Quick Guide for Americans Immigrating to NZ

This isn’t the only path to residency, but I think it’s the path most people will take. These instructions assume you’re using the “skilled migrant work-to-residence path” and you don’t already have a job lined up in New Zealand prior to entering the country.

Step One – Have your qualifications (i.e. Degrees and certifications) assessed by NZQA (New Zealand Qualification Authority).

Step Two – Decide what visa you want to apply for.

Step Three – Submit your EOI (Expression of Intent).  This is you asking NZ if you can apply to immigrate to NZ.

Step Four – After your EOI has been selected you will be sent the real application form.  This is where you tell the NZ Immigration board your life story. And you’ll need to get a police certificate and medical physical. Turn all of this in as soon as possible.  This will sit for 90 days before being looked at.  Only then will you be notified of a problem/question with your application.

Step Five– Your phone interview.

Step Six – Acceptance/Rejection

Step Seven- Get a working holiday visa.

Step Eight- Move to New Zealand

Step Nine- Get an I.R.D. card (Internal Revenue Department) so you can legally work.

Step Ten – Get a job.

Step Eleven- Get your permanent worker’s visa.

Step Twelve- Live in New Zealand for two years.

Step Thirteen – Apply for permanent residency.

Step Fourteen- Live in New Zealand for two more years and then apply for citizenship.

 

How did you do it?

Since we started blogging about moving to New Zealand a lot of people have written to us and asked us, “How did you do it?” I totally understand where this question is coming from. When you first start thinking about moving to a new country it seems like an impossible feat… like you have to activate a Stargate to move to escape your birth country. Granted, it’s not easy; there are a lot of hoops you have to jump through, but at the end of the day all it really amounts to is going to the New Zealand immigration website and filling out a bunch of forms and getting a medical physical.

But really, that’s it. You fill out the bureaucratic paperwork, you wait a long time to get it approved, you pay a bunch of money in fees, and eventually you get to move to another country. You don’t have to take a ring to Mordor. You just have to fill out a bunch of paperwork. That’s all you have to do. I wish someone would have slapped us in the face when we started our immigration process and said, “Don’t stress out about it so much! Just fill out the paperwork and send it! You fill out tax paperwork every year. Fill out a few more papers and get going!” Hell, you can go through the whole process (expect the medical examination) drunk.

Plus, there’s no commitment necessary. It’s not like joining the military. If you think you might want to immigrate to New Zealand then go to the New Zealand Immigration web site, make an account and start the process.  If at some point you find out you’re not eligible then the worst thing that will happen is you get told “no.” You might spend a little money in the process, but you probably would have spent that money on crap you didn’t need anyway.

If you do get approved, but at the last minute you decide that you don’t want to take the leap of moving, then don’t move! You don’t renounce your citizenship when you apply for residency. You don’t even renounce your citizenship after you’ve been approved and you physically move. Even after you get your citizenship you’ll be a dual citizen unless you go out of your way to renounce your citizenship from your birth country.

Amber and I had never visited New Zealand before we moved here, and we didn’t know anyone living here. A lot of people thought we were crazy for taking such an insane risk, but the only thing we were really risking was the money we spent. We went into the affair understanding that if we didn’t like New Zealand then we could always just move back to America. You could say the money we spent in the process was wasted, but we would say the money was well spent on an adventure that taught us a lot about ourselves and the world we live in. Fortunately for us we’re happy in New Zealand and have never regretted moving, but that’s just icing on the cake. If it had turned out that we hated New Zealand (which it very well could have) we still could have moved back to America not feeling like idiots. So can you.

Yes, there were risks in moving to a foreign country, but there are risks in doing anything. There was a Twilight Zone episode where a woman refuses to leave her house for fear of anything bad happening to her. Finally a man collapses outside her house, and she ventures outside to help him. It turns out he’s a wonderful person, and she enjoys the experience it brings her to interact with the outside world. In Twilight Zone-fashion though the man turns out to be the Grim Reaper, and he makes her realize she’s wasted her life hiding from life for fear of the consequences. Amber and I did the cost-benefit-analysis of hiding in cold comfort in America or sticking our necks out and moving to New Zealand. We took the risk, and it paid off (for us). But even if it hadn’t paid off in a long-term place of residence it still would have paid off in the experience. And all it took to get here was filling out a bunch of paperwork and paying a bunch of fees.

The point is, don’t make the process harder than it is. All you’re doing it filling out a bunch of paperwork, and all you’re doing is moving from one place on this rock to another. You’re not moving to another universe. There are cars and streets and houses over here just like there is where you were born. If you do fill out the application or even make the move your decision will still be less final (and less costly) than deciding to marry someone. If you have the courage to marry then you have more than enough courage to move to another spot on the earth.

