Q's about New Zealand

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Where to start... Well I've been doing alot of research about different places in the world, because I want to move out of my country (usa). For the longest time I had my heart set on Japan, but my reasons for wanting to go there were a bit childish. Simply hot asian chicks, anime, and history doesn't merit permanently living there, perhaps just a few vacations.

The more places I look at, I seem to be drawn toward New Zealand, but I know very few people that even know what a kiwi is, let alone anything about the country. I'm wondering if anyone here lives there, if we have anyone that's just vacationed there, family there, anything really.

From what I gather, it seems to be more democratic and "free" than the USA. Nature is obviously breathtakingly beautiful there, with relatively little pollution. Things I'm looking for are like.... Economy, Job Market, Industry\Production, Education, Crime, Other things about the society and people, Stability, and others I can't remember.

Really any feedback from people who know alot about NZ would be helpful.

Im in the same boat!

Also love Japan to death and looking to move to NZ


My question to you is: what is your immigrant score?

Unless you can get 100 points or more you wont be eligible to be considered for immigration by NZ authorities. I have a 95 and im trying my darnedest to get those missing 5 points.

try: www.emigratenz.org for the answers you seek. really good community for information on NZ and the entire immigration process.


edit: corrected the link. it was .org not .com. sorry!

Last edited by Dantac on 23 Feb 2008, 5:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

New Zealand is a great place to live most of the time!! ! We have got pretty good health care, fairly low pollution, friendly people. Some cities are of course safer than others but you get that in every country.

One reason to move to New Zealand - Hale Bopp! lol just kidding around.

I'm thinking seriously about NZ as well...I'd move out tomorrow if my mom wasn't here in the States (and there wasn't the pet quarantine - I could never put my dog in a kennel for 6 months). Will probably retire there though...I have Australian citizenship so thankfully don't need to worry about visas.

mum2asboy, I was wondering if you could lend me a hand with one piece of information i've been having a hard time to find.

Been trying to search for Travel Wholesale companies in New Zealand (not travel agencies, those buy their rooms from travel wholesalers) but I've had no luck. Most wholesale companies do not actively advertise on the internet. If you have any way of finding the name of at least one of them it'd help me a lot in finding a job offer over there (crucial for my immigration effort).

I've had lots of jobs tell me they'll hire me on the spot because of my experience in international travel and because I've personally traveled a bit... but always the 'but you will need to have a work visa'. I couldn't take a REALLY well paid job offer because of that... and I cannot get a work visa without a job offer.. its a weird self-defeating bureaucratic loop. *sigh*

Hmmm thanks for the info Dantac, I'll look into that for sure. No idea there was a scoring thing.

Edit: 90 points... Seems like I need to get a job offer from a company in NZ as well. I think a working holiday may be a good way to go to get started. Also, since my career is in the IT industry, if I get a bachelor's I'm pretty much set to get in, as I would then get a long term skill shortage qualification.. interesting....

Anyone have info on what it's like to be there, and\or info on the state of the country internationally, economically, or otherwise?

I'm not sure wht you mean by Travel Wholesale companies. I CAN have a look through my local phone book to see if I can find what you are looking for
We are desperate for silled workers here in NZ and employers have had to recruit from overseas.
Feel free to PM me if you want more info of if I can help more

Actually, if you are on the long term skill shortage list you're already in, they make a lot of concessions for people in that list. You do need the job offer but im sure that wont be a problem Congrats

I can't use the work holiday scheme since im not a US citizen yet..and i'm 30 this year so I either get the US citizenship this year AND get on the work holiday program or that's it for me for the easy way in.

My other option is to go in as a student but I could only work part-time over there and that wont allow me to pay the school and the housing.

aiiih.


mum2asdboy: thanks, sent you a PM of what i'm looking for.

I'm also thinking of moving into New Zealand, mainly for the high standard of living combined with even more wonderful nature.

Okay, it wasn't recently, but in 1990 I visited there for summer (their winter). I liked it a lot: the accent, the music on radio (often Australian or British groups, I admit), beautiful geography (but it was tough to get around, since hills are steep & valleys are crowded), etc.

Just saw presentation of report (which comes out each year), on "the state of freedom" in various international regions-apparently NZ was in top echelon, along with Scandanavian countries (above USA). Politically, NZ seems like my kind of place (according to what I find out from news), since philosophically I'm a liberal, humanitarian, anti-nuclear person.

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/

For ALL of you wanting to move to my wonderful country!! !
Some places are not that crowed like the city I live in for example.
Tauranga has a round 100,000 people, a great bus service, pretty nice climate as in not too hot in summer and not too cold in winter. We don't get snow in Tauranga either. Depending on qualifications and experience there are lots of jobs.
One other really great thing about Tauranga is that there is a centre dedicated to Autistic Spectrum Disorders!! !! !!
Also I have to pay for NONE of Damos ASD related things like OT, pyschologist, paeditrician!! !! Of course that is thru publice system and to go private there is a cost involved.
Ok I will stop there, almsot lunchtime here and I will be introuble if I dont' get it ready by 12

The more I look into it, the more I can't wait.

Q: For the skill shortage thing, if I don't have a level 7 certificate (bachelors), but I do have 2+ years of relevant work experience in the field, and plans to base my career in that field, is it still easy-street to get in NZ, or no?

Edit: I suppose it's all a matter of getting a job offer first?

Work experience already gives you points in the points calculator.

Select 'yes' on:

"Was the work experience gained in a comparable labour market or an area of absolute skills shortage?"

Also select 'yes' for the section of 'will you be living outside Auckland' ..that gives you 5 free points.

I did a guessing calculation for you based on the little I know of you. Im guessing you are under 30 years of age, some college but no 4 yr degree, you're a US Citizen and your education was in the USA, and your job experience was in the USA.

Without a job offer in NZ your score is 50. With the job offer its 120.

The problem is the job offer can only come from an NZ company that is certified to issue work visa support.

You're lucky the IT field has lots of those so it's very likely you'll be selected much faster than me.

Go to the forums in the link I provided, there are links there to many IT job places that provide visa support.

However, you must understand that 'IT' means you need to be MSCSE (or however you spell that bah) and have an IT degree of 2 years minimum to be considered a skilled professional. I tried getting in the IT way due to my own tech support / networking 'IT' job I had for a couple of years but was told that didnt count for much as any high school student in NZ could do that job too after a little training (which is true nowadays)

New Zealand is an interesting place. I've been down there four times in the last 3 years, even made some friends in the Wairarapa.

I looked into immigration but don't fit any category. I have a 1 man company that could continue to operate as I do here in the states with the same customer back east. Unfortunately to get in using the LTBV (Long Term Business Visa) they require that you hire employees within some time period, the last thing an Aspie needs is to supervise people. You also have to show some plausable reason why you would "a benefit to New Zealand" which in general means "profitable to the New Zealand government".

Mum2ASDboy - Thanks! Your assistance paid off in finding at least one travel wholesale company that offers visa support. They dont have job opening at the moment but its a LOT more than I could find in a year's time. You rock!

jdbob: what's your company? You don't need to go in as a business owner.. if your education and work experience give you enough points you can get residence permit and set up shop there. I think that as a business owner you get a lot of points because it makes you 'senior management' equivalent in work experience. As long as you can prove you have the skills or the ability to NOT be a drain on the NZ economy you'll be eligible. They do not want people going there and then becoming welfare recipients.