Immigration process options from overseas
Hi,
First, let me introduce myself, I’m a 35 yo senior IT manager and business analyst with 10 years experience in the French civil sector (5 years in the main state research agency and 5 years in an administrative jurisdiction). I have a professional master degree in information sciences and a bachelor equivalent in business analysis.
My wife is a 32 yo senior interior designer with also 10 years of experience. She is actually working as a project manager in the retail sector but she also worked for companies as a space planner and when she was younger as a draftsperson. She holds a bachelor of honour of design obtained in a renowned French public school.
We have been in New Zealand for the first time in nov 2008 accompanied by our 18 months daughter for holidays. We have loved the country, the people approach of family life, environment and work as well as the mixed culture. This experience decided us to plan a couple of year’s long expatriation project when our daughters would be old enough.
In the following years, we have visited other possible destinations for our project but none has been as obvious and inspiring as New Zealand. As we mainly visit the South Island during our first trip, we chose to come back in feb 2015 to visit the North Island. This travel confirmed us that New Zealand was an ideal destination for our project.
Today, we plan to move to NZ with our two daughters (5 and 8 yo). Our aim is to work there for at least 3 or 4 years so all the family would be able to learn as much as possible from this open minded society. On the other side, we sincerely think that our experience, qualities and skills will be usefull to the country.
This is a family project and as New Zealand is really far from France, we want to move together.
Ideally, we would like to find a solution that will allow our children to learn quickly English and make friends.
Summer holidays in France start in early July and ends in late august. If possible, we would like to leave France during this period.
We have been building our project since nearly 15 months and today, as we are close to our potential final jump, we would like some advices from people who are working on similar projects or who succeed in their immigration process.
We already studied all our visa options but we would like to be sure that we well understood the INZ procedure manual and we also still have a couple of questions (text colored in red).
Skilled migrant visa
Concerning the immigration process, although we are qualified to apply for a skilled migrant category visa (we both passed the IELTS general test last October with a 7.5 score), without a job offer neither me nor my wife reach the 140pts threshold. Could someone confirm that we made no mistakes in our calculations?
Me
• Age : 35 yo => 25pts
• Work experience in skilled employment : 5 years as an information/documentation officer in a research agency and 5 years as a business analyst and IT manager for a jurisdiction => 30pts
• Qualification level : 9+ level, information sciences professional master degree => 60pts
• Partner qualification : 7+ level, bachelor of honour of design => 20pts
Total : 135 pts
My wife
• Age : 32 yo => 25pts
• Work experience in skilled employment: 10 years => 30pts
• Qualification level : 7+ level, bachelor of honour of design => 50pts
• Partner qualification : 9+ level, bachelor honors of design => 20pts
Total : 125 pts
No further points can be claimed without a job offer (even future growth area points which should be linked to qualifications and work experience…), a NZ work experience or some close family in the country.
Moreover, if I didn’t misunderstood what I read on that topic, should our eoi come to be selected, the process to assess the invitation to apply (ITA) may takes three months (London branch, eoi with a job offer) to 12 months (wellington branch, eoi with a job offer). Even after this long time period and the significant fees payment (530 NZ$ for the EOI and 1420 GB £ for the visa application), our request could be answer with a job search visa offer or even a refusal. Should i obtain a SM job search visa, my wife couldn’t apply to a temporary work visa (family stream). The problem would be the same for my children who would be unable to apply for a student visa.
For me, regarding our wish to move in a couple of months, this process is a dead end.
In a first time, knowing that a job offer is compulsory, I think a Work visas is a cheaper and quicker option.
Does someone agree ?
Work to residence visa
As a business analyst or an IT manager, both my occupations (in title and facts) figure on the long term skill shortage list. Should I obtain a job offer, this allows me to apply for a long term skill shortage list work to residence visa. This kind of visa requires 5 working days to be assessed by the London branch and fees amount is 191 GB £.
Does someone know how long does the NZ branches (Wellington, Christchurch) take to assess a work to residence visa?
As an interior designer or retail sector project manager, my wife will only be able to apply for a work to residence visa if she managed to obtain a job offer from an accredited employer (Talent category).
Whether she or I manage to obtain a job offer which qualifies for a work to residence visa, the other should be able to apply for a family stream partner work visa. Children should be able to apply for a student visa.
Is that correct?
Essential skill visa
My wife works in a particular sector and her profile is highly specialized. She has already identified a couple of job offers that remained online or have been re-posted during these last months.
It seems to me that in this kind of situation, she should be entitled to apply for an essential skill work visa if the employer is able and willingly to provide to INZ document that prove that :
• particular job specifications are necessary for the work,
• New Zealand applicants were not suitable,
• New Zealand applicants couldn't be readily trained.
Knowing that interior designer is an ANZCO group 2 occupation (group 2325), her work visa will be issued for a maximum period of 3 years.
Is that all correct?
Fees amount are 298 NZ$. I didn’t find any information concerning the processing time. Would you have something on this topic?
Visitor visa
Work to residence and essential skill visa both require that the applicant have a job offer.
We live in France and we know that New Zealand employers are not thrilled with the idea of recruiting someone from overseas without meeting him before. Besides, we look at job offers (seek, trademe, etc.) since a couple of months and we note that the majority of offers stress that applicants should have NZ residency or a valid NZ work visa.
Considering that you should have a job offer to obtain NZ residency or a work visa from oversea, these crossed and mutually exclusive conditions exclude overseas potential skilled migrants from a large part of the job market.
We will explore the job research issue in the next part but if we both doesn’t manage to obtain a job offer in the following months from overseas, we have to try to find a solution to come with our children in NZ for a couple of months of job research.
We read on the INZ knowledge base that with a visitor visa, we should be able to look for jobs.
It also states that if someone needs to intend a job interview, he have to specifiy that he is travelling for business purpose on his arrival card:
http://dol.govt.nz/immigration/knowledgebase/item/1135
If we come as tourists to look for jobs but we don’t have any job interview scheduled when we arrive, do we have to tick the business purpose?
France is a visa-waiver country so we can enter New Zealand as visitor without visa for a 3 months period. However we also read that it was possible to stay in NZ with a visitor visa for as much as 9 months on a 18 months period :
http://dol.govt.nz/immigration/knowledgebase/item/3816
How does this work? Do we have to apply for a formal visitor visa covering the extended period which interests us? Can we ask for an extension while we are in NZ for nearly 3 months?
Do we have to leave NZ for another destination (Australia, Nouvelle-Calédonie?) and come back a couple of days later?
It is also specified that to be allowed to enter NZ, INZ staff at the border need to be satisfied that we are unlikely to overstay or breach the conditions of our visa.
How can we help them ? Is this difficult to obtain a close to 9 months visitor visa?
Finally, would someone have some knowledge about other possibilities/visa that would allow us to come together a couple of months to search for a job?
Thanks to people who will take time to read and/or answer us!
Regards,
Bertrand
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