Hi,
I was living in NZ in my teens till early adulthood. I studied both high school and university in Auckland. During this period I was a granted PR (indefinite). Due to personal obligation, I had to return to my home country Malaysia/Singapore. Since then I have gotten married and started a family. My spouse is also New Zealand grad and I have 2 children. Many of our favorite fond memories are during our stay in NZ.
As I'll be fulfilling my obligation soon, I'm considering moving back to NZ with my family. I would like some advise about applying PR for my family under Partner/Children category.
Extracted from the
www.immigration.govt.nz
Things to note
i)
If your partner’s New Zealand residence is based on their Australian citizenship, Australian permanent residence or
resident return visa, you can only apply for this visa if your
partner lives in New Zealand.
ii) If your partner is a New Zealand citizen and the two of you have been living together outside of New Zealand for 5 years or more, you may be eligible for a permanent resident visa. Your partner will need to be either overseas when you apply, or have been back in New Zealand for less than 3 months.
I assume I'm under case i). In this case, it requires the partner(sponsor) to be living in NZ. Uprooting and relocating is not an easy decision and task, I do not wish to put my family to undue stress and was hoping for some certainty.
Appreciate if I can solicit some advise,
- Does it imply that I have to return to NZ first before I can apply for my family? Currently we are all NOT in NZ.
- If so, should my family enter NZ as Visitor and then I apply? I read somewhere that those under Visitor Visa are not allowed to apply for residency.
- My children will be in Yr6 and Yr10, I would like to secure school placement for them in advance. Is joining High school/College in mid year common? Or when is best to do registration?
- How long will the application take?
- Employment in NZ - I'm not confident that I'll be able to secure employment immediately. As precaution, if I cannot secure employment I'm prepared to return Singapore for employment i.e. I do not wish be unemployed or be on welfare
Please advise if I looking at the wrong category altogether. My spouse scored 130pts under skill migration ... should she apply herself (with the children). That seem kinda awkward.
Lastly ... I simply cannot believe the housing/property prices in Auckland.
aley