Working Holiday Visa NZ

coco85

Hi there,

My partner and i are going to make the big move to NZ for a year... to explore,seek opportunities and hopefully have a great time!

My OH has applied for his working holiday visa on the Immigration NZ online section. I have to renew my passport before i can apply:(..

I am just wondering if he needs to send his passport anywhere? How will the visa be issued???

If anyone has any experience applying an advice would be greatly appreciated.. I know they say the processing time is 4-6 weeks but i have heard of some ppl being approved much quicker..

Anyone have any experiences to share?

Thanks

pclancy

Its very simple, just do it on the immigration NZ website http://www.immigration.govt.nz/ dont do it on any other "agency" site. You'll have an email back with your visa info within a few days. I applied for mine on a Friday night and had it by Tuesday! No questions or anything except for the online form its really handy. You dont need to send anything anywhere. Its all electronic so once you arrive in NZ they scan your passport and the visa becomes active for a year and they stamp to say when you must leave.

Its a great country you're going to have a great time

coco85

Thanks Pclancy...

My OH got an e-mail today confirming acceptance...he applied on the official immigration website so all is ok.

It says on the electronic visa that he has to state once he arrives that he wishes to apply for a work permit.

We thought that by getting the visa granted that there would be no more applications/permits etc...

Do you have any idea what this is all about?

I resigned from my job yesterday!.... its really happening and i am so excited/scared!!!

Thanks for the reply and any other advice you can give would be greatly appreciated!:)

pclancy

No a WHV entitles you to work without restriction for one employer for six monthes. Once you get here, if you want to stay longerthen a year or wokr longer then six months apply for a 2 year work permit immediatly. Ive been working for 3 monthes on a contract and am gunna apply for a 2 year permit soon, I'm contracting though so not sure what way is best for me but mates i know found it very easy once they had a perm job offer to get a visa.

http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/ is an excellent forum with people all asking the same kind of info....well worth joining and posting.

Any more q's no problem just let me know

coco85

pclancy wrote: »

.

http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/ is an excellent forum with people all asking the same kind of info....well worth joining and posting.

Any more q's no problem just let me know

I tried to register for this forum but it will not allow me register as i only have a hotmail account. They do not allow people to register with free e-mail accounts.

Its frustrating as i am constantly reading all the posts but cannot start my own thread to ask all my questions and i cannot search the forum!:(

I have done tons of research so we are moving with our eyes open.. we are moving to Hamilton to start with and we'll go from there. OH involved in agriculture and i'm an accounts techie so hopefully we'll be there in time for harvest season for himself!

It seems like there are lots of jobs available but the salarys are reckless!.. I'm gonna have to take a 10k euro drop to get my leg in the door although i hope i dont have to!!

Thanks for the advice hoping to get permanent offers and stay on for a few years! thats the plan anyways but that could all change!

What key items should we bring with us?
Is it really difficult to get a furnished house to rent?... it seems impossible but we'd like not to have the added expense of furnishing a house!

Thanks a mill;)

pclancy

Ah yeah I remember that. I think I used my work address to get around that problem. What about eircom.net or some other non-hotmail provider?

Yeah the furnishing thing is annoying. we had to buy our bed and furnish our room from scratch, they just dont seem to really do furnished houses down here but theres a big second hand market for furniture as a result. You could furnish a place pretty cheap from tradme if you wanted.

I brought some clothes and nothing else except my laptop! Electronics and stuff are on par with irish prices, clothes perhaps a little more expensive. Food and drink I think are cheaper especially eating out. Dairy is VERY expensive for some reason especially cheese. Amazing consdