help....thinking of emigrating to oz or NZ

[Kaza1]

Hi there,
Been a dream of me & my husband's to emigrate for the last 7 years but circumstances have always been against us. Anyways 3 kids later, redundancy & looks like the planet's r aligning! DH is a painter & decorator his papers at tra the now expecting to hear next week. Anyways over the last few weeks my DH has been talking to site agent who is from NZ & said we'd b mad to go to oz & should go to NZ.

So been looking into visa options & my question is. What benefit would l have getting an agent? Originally had planned to do oz visa myself. Is it easy enough to do for NZ?

Our plan would b to go to Christchurch as been told loads of work. Also been told best if my DH goes over first & the me & 3 DDs will join him. DH probably b able to go over Jan/feb. Would love to hear from anyone who's completed visa apps themselves. Still not totally made up our mind if we'll go to oz or NZ but dint want to discount either location hastily.TIA Karen x

I did our NZ visa stuff myself four years ago and found it lengthy but not difficult. Having said that my career was on the skills shortage list and I had all the necessary qualifications to go straight for residency so I don't know what the situation is with other types of visa. Also the agent must be recognised by the NZ government or it is illegal for him to offer the service. Worth checking. The whole process is expensive though. Look into this and make sure you can carry the cost.

As far as Christchurch is concerned, there is still housing work going on but the major rebuild is only just getting underway (I'm in the construction industry). There have been people assuming there's loads of work in Chch for years now and tradesmen who have moved here and then had to leave because it was not as they expected. Also, because a lot of the homes in Chch have needed work, and a lot are uninhabitable, finding a house is difficult and expensive. With a family I would say get both a job and a home sorted out before moving to Christchurch.

There is a lot of home building happening in Auckland which might be another route worth following?

Having said all that, NZ is a wonderful country and we are sure we made the right move. Good luck.

Hi homeland8 thanks for the reply. DH job is on the skills shortage list so we're good that way. Cost wise we've got that covered but obviously dont want to waste money on an agent if it's doable ourselves. Been quoted £3k for visa agent!

Been told by employment agency that painters work will b kicking off at the turn of the year. DH has his trade papers & 15yrs experience.

DH would defo go over b4 us when he gets a job offer & sort stuff out for us probably at least 3 months in advance.

All very exciting but nerve wracking at the same time.

Thanks again x

In that case I don't see any reason why you can't do it yourself. It takes a lot of organisation to get together all the paper work but as you'd have to do that anyway to get it to the agent I personally would just do the whole process myself. I found NZ immigration in the UK very helpful once they allocated us a contact person. The EOI is the first thing (assuming the system's still the same) and that wasn't hard. Just a lot of information.

Worth budgeting to include for the cost of police and medical checks, EOI and visa applications, and the immigration fee payable as the visas are put into the passports. Then don't forget to multiply for all the relevant members of the family.

It is absolutely worth it. We think it was the best decision we could ever have made. Happy to answer questions if I can.

We have PR for both Aus and NZ. We did the applications ourselves. Unless you have a complicated application they are very straight forward.

Thanks homebird8 & shellybr. A few of the employment agencies that we've spoken to have said DH will get work easily & could b in NZ very quickly. Can you recommend any good employment agency as the ones we spoke to seem to b attached to emigration agent.

Got a free consultation with an agent coming up so try & get as much out of that as l can to allow me to do it myself. Also got a seminar but not until 22nd November.

Still seems to be submitting an EOI but my DH would need to get a job before we can submit a work visa to get him there quicker. Been advised that we would also start a residency visa at the same time as the work visa. Does that sound about right?

Thanks again.
K x

Hi Kaza, your DH will certainly have no problem finding work in Christchurch or Auckland. It's busy in construction and with the re-election of the National Party, it will continue I'm sure. I would just like to say that I think NZ is both an easy and difficult place to live, there are lots of things to consider when moving from a country like the UK and I hope you don't mind me jotting them down. It will probably come across as mainly negative however these are all facts that need to be considered when you are making a move that will cost you £000s:
Healthcare - visiting your GP is $30-$50 each time plus prescriptions for anyone over 6. Whilst it is easy to get an appointment it hurts your pocket and it does feel very business like.
Education - IMO the system here is not nearly as good as the UK and again you have to pay. Approximately $3-500 per child plus $100+ for trips and then stationery on top. Yes every bit of stationery from pens and rubbers to exercise books to tissues (I kid you not!). If you are pretty laid back about schooling then you'll love it however otherwise the large class sizes, no TA support (even when there are special needs children in the class) and a curriculum that is sadly lacking (most especially in the areas of science and history) will surprise you given the kiwi belief that their education is one of the best in the world.
Housing - I don't know anything about Christchurch housing however here in Auckland renting is shockingly expensive and substandard. Houses do not having heating and are damp and cold. Summers are lovely and warm but autumn and winter are cold and very damp. This doesn't sound like a big deal however if you search you will see it a lot about it on expat forums. When you come from the UK where you have a nice warm dry house in the winter it is massive deal especially if you are at home all day. When I come into my house it is colder than outside, it smells of damp and there is damp on the walls. Very few houses have any form of proper heating - people just use plug in radiators which cost a $$$$ to run.

