Hello all, i thought i'd create a thread to document my residency application to New Zealand for those who may be interested.
I'll start with a little history, i met my wife in 2012 about 2 months after she arrived in UK from NZ on a working visa, we got on straight away and we have lived and worked together for 4 1/2 years now here in UK. Don't ask me how it works, but it does, we never, ever get bored of each others company!
Anyway, that's that. In december 2015, we travelled to my wife's home town in New Zealand and we got married there with her family present. We spent 5 weeks there and it was amazing so we returned home and decided that it would be nice to spend some more time over there, particularly as her parents aren't in the best of health (mother has an aneurism and father recently had a triple heart bypass). We decided to look at my visa options when we got home, at the same time, we booked flights to return to NZ again in January just gone for another holiday. This actually worked out perfect for us as it meant i could have my medical done whilst i was there as it worked out a lot cheaper in NZ than it does here, i'll explain more soon.
So, my choices for a visa were as follows...
Work, partner of a NZ citizen, this meant i could live and work in NZ without a job offer needed. this costs £225 + fees.
Residency, partner of a NZ citizen, this allowed 5 years with option of indefinite leave to remain, this one costs about £1200 all in.
Work visa, this was the cheapest iirc, but it required a firm offer of employment.
At first, we decided we would just go for the residency visa, i joined an expat forum for advice from fellow expats, we even attended a seminar held by an immigration NZ company, which was useful, but it was obviously geared for selling products, and for helping people to get their visa for a price. We decided we would go it alone anyway as we had been researching for a long time, we knew what evidence we required for our application etc. We also researched for my medical, for the medical, it was 4 parts, a chest x-ray, blood tests, urine tests and a general fitness exam by a doctor. To have this done in the UK, there are only 4 places certified, needless to say, it costs a small fortune. It works out about £600 - £750 for the full lot here, so as we were going to NZ in Jan this year, i looked at options over there, and found a medical centre in Auckland (Symond street), who completed the whole lot for $270 (about £140 in todays exchange rate). My medical came back fine, but i had to apply for my visa within 3 months. We had completed my enhanced disclosure (enhanced DBS) before we went to NZ, a basic one is not good enough, this cost £45 from https://www.acro.police.uk/Police_Certificates_Online.aspx.
So, anyway, we returned from NZ, all medicals and police checks completed, now it was time to look at the visa choices again, it was a choice between 2 of the 3 options above really, a residency, or work - partner of a NZ citizen, both had pro's and cons. In the end, we decided it would be best in the short term to go for the work visa which will last 2 years, and in the mean time, if things turn out well, i can go for the permanent one later on, if it doesn't work out, we haven't wasted over a grand on a visa, therefore, i still have full options to stay permanent if we want to.
I sent my visa application off to be processed, we set a rough date to go back to NZ so that we would arrive in NZ for the 1st December to spend a month off work with the family and then starting work in January, this would have been after a fortnight in Phuket beforehand. However, withn 2 weeks of my application, i received a letter through the post, opened it, and discovered i had been accepted for my visa, which was great news, but..... on closer inspection of my newly stickered passport, it said that the last date i could arrive in NZ was on 7th October 2017 (6 months after issue). We didn't consider this would happen, so it pretty much threw a spanner in the works on our plans.
We have spent the last 4/5 weeks re-planning our move now, and it's already been pretty hectic! First of all, we have re-set a date to move, we have decided that we will fly out of Manchester on 27th September to Bangkok, spend a week there, before our onward journey to New Zealand, where we will arrive on 6th October, a day before final entry!
We have PSS removals coming round today to quote us on moving our stuff, we have decided we will not be taking any large furniture (sofas and beds and fridge freezer etc) as at £5 / sq foot it would work out at about £400 for our sofa, and it isn't worth that much! we have researched the cost of replacing everything in NZ, and discovered taking your own electricals is a must. for example, our TV (LG 55UH850V) cost us £1149 in November last year, at the same time in NZ, it was $4444 (about £2400). Our heatpump dryer cost us £450, in NZ, they are close to a grand for a half decent one. Ultimately, we are hoping to pay no more than a £1k for moving the few bits we're taking, but i'll find that out very soon.
We have notified our employer of our last working date (23rd September), however, they knew last year that we would be going at the end of this year. We had planned on leaving work on about 11th November, so we will be short of 5 weeks wages in our budget, however, we are only taking a week in Bangkok rather than 2 in Phuket, so swings and roundabouts i guess! We have started to sell things around the house that we won't be taking, and have put proceeds in the savings bank so we don't touch it! We have decided that we will leave our current rental on 19th September, rather than pay a full months rent etc for 4 days of a month, so we'll be homeless for 4 days
We have one issue that is still worrying me though, our financed car, in September, we will be just short of 2 years into our 4 year agreement on our car, i got a quote to pay the finance off and in October, we will owe ~ £17k to pay the car off, however, we don't have a spare £17k, especially with a huge move like this lol. I would have loved to take the car with us and carry on paying the finance off, however, this isn't allowed naturally, so our only options are to sell the car (hopefully i can get enough to clear the finance - going off autotrader, prices seem to cove this), but the problem is, we need to use the car until 23rd September so that leaves us 4 days to get rid before we fly. The other option is to hand the car back to BMW and use our right to a voluntary termination of HP, this of course is the very last resort as i want to keep my ties with UK good and don't want to default on anything to ruin my credit score. (Any advice on this section would be most welcome)
Finally, our plans when we arrive in NZ...
