Confused about the interview?

[bkbk8]

Hi forum members,

to quickly summarize my current situation: I applied for Skilled Worker Visa, under a specific category, submitted all the documents, asked to assess my documents, got them assessed and are comparable to NZ’s educations (Level 9), sent results to Officer, and now I am being told that "we are moving to the interview stage".

My officer mentioned that an “interview is needed before a decision is made. The interview is needed because you do not have current skilled employment that meets our requirements. We need to assess you can demonstrate the ability, or potential ability, to successfully settle in a contribute to New Zealand."

I was told that when you have a Master's degree, the interview is bypassed?

The only confusion I have is that all my previous and current work experience, over 4+ years (post Bachelor’s) are EXACTLY related to my category of application and are in line with ANZSCO.

I am confused on what questions are going to be asked? Did anyone go through this before? Can someone please provide an insight to what to expect? Is this going to be about NZ in general or strictly related to my experience? If you have any questions I can refer to just to be familiar, I great appreciate it.

Appreciate any guidance as I’d like to prepare.

[JandM]

I was told that when you have a Master's degree, the interview is bypassed?

No, this is wrong.

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/43652.htm tells you what the CO will be looking for. It boils down to 'employability' - knowledge about your career in NZ, and about the NZ way of life, so that anyone granted a residence visit can be supposed to impress NZ employers and quickly begin to contribute to NZ society by being employed in a skilled job, while at the same time not being so thrown by arriving in a foreign country and establishing a home and way of life there, that they will be distracted from finding that job and getting started.

Here http://www.enz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=27398 is the old thread on this subject which has lists of questions and further discussion.

'Did anybody go through this before?' - yes! Everybody who applies for residence under SMC without having a skilled job offer in NZ gets interviewed by their CO in this manner.