Shopping - if you love shopping, even just browsing, forget it. Food is expensive. Whilst I originally liked the idea of seasonal produce, I soon changed my mind when faced with one pepper for $4 (£2) and cucumbers at $5 (£2.50). Even basics are dear and the selection of food isn't very good or of high quality. The only thing that is good is meat. General shopping for clothes, furniture etc is pretty depressing. No selection, expensive and of poor quality. Luckily you can get Next delivered as well as M&S.
Sorry to sound negative and I am sure you are doing your homework however unless your DH is earning $$$ you will almost certainly be worse off financially over here and won't qualify for benefits of any kind. That said it is a beautiful country and when it's sunny it is great going to beach etc however you can't eat scenery and sunshine :-)

Hi 4seasons, thanks for the honest advice. I do appreciate it & must admit all of what you've mentioned l already kind of knew & is making us very wary of making the move. My & DH have got a lot of talking to do
Thanks again
K x

Well aus us still looking for over 2000 painters!
Doing visa stuff is just fine yourself.
It's probably not hugely different between nz bad aus, except climate ??
Different states in aus have different rules about school etc. Fees, supplies, ages...
Personally id ensure dh has a job first! Too many people don't do that. Visit first and do a jobs hunt at the same time. We all moved over together. I can't imagine moving separately. It was a huge undertaking and no way I'd have gone alone or dh.

Chloeb thanks for reply. Think Uv helped me out before. Think as things have been moving on and it's getting real me & DH having a wobble. But tonight received a successful TRA skills assessment so excited. . Anyways does anyone know if l need to now apply to TRA for points advice? Looked on DIBP & can't see anything. We'll be applying for a 489 & need the max overseas employment points of 15 (employed for a period totalling at least 8 years). DH has thus easily & on letter from TRA it says that they have assessed DH as having the minimum requirement of 3 years but then says for the purpose of skilled assessment TRA consider DH to be first able to commence skilled employment from 1st July 1997.
Thanks
K x

Looking for work in NZ is either a local job (networking) or with the usual job agencies like Randstadt or Hays, or through the major NZ website Seek or TradeMe (an NZ version of EBay) I got my job through Seek.

I back up everything 4seasons says about costs. It's not cheap living here and quality of goods in shops is definitely dodgy. The GP system does cost but on the whole I have found the healthcare system much more 'joined up' than the NHS although there are big gaps for things which are considered elective or an issue of ill health so if you are planning needing hip replacements, or developing a chronic illness you might want to consider additional health insurance. Acute care and accident care has been wonderful in my experience but I live in a major city. Not sure what it would be like in a smaller place.

It's one of those things that you can never weigh up all the pros and cons. We came for two to three years initially having decided that it would take at least two to be able to decide whether to stay or return. By that point we knew we were staying. There didn't need to be a discussion. Life here is much better for us in terms of being a family together. A huge move, but for us worth it.

Thanks homebird8. Just don't want to not do it and totally regret it in a few years when DDs are older & probably not want to do. I guess we need to try it cause the worse that can happen is,we need to come home

The Kiwis call it an OE (overseas experience). A lot of people take a couple of years or more to live and work in another country and then come back to NZ, often at the point when they are in a stable relationship and want to bring up children here. If you view it like that then there is nothing to stop you enjoying things in NZ whilst feeling you can return to the UK. You'll work out whether it's right for you or not and then you can stay or go back. (Note, I rarely talk about home these days. It is too many places for clarity.)

Definitely worth doing aus

Or nz. Posted too soon!
I would decide in advance if it's a perm shift of an overseas experience.
I just think psychologically you prepare differently for both.

Think we've decided on oz & yeah Chloe totally get what you mean about differernt mind sets. Undecided on whether to sell the house l change my mind daily & DH thinks it might be too much of draw & too easy to throw the towel in.