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Thread: Best strategy: Work to Residence visa first, then Skilled Migrant, or try SM first? Will processing times scare potential employers?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2016
    Location
    Uruguay
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    Default Best strategy: Work to Residence visa first, then Skilled Migrant, or try SM first? Will processing times scare potential employers?

    Hello from Uruguay and thank you for accepting me in the forums.

    I'm an IT professional, my current employer classifies me as a Functional Analyst, but I do .NET work as well, which I've read is in high demand in New Zealand.

    I have a 4-year Bachelor's degree (hopefully category 7 equivalent) and a Master's degree (Master in Management of Technology).

    I would be moving with my fiancee, we've been living together for 5 years but not married.

    If I get a job offer, I should fulfill the points requirement for Skilled Migrant easily, but I've seen it involves a TON of paperwork and would take several months. I doubt a potential employer would accept such a delay.

    Would it be better to get a Work to Residence visa first when I get a job offer, and then apply for Skilled Migrant from within New Zealand?

    Can I apply for a visa for my partner at the same time I'm applying for the Work to Residence visa, or do we need to wait for my visa to be finished?

    Have any of you gone this route? (WTR and then SMC?).

    Thank you very much in advance, I'm very grateful for any advice.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37,824

    Default

    Most people who get a job offer apply for a WTR or Essential Skills visa as the first priority, putting in their application for Residence under SMC at the same time or slightly afterwards. The temporary work visa can be processed quite quickly, enabling you to be in NZ and working while the SMC process can tick along in the background, taking the time it takes. And of course, quite a lot of the evidence will serve for both applications (though you may need to give copies for whichever goes in second, because they will not necessarily be processed in the same office, noting that the original went with x application).

    You can send in the application for a partner-sponsored temporary work visa http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...milystream.htm at the same time as your own work visa application, linking the two with a covering letter, and the CO will work them as one case, supplying what you will not know at the beginning, such as your visa number, as it becomes available.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2016
    Location
    Uruguay
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    Default

    Thank you very much JandM! That's exactly what I needed to know.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    Auckland
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by GFischer View Post
    Hello from Uruguay and thank you for accepting me in the forums.

    I'm an IT professional, my current employer classifies me as a Functional Analyst, but I do .NET work as well, which I've read is in high demand in New Zealand.

    I have a 4-year Bachelor's degree (hopefully category 7 equivalent) and a Master's degree (Master in Management of Technology).

    I would be moving with my fiancee, we've been living together for 5 years but not married.

    If I get a job offer, I should fulfill the points requirement for Skilled Migrant easily, but I've seen it involves a TON of paperwork and would take several months. I doubt a potential employer would accept such a delay.

    Would it be better to get a Work to Residence visa first when I get a job offer, and then apply for Skilled Migrant from within New Zealand?

    Can I apply for a visa for my partner at the same time I'm applying for the Work to Residence visa, or do we need to wait for my visa to be finished?

    Have any of you gone this route? (WTR and then SMC?).

    Thank you very much in advance, I'm very grateful for any advice.

    Hola GFisher,

    Employers will prefer that you apply to WTR or Essential Skills visa. That was my case last year, and my employer was not in a hurry but from my "Offer letter" to "my first day at work" I was given 1 month... and the visa process took 2 moths for misinformation.

    Now I am applying to SMC...

    With the visa for your partner, yes she could get her visa... I applied for my partner visa, after my visa was approved (a working visa) and he got his visa! with the same time as my visa.

    Yes is possible..

    Yessica

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2016
    Location
    Uruguay
    Posts
    3

    Default

    Thank you Yessica . I'll keep in mind that timeline and be prepared, I read that it was usually 1 month for visa processing, but 2 months can happen I guess.

    Quote Originally Posted by YessicaCBO View Post
    Hola GFisher,

    Employers will prefer that you apply to WTR or Essential Skills visa. That was my case last year, and my employer was not in a hurry but from my "Offer letter" to "my first day at work" I was given 1 month... and the visa process took 2 moths for misinformation.

    Now I am applying to SMC...

    With the visa for your partner, yes she could get her visa... I applied for my partner visa, after my visa was approved (a working visa) and he got his visa! with the same time as my visa.

    Yes is possible..

    Yessica

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    Auckland
    Posts
    241

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by GFischer View Post
    Thank you Yessica . I'll keep in mind that timeline and be prepared, I read that it was usually 1 month for visa processing, but 2 months can happen I guess.
    Yes... Well I summit my documents 19/10/15 and the 19/11/15 the case offer denied the visa... We (company and myself) resubmit documents... And finally the 02/12/15 the visa was approved! Maybe I exaggerate the time line!!! :s

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