We are lucky enough to be able to use my wifes parents house for as long as we need to when we get to NZ, and as we haven't decided where exactly we want to live yet (we've narrowed it down to three locations), this gives us time to plan once we arrive. Ideally, i will be looking for a part time job to stat, 3 days a week, so we can enjoy the country for a while. this will be followed by all of December off work as planned to spend time with the family for xmas, and we are looking at hiring a camper van again to go and explore south island as we never went there the previous 2 times. In January, we will either look at a full time job in one of the areas we are considering our future, or, my preferred choice would be to look at our own business, a cafe on the beach or something along those lines, looking on trademe.co.nz, we have seen a few businesses going for around $75k NZ, (£38-£40k) (Obviously we would do our research first before diving into this).
The three areas we are considering is Hibiscus coast (Whangaparaoa), this is where family lives, it would be nice to stay close to family, but prices of property there is extortionate! The cheapest house on the Hibiscus coast is currently around $650000 (£340k), and that gets you literally a caravan sized house without wheels! It's clearly the land that costs the money as houses are terrible here! Our next choice would be Tauranga / Mount Manganui / Papamoa, this is a lovely area and we spent time here on both occasions we were in NZ, property isn't quite as expensive here as it is in Auckland, but prices are rising, we could probably buy a house here for around $400 / $450k but again, the quality of housing at this price point would be poor. Finally, we have looked at Kerikeri / Paihia in the bay of islands, it's really nice up there too, about 3 hours north of Auckland (and 2 1/2 hours from the family). Property is similar in price to Tauranga / Mt Manganui. We could look at buying some land and self building, which i would love to do, but wouldn't have a clue where to start, mortgages are quite favourable for this in NZ and you can get grants and have less of a deposit to do this to. Something to consider.
Anyway, that's our progress so far, i'll update as and when i can so it's all documented, and i hope i can help others who are thinking about their visa options.
Thanks for reading (if you did lol)
I'll start with a little history, i met my wife in 2012 about 2 months after she arrived in UK from NZ on a working visa, we got on straight away and we have lived and worked together for 4 1/2 years now here in UK. Don't ask me how it works, but it does, we never, ever get bored of each others company!
Anyway, that's that. In december 2015, we travelled to my wife's home town in New Zealand and we got married there with her family present. We spent 5 weeks there and it was amazing so we returned home and decided that it would be nice to spend some more time over there, particularly as her parents aren't in the best of health (mother has an aneurism and father recently had a triple heart bypass). We decided to look at my visa options when we got home, at the same time, we booked flights to return to NZ again in January just gone for another holiday. This actually worked out perfect for us as it meant i could have my medical done whilst i was there as it worked out a lot cheaper in NZ than it does here, i'll explain more soon.
So, my choices for a visa were as follows...
Work, partner of a NZ citizen, this meant i could live and work in NZ without a job offer needed. this costs £225 + fees.
Residency, partner of a NZ citizen, this allowed 5 years with option of indefinite leave to remain, this one costs about £1200 all in.
Work visa, this was the cheapest iirc, but it required a firm offer of employment.
At first, we decided we would just go for the residency visa, i joined an expat forum for advice from fellow expats, we even attended a seminar held by an immigration NZ company, which was useful, but it was obviously geared for selling products, and for helping people to get their visa for a price. We decided we would go it alone anyway as we had been researching for a long time, we knew what evidence we required for our application etc. We also researched for my medical, for the medical, it was 4 parts, a chest x-ray, blood tests, urine tests and a general fitness exam by a doctor. To have this done in the UK, there are only 4 places certified, needless to say, it costs a small fortune. It works out about £600 - £750 for the full lot here, so as we were going to NZ in Jan this year, i looked at options over there, and found a medical centre in Auckland (Symond street), who completed the whole lot for $270 (about £140 in todays exchange rate). My medical came back fine, but i had to apply for my visa within 3 months. We had completed my enhanced disclosure (enhanced DBS) before we went to NZ, a basic one is not good enough, this cost £45 from https://www.acro.police.uk/Police_Certificates_Online.aspx.
So, anyway, we returned from NZ, all medicals and police checks completed, now it was time to look at the visa choices again, it was a choice between 2 of the 3 options above really, a residency, or work - partner of a NZ citizen, both had pro's and cons. In the end, we decided it would be best in the short term to go for the work visa which will last 2 years, and in the mean time, if things turn out well, i can go for the permanent one later on, if it doesn't work out, we haven't wasted over a grand on a visa, therefore, i still have full options to stay permanent if we want to.
