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Thread: work visa with a family.... confused on dependant status and availability of health, dental, education...

  1. #1
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    Jan 2014
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    Default work visa with a family.... confused on dependant status and availability of health, dental, education...

    Hello,

    Can someone please help me understand how family's are dealt with on a work visa.

    For background my husband has a WHV. He got an IT job in Wellington after about a two week search. Me and our four boys are on a one year visitor visa. We are all from the USA.

    Husbands employer will sponsor the work visa. (Does this often mean to pay for it or just go on the paper work.

    We have loads of points for residency but are holding back from the cost of it and still uncertain if we want to stay long-term.

    We are trying to cost benefit if your will...

    We can save some cost in the following areas...

    Working for family's tax credit... about 40 to 100 a week... only if we do residency or stay two years... a work visa does not offer this benefit right now.

    Dental- kids get free dental if we are on a resident or work visa that last for two years or longer (does this mean even if they are on a visitor visa our do they need to be under the work visa or have student visas) 300 a year at least

    Health... it says we are covered if my husband has a work visa at least two years. (does this cover the kids and I even if we are on a visitor visa our do we need to be under the work visa application or them have student visas)

    Education... We homeschool so we can get about 1300 a year through this stipend program. I can't find a thing on if we qualify for this on the work visa or if we need residency or what.

    Clearly there are great monetary benefits the residency, but can he can just apply for the work visa for a few hundred dollars and be done with it (vs the expense and cost of the residency). He was only filling for him...only him get the medical and things then he said we can decide in about six months we want residency. If he applies with no regard to us, do still get health and dental or the home education.

    I thought for his work visa he needs to apply somehow as a family?

    Thank you all for any help!
    Amanda

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    I think people living in the country now will know the answers to a lot of your questions.

    For the last, though - he must at least mention his partner and family when applying, even if you and the children aren't applying for different visas yet. Otherwise, later on if/when you do apply, INZ could say he'd given the impression he was a single worker and it was fraud.

  3. #3
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    I thought US citizens were not allowed to bring children with them on WHV.

  4. #4
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    Jan 2014
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    We are on a visiting visa that is independent from him. But they know he has a whv.

  5. #5
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    for Information on publically available health Services see : http://www.health.govt.nz/new-zealan...lth-services-0

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by amandajog View Post
    We are on a visiting visa that is independent from him. But they know he has a whv.
    He is on a WHV that doesn't allow him to bring children, so you applied for a separate visitor visa for the rest of the family? Is this allowed?
    I ask because it would be sad if you decided you wanted to stay but couldn't because of this.
    Last edited by kiwieagle; 14th November 2014 at 09:38 AM.

  7. #7
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    Also KiwiSaver is open to residents and not to work visa holders...
    So the kickstarter contributions and employer contributions would be missed. and then if you decide to buy a home, you're losing time if you want to qualify for the first home subsidy.

  8. #8
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    Note that work, student and visitor visas are free for US Citizens. Three of us are US citizens so we figured we would save money going that route. We are here without residency for the same reasons - didn't want to pay that much money for something we weren't sure we wanted. I think that if you can do it that way it makes sense. A good middle ground would be the WTR visa if you qualify for it.

  9. #9
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    not quite correct. US Citizens have a fee waiver for temporary entry matters, if they are lodging applications off shore only

  10. #10
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    Oh right, I hadn't read the post carefully and didn't realize you were already in New Zealand. It's true that you have to be offshore to get the waiver.

    Some companies do pay for some or part of the work visa or residence application. I would find out what they are willing to pay for and whether they are an accredited employer for WTR, for instance. If they paid for a WTR visa you could then lodge your application for residence in 2 years at a lower cost than if you were to do it now.

    As for the other costs, if your husband gets a 3-year work visa (which is what we have) the kids get a visitor or student visa of the same length, depending on their age. It doesn't matter whether it's a visitor or student visa in terms of getting health coverage, just that it's more than 2 years. I'm not sure if a school-aged child who's homeschooled can get a visitor visa rather than a student visa. We had to change our application from visitor to student for my daughter because she was turning 5.

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