I don’t qualify to move to New Zealand! What can I do?

Disclaimer (again): We’re not professional immigration consultants. So don’t base your life on our advice. Research the New Zealand Immigration site. Use your own judgment, and don’t break the law.

If you’re not in perfect health, and you don’t have a bachelor’s degree then you probably don’t qualify to emigrate to New Zealand through the skilled migrant’s work-to-residence program. In that case here are some tips to get into New Zealand legally.

1. Get married to someone (from your home country) who is qualified. Point in fact, I (Travis) didn’t qualify to move to New Zealand because I’m a year short of a university degree. However, Amber has a degree in teaching. So she’s qualified. When married couples file for immigration you’ll list one person as the primary applicant, and that’s the person who will be judged. Whatever else the secondary applicant brings to the table is just icing on the cake, and if they don’t bring anything to the table you’re not penalized for it. Either way, be warned that you have to be married for two years prior to submitting your application. New Zealand recognizes common law marriages as well. Just make sure you have 2 years’ worth of shared bills, bank accounts, E-mails, vacation photos and anything else that proves you’re connected at the hip.

2. Get a degree. Every accredited university is equal in the eyes of the immigration board. You won’t get any extra points for going to Harvard than you will for going to Joe Bob’s University. This means you can take advantage of universities like The University of Phoenix, which offer relatively easy online classes and gives you credit for life experiences. Using accredited diploma mills like this will allow you to punch out a degree relatively quickly. And make sure to check out the Essential Skills in Demand list. Getting a degree in one of these fields will give you extra points towards your application. Be aware that this list is update regularly.

3. Fall in love with a local. As hard as it is to emigrate anywhere you’d think the entire world would collapse if one more person moved to a new country, but for all the red tape involved in keeping you in your birth country there’s a gigantic back door that will let you waltz right into to just about any country. If you fall in love with a person from a foreign country you can bypass most of the legal requirements.

Now, marrying solely for the purpose of emigration is illegal. So when you get a holiday visa or a working holiday visa and visit your prospective country and go to the first bar you see and ask the first 30 people you see if they’ll fall in love with you, make sure your love is real. As long as you really care about the person you just met, your mutually beneficial partnership will be completely legal. Be warned though, you have to go through a pretty lengthy process of proving to the immigration board that your love is real. This involves years’ worth of references, photos, financial ties and a bunch of other stuff I don’t know about. Again, make sure your love is real. Don’t break the law.

4. The Hail Mary. The whole purpose of making the immigration process so difficult is to keep freeloaders with no viable job skills out of any given country. If you can prove you have job skills they’ll let you in, but you’ll still need a job offer before your residency visa gets its final approval. This means you have to apply for your residency visa, pass the preliminary approvals and then get a job offer. However, nobody is going to give you a job offer while you live in your birth country unless you have amazing and/or rare credentials since New Zealand businesses have ten people standing right outside their door who can start work tomorrow. It doesn’t make any sense for them to go out of their way to sponsor a stranger from a foreign country who can’t start work until they sell everything they own and move half way around the world.

As a result you’re going to have to move to New Zealand (or wherever) on a working holiday visa (while you’re residency visa is still half-approved), apply for jobs and hopefully get one before your working holiday visa runs out. If/when you get that job you can then get your permanent work permit approved. Two years later you can apply to get your permanent residency approved.

Now here’s the interesting part. You can move to New Zealand on a working holiday visa, get a job and then apply for your permanent work permit/permanent residency. Since you’re already in the country and you already have a job you’ve already proven to the immigration board that they’re not letting a freeloader into the country even if you don’t have the most impressive credentials. This will make the immigration paperwork a little easier and a little quicker. However, this is a very dangerous tightrope to walk. You can still fail your residency application if you have bad health or if they don’t deem your work skills sufficient. For example, getting a job at McDonalds won’t impress the immigration board. If your job falls under the Essential Skills in Demand list then you’ll have the best chance of getting your residency visa approved.

There are probably other factors I’m not aware of that could affect your application, but if you’re really desperate and you’re willing to take a risk, this path could potentially work. If nothing else, you could genuinely fall in love with one of your coworkers while you’re in country and legally use the marriage loophole to get your citizenship.

5. Get Rich Quick. Laws and restrictions are for poor people. If you can get $3 million in your bank account the immigration board will roll out the red carpet for you.

6. Get Professional Help. The process of immigrating to New Zealand is stressful enough that a small industry has bloomed to help people through the immigration process….for a fee of course. If you need professional help, then help is just a Google search away.