I sent my visa application off to be processed, we set a rough date to go back to NZ so that we would arrive in NZ for the 1st December to spend a month off work with the family and then starting work in January, this would have been after a fortnight in Phuket beforehand. However, withn 2 weeks of my application, i received a letter through the post, opened it, and discovered i had been accepted for my visa, which was great news, but..... on closer inspection of my newly stickered passport, it said that the last date i could arrive in NZ was on 7th October 2017 (6 months after issue). We didn't consider this would happen, so it pretty much threw a spanner in the works on our plans.
We have spent the last 4/5 weeks re-planning our move now, and it's already been pretty hectic! First of all, we have re-set a date to move, we have decided that we will fly out of Manchester on 27th September to Bangkok, spend a week there, before our onward journey to New Zealand, where we will arrive on 6th October, a day before final entry!
We have PSS removals coming round today to quote us on moving our stuff, we have decided we will not be taking any large furniture (sofas and beds and fridge freezer etc) as at £5 / sq foot it would work out at about £400 for our sofa, and it isn't worth that much! we have researched the cost of replacing everything in NZ, and discovered taking your own electricals is a must. for example, our TV (LG 55UH850V) cost us £1149 in November last year, at the same time in NZ, it was $4444 (about £2400). Our heatpump dryer cost us £450, in NZ, they are close to a grand for a half decent one. Ultimately, we are hoping to pay no more than a £1k for moving the few bits we're taking, but i'll find that out very soon.
We have notified our employer of our last working date (23rd September), however, they knew last year that we would be going at the end of this year. We had planned on leaving work on about 11th November, so we will be short of 5 weeks wages in our budget, however, we are only taking a week in Bangkok rather than 2 in Phuket, so swings and roundabouts i guess! We have started to sell things around the house that we won't be taking, and have put proceeds in the savings bank so we don't touch it! We have decided that we will leave our current rental on 19th September, rather than pay a full months rent etc for 4 days of a month, so we'll be homeless for 4 days
We have one issue that is still worrying me though, our financed car, in September, we will be just short of 2 years into our 4 year agreement on our car, i got a quote to pay the finance off and in October, we will owe ~ £17k to pay the car off, however, we don't have a spare £17k, especially with a huge move like this lol. I would have loved to take the car with us and carry on paying the finance off, however, this isn't allowed naturally, so our only options are to sell the car (hopefully i can get enough to clear the finance - going off autotrader, prices seem to cove this), but the problem is, we need to use the car until 23rd September so that leaves us 4 days to get rid before we fly. The other option is to hand the car back to BMW and use our right to a voluntary termination of HP, this of course is the very last resort as i want to keep my ties with UK good and don't want to default on anything to ruin my credit score. (Any advice on this section would be most welcome)
Finally, our plans when we arrive in NZ...
We are lucky enough to be able to use my wifes parents house for as long as we need to when we get to NZ, and as we haven't decided where exactly we want to live yet (we've narrowed it down to three locations), this gives us time to plan once we arrive. Ideally, i will be looking for a part time job to stat, 3 days a week, so we can enjoy the country for a while. this will be followed by all of December off work as planned to spend time with the family for xmas, and we are looking at hiring a camper van again to go and explore south island as we never went there the previous 2 times. In January, we will either look at a full time job in one of the areas we are considering our future, or, my preferred choice would be to look at our own business, a cafe on the beach or something along those lines, looking on trademe.co.nz, we have seen a few businesses going for around $75k NZ, (£38-£40k) (Obviously we would do our research first before diving into this).
The three areas we are considering is Hibiscus coast (Whangaparaoa), this is where family lives, it would be nice to stay close to family, but prices of property there is extortionate! The cheapest house on the Hibiscus coast is currently around $650000 (£340k), and that gets you literally a caravan sized house without wheels! It's clearly the land that costs the money as houses are terrible here! Our next choice would be Tauranga / Mount Manganui / Papamoa, this is a lovely area and we spent time here on both occasions we were in NZ, property isn't quite as expensive here as it is in Auckland, but prices are rising, we could probably buy a house here for around $400 / $450k but again, the quality of housing at this price point would be poor. Finally, we have looked at Kerikeri / Paihia in the bay of islands, it's really nice up there too, about 3 hours north of Auckland (and 2 1/2 hours from the family). Property is similar in price to Tauranga / Mt Manganui. We could look at buying some land and self building, which i would love to do, but wouldn't have a clue where to start, mortgages are quite favourable for this in NZ and you can get grants and have less of a deposit to do this to. Something to consider.
Anyway, that's our progress so far, i'll update as and when i can so it's all documented, and i hope i can help others who are thinking about their visa options.
Thanks for reading (if you did lol)
. To replace the car like for like over there will cost almost double what it cost me here. We looked at them in Jan, and a 2012 530D was $69k. (£36k)
. But do be careful checking prices. Places like Harvey Norman, Noel Leeming and Smith City are forever having sales. You may have checked the LG once and it didn't have a sale on that week. I bought my TV for $2000 last boxing day, down from $4500 if I recall correctly. You just gotta keep an eye out for specials. 
). Not made many acquaintances of people my own age or younger, but I suppose I've never gone looking for it or thought much about it.
