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Thread: Things you'd do differently

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by arin0205 View Post
    Perhaps I was lucky enough to say that >6hrs of transit is because I have found a job, Juniper, but it was a constant activity for my first 8 months here.
    I can see how that would make it hard to settle in and make friends! How are you doing now?

  2. #12
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    Mar 2018
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    New Zealand
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    Quote Originally Posted by Juniper View Post
    I can see how that would make it hard to settle in and make friends! How are you doing now?
    I drive to work now and have graduated, so the part where I spend "6hrs living on the road" has been sorted

    Currently on a work visa, and in the middle of sorting my residency application. I did all the process myself, so I got another "if only" example here, if only I have taken professional advise.
    Last edited by kiaora2016; 15th March 2018 at 12:58 PM.

  3. #13
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    Mar 2018
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    New Zealand
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    and the "think ahead" here has got all covered

    Quote Originally Posted by JandM View Post
    ... 'think ahead'....

  4. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by kiaora2016 View Post
    I drive to work now and have graduated, so the part where I spend "6hrs living on the road" has been sorted

    Currently on a work visa, and in the middle of sorting my residency application. I did all the process myself, so I got another "if only" example here, if only I have taken professional advise.
    Nice, congrats!

    As for advice, I've found this forum to be top-notch in that regard You simply have to think of the right questions, which can be harder than it sounds!

  5. #15
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    Mar 2018
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    New Zealand
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    Quote Originally Posted by Juniper View Post
    Nice, congrats!

    As for advice, I've found this forum to be top-notch in that regard You simply have to think of the right questions, which can be harder than it sounds!
    True Juniper, agreed! It’s indeed harder to ask the right question when I have lesser knowledge on the topic lol
    Last edited by kiaora2016; 16th March 2018 at 09:51 PM.

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
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    California to Tasman Bay
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    I would have brought more stuff in my container.

    I tried to do things like sort out school for the kids and employment before I came but found that those things were difficult to do from overseas. Even with a kiwi partner, most schools and employers said, "Ring us when you arrive."

    If you are bringing pets, do everything well in advance. It's a lot of hoops to jump through. I felt one of my cats was too emotionally fragile to make that kind of a change (we adopted her as a feral and coaxed her into our house) and I didn't want to separate them so, my sister ended up taking our cats. We'd already done half the process at that point. It was quite costly. I'd probably just bring them if I had to do it all over again because I still feel heartbroken about leaving them even though they loved my sister.

  7. #17
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    Nov 2004
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    NZ
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    I would have set up an NZ banking account from overseas while we still had a permanent address. Proof of address using short term housing (a holiday home) proved to cost us a lot of time calling every bank in town before we found one that would accept our proof!

    Most of the banks had a problem with the fact that we were on a visitor's visa for only 6 months (one bank said a 12 month one would be ok, such as those from Commonwealth countries can get). Those that were fine with the visa, by and large, didn't like the "holiday home" proof of address letter from the property manager. Even the library made us get a "visitor" account instead of a free one.

    However Nelson Building Society was ok with all that, and I talked to someone as ANZ that also was fine with it. It seems to depend partially on bank policy and partially who you happen to talk to. One lady insisted the bank would lose their license if she accepted our proof. Whatever, we did the legwork and it finally happened. We are kind of a special case since we don't even have a real home address overseas anymore, or we could have set something up as a migrant account using our old proof of address, according to BNZ.

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