What if none of these legal loopholes apply to me? Too bad. You don’t get to leave your home country. All the governments of the world have colluded to set the bar to immigration so high that they’ve effectively made the poor and loveless prisoners in their birth country, and they’ve done it in a way that every country can claim plausible deniability. That’s the way of the world, and statistically speaking you’re probably one of the billions of humans beings whose fate and tax dollars are imprisoned within your national borders.

Second Step to Immigration to NZ – Register with Teachers Council

Relevant Website: http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/registration/how/eligibility/

Objective: Register with NZTC in order to continue immigration process.

Documents Required: No photocopies, everything must be original.

• FBI records (get 2 you will not get this back, but you need it in the future as well) It took about a month to receive these from the FBI.
• College Transcripts AND diploma
• Teaching certification
• Employment records (If you’re a teacher you will use submit this many times during the immigration process so have the schools give you two if possible)
• On school letterhead, starting date, finishing date, fulltime/part-time, short description of job, and a statement that you have/haven’t taken long leave of absents

Submit Date: Mailed application Late March 2009.

Finish Date: June 8, 2009 I received a package in the mail with my registration and a second package a few days later with my registration card.

Notes: Your teaching registration is not subject specific. Unlike many states in the U.S. you do not need to be certified for each subject. For example, a social studies teacher can teach math. I received a provisional cert. expiring June 2012.

First Steps to Immigrating to NZ – Get your qualifications reconized

So the wait is over, Travis and I have been officially granted permanent resident statues. This means that we are able to live and work in NZ. We are also able to use the health care system here, the fear of getting sick or hurt in a foreign country with no travel issuance is gone.

For those of you thinking about making the move through the Skilled Migrant route I thought I would give you the run down of what we had to do, and the time it took to get it done.

Overview of the process Travis and I took: Skilled Migrant Residency Visa (using my teaching as the skill), BS and Teaching cert recognized, Teacher registration, Expression of Interest, Application, WAIT…, moved to Auckland on visitors visa, got Working holiday visa, wait… Travis got a minimum wage job, wait…, Interview, granted residency.

Skilled Migrant Residency Visa – This is for people that have qualifications and work experience in fields that NZ finds it has a shortage in. Since I’ve first started this process the list of careers have changed several times, so make sure you frequently check to make sure your on this list.

Step One: Get qualifications recognized.

Relevant Website: http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/about/index.html

Objective: Have my BS and Secondary Ed. Teaching Cert. recognized.

Documents Required: No photocopies, everything must be original.

• Proof of completing high school (transcripts or diploma)

• College Transcripts AND diploma

• Teaching certification

• Employment records (If you’re a teacher you will use submit this many times during the immigration process so have the schools give you two if possible)  It must be on school letterhead, state your starting date, finishing date, fulltime/part-time employment (if part-time then the total hours worked per/week), short description of job, and a statement that you have/haven’t taken long leave of absents (this is not a requirement at this stage but it will be when you take your first job)

Submit Date: Online application Feb. 28, Mailed documents Mar. 2, 2009

I received an email Apr. 15 stating that my documents had arrived and my file had been given to an evaluator.
Finish Date: April 28, 2009 I received a package in the mail with my NZ qualifications report. I qualified for level 7 BS.

Notes: I was confused at first because the paper read “Your BS cannot be given comparability to any recognized teaching qualification in NZ. The requirements of NZ teaching qualification are very specific and due to the differences in teacher education structure in the US and NZ a direct comparison cannot be made in this case. However, you qualification does contain the core components of the NZ Graduate Diploma of Teaching and this has been stated on your repot.” I have no idea what they were getting at because I never ran into any problems with teaching cert.

Do not loose this paper; they only give ONE duplicate ever!

How long does it take to get to New Zealand

Travis and I decided Oct. 2008 that moving to NZ was the way to go. I originally thought it would be an easy process, everything I read said that they needed teacher and IT people. If I had the money to spend I should have paid someone to handle everything, but money is always an issue, and I was under the impression that it was going to be easy.
I got together all my papers, had my qualifications reviewed, registered for the NZ teaching council and thought the hard stuff was over. After all, my teaching degree fell into a long-term need group. Why would they make it hard? I don’t know, but they did.
We went the Skilled Migrant route. I wasn’t looking for a temporary solution. If I was going to move to another country it was going to be a permanent thing. However, getting a permanent visa takes a lot more paperwork and a lot more waiting time than a temporary visa. The medical review was especially thorough and a pain in the butt.. Had I started this whole thing again I would have started it at least six months earlier, to attempt to get this done in less then a year is really tough.