/works there, between stated dates, doing (whatever) course/work tasks, and that this was/is entirely carried out in English. It's not enough to have an incidental mention on e.g. the graduation certificate. Also, be aware that many COs are so used to seeing the IELTS certificate as part of a case that they tend to have a knee-jerk reaction to mail, 'Where is your IELTS?' even when alternative proof is supplied, so it's a good idea to mention the alternatives in your cover letter, and also be prepared to get this email and have to point out your alternative proof.

4. Yes. If your leaving certificates or references don't mention this, you'll need to ask for supplementary letters. These can be from line managers or colleagues who worked with you, in case the company doesn't want to co-operate, or has gone out of business and you can't trace the employer after this lapse of time. The point of this requirement is that a job title can be anything the employer wants, and that is meaningful in the context of that company. It doesn't have to have any relation to what the employee does - and it is what you did that matters at the moment, to prove that you have skilled work experience, in the field that you are putting forward as your specific skill to be a skilled migrant.

6. No. But if you get far enough through the process to be interviewed by your CO for employability, it might help to show that you have knowledge of the way NZers do things.

[nms.sun3]

Thanks for your detailed response JandM.

1. I had the same feeling as well and I had mentioned the experience as 8-10 years.

2. Have some issues around that as one of my Employer was sold to another big firm 6 years ago. I believe i can explain this to the CO and provide information from internet on the sale of organization.

3. Understood. I did not realize i need to prepare a Cover letter while lodging ITA. Do vaguely remember reading about Cover Letter in enz.

4. I do know few ex colleagues of mine who can provide the letters. I do have couple of questions around that.
a. Do they(ex colleagues) have to be still in the same company ?
b. Do they need to provide the letter in company letter head or a normal A4 sheet certified by notary public or equivalent?

6. Understood.

[JandM]

3. You don't HAVE to, but many people do. The easier you can make your evidence for the INZ officials to understand, by being well organized and explaining anything that may not be immediately obvious, the more quickly they will be able to process the application. It also is a bit of self-justification, so that, if later on you get an email querying any point, such as, 'Where is your IELTS?' you can reply, 'As I stated in my letter...' And yes, see old threads about how to present your evidence.

4a. No, they don't, but it's helpful if they can include something to prove that they did work there at the same time as you.
4b. No, not necessarily, and many companies won't allow staff to use their headed paper if they're not writing out on behalf of the firm, but as an individual. People have found that if the person wrote on normal paper from their home address, and did as in 4a, that was all right, and they haven't been asked to have the letter notarized. However, the person will almost certainly be contacted, so they need to be at the address/phone number/email that they provide during the time the application is being processed.

[dr.robin]

My advice er on the side of caution, you gain nothing from trying to claim extra points above 140 threshold as tempting as that is and even points between 100-140 could be sufficient for your EOI to be selected. You have to be able to produce evidence for the points you claim. You should decide exactly how many years work experience you have that you can provide solid/obvious evidence to back that up. Here is link to history of past selection points for 2014 http://formshelp.immigration.govt.nz...ts/default.htm. With regards the English language requirements, the answer is here http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...iapply/english. Your partner has UK Masters, so would not need IELTS. You may/may not need IELTS, it depends if they accept your "other evidence that you are competent in English". One last thing to note, don't fall into the trap of not providing sufficient evidence of partnership based on NZ immigration criteria, if you just provide a marriage certificate they'll probably ask for additional evidence of a durable relationship which will just delay you application.

[JandM]

even points between 100-140 could be sufficient for your EOI to be selected

As you will see from the history of selections, at the moment, the way the quotas are set, EOIs for those without the offer of a skilled job are not being selected with less than 140 points. Without a job offer, you need a minimum of 140 points; with a job offer, you need a minimum of 100 points.

[tia]

Hi Jand,

I am new to this forum and just wanted to ask some quick questions.

Is it fair (honest) not to claim any points for my previous work as they all are of international companies but now they are out of business. To avoid extra time from Immigration people to investigate that. I am planning not to claim their points in my EOI and secondly I have a permanent job in Wellington with the title as Data Analyst which is similar to that mentioned as in skilled category as Programmer Analyst. I have asked my Boss, he is willing to provide the details when asked from Immigration about the similarity in the job description. Will immigration NZ give me the claimed points for my job under the skilled category. My points are 200 if i dont claim points for my work experience and 235 with claiming it.

What do you suggest

Thanks in Advance.

[tchu]

My thought is that if you're sure about having >=100 points with job offer then you don't have to claim your previous work experience. However, if anything goes wrong when INZ process your application later (eg: INZ identifies your current job as not skilled or mismatch with your qualification) then maybe you need other backup points to keep your SMC application stayed. So I wonder if it would be OK to write a cover letter mentioning that you have those work experiences but prefer not to claim points due to some difficulties to get proofs. Later, should you really need points from those work experiences and provide evidences for that, it will not surprise INZ.

[JandM]

tchu has a good point here. A case like yours could appear odd, tia, if you didn't mention your previous jobs at all - a worker of the age you were when you arrived in NZ, apparently never having worked before. (People traditionally guess that someone was in jail if there are gaps in their life not accounted for on their CV. ) And if you need your qualifications assessed by NZQA, I know they ask to know about all your work experience. I've seen people mention on the threads leaving off extra qualifications to save having to prove them, but I don't remember anyone saying about the possibility of leaving off part off their working life. Maybe it would be a good idea to start a separate thread with a title about leaving out work experience, to attract attention from someone who has done this and could let you know what happened.

[nms.sun3]

One last thing to note, don't fall into the trap of not providing sufficient evidence of partnership based on NZ immigration criteria, if you just provide a marriage certificate they'll probably ask for additional evidence of a durable relationship which will just delay you application.

We have been married for 2 years now and we have a infant baby too. Baby's birth certificate does indicate our names as father and mother. What other proof can we provide for relationship evidence.