Tricky question

[sundawgg]

Hello and thank you to everyone who contributes to this forum you are all doing something selfless and it is much appreciated also I apologize for the lengthy post. I will provide a brief background of my immigration history as it will be essential to answering further questions. Currently I am residing in India, before that I was living in Australia for the last 9 years. When I applied for PR in Australia I did not disclose that I had a criminal charge pending from when I was living in the United States. I was never convicted and the charge was dropped and has now been expunged from my record. However, Australian immigration was not satisfied with that and they gave me a ban order for 3 years. Now if I apply for a visitor visa for New Zealand is there any chance of me getting the visa or will they automatically not consider it due to the Australian ban order? I plan to be up front and honest when applying for the Visitor Visa.

[nms.sun3]

Australia & NZ are two sovereign countries. You can apply for NZ visitor visa provided you declare both US and AUS issues in your application. It is safer to declare and explain yourself when questioned rather than hiding it.

[JandM]

I agree.

[sundawgg]

Thank you for your response I will definitely disclose all information to immigration and I guess the only way to know for sure is to actually apply for the visitor visa. Now I do have a few other questions which relate to migration. Firstly, I would like to apply for EOI and I want to confirm if Retail Manager is in the absolute skills shortage list? I was working as a manager In Australia for the last 6 years. From what I can tell it is only in the list of skilled occupations and I don't know if I would get any points for that. Also in regards to this question, when I go to the skills shortage page where I can type in my occupation and I type in retail manager there are 2 options that come up. One is Retail Manager (general) and the other is Retail Manager (general)(Retail and Shop manager). They both say that it is only on the list of skilled occupations however, is not on the Long term, Immediate or Canterbury skill shortage list. Any idea if it matters which one I choose and if it will have any affect later on? I also have a question regarding the section asking about partners English proficiency. What is the required ielts score to say yes my partner would qualify as a principal applicant? Thanks again for all the information.

[JandM]

Retail Manager, whichever kind, is only on the list of skilled occupations. That means that you can't claim bonus points for it for the EOI.

A principal applicant has to have an IELTS score of 6.5 average across the four sections.

[Karen Phillips]

You may need to take things one step at a time and see what happens with a visitor vis application. Because of your ban order (exclusion period) from Australia, you may not be eligible to submit an EOI for SMC residence. See http://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/35057.htm B.6.

"Under section 15, the following people are not eligible for a visa or entry permission to enter or be in New Zealand: Any person who has, at any time, been removed, excluded, or deported from another country.

I have worked with clients in a similar position and we had to appeal to the Minister for permission to lodge an EOI. It was declined. Sorry - I am not a pessimist, but it is better to know the possible outcomes before you get too far and spend too much money.

[sundawgg]

Thank you Karen. I completely agree with what you are saying and that is exactly why I want to apply for a visitor visa first and see how that goes. I just want to ask a few more questions and I know I am getting ahead of myself however; I would at least like to have a plan if by chance things do work out. If I’m granted a visitor visa, I would like to use that time to search for jobs in my field. Now if things happen to work out and I am offered a position what would my next steps be? I think the most logical option would be to apply for EOI for SMC. Can I apply for EOI from within New Zealand? If I have all documents prepared how long does the process take? Thanks to everyone.

[Sun777]

I think the most logical option would be to apply for EOI for SMC. Can I apply for EOI from within New Zealand?

Yes, you can. People on this forum have followed similar path earlier. From recent experiences that I have heard, people have shared that the process could be slightly slow as the urgency for having visa is bit low.

[Karen Phillips]

Sun777 is right. If you get a visitor visa and then you get an appropriate job, you can apply for residence in NZ. However, you may well have some serious barriers to overcome to even get the visitor visa. However, if you get a character waiver for a visitor visa (which you will need because of the previous exclusion period from Australia),this still doesn't mean you will be able to submit an EOI. My client who had been excluded form Australia got a character waver for her temp visa but when we appealed to the Minister to be allowed to submit an EOI for SMC, we were declined. The situations is actually worse if the country from which you were excluded was not New Zealand. There is a time period after which the NZ ban "goes away". The same does not apply to other countries. For anyone in this position, I suggest you read Section 15 (1) (f) of the New Zealand Immigration Act 2009 and Section 17 (1) (a). The problem does not relate to being unable to get the residence visa but to being "Invited to Apply" - this permission can only be given by the Minister. I hope this helps explain a "tricky situation"!

[Karen Phillips]

When I referred to a "Character waiver" in previous email, I should have said "Special Direction". See http://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/46509.htm which is about residence visas but also covers entry permission on any visa and then follow the link to A5.20 (b) and A5.20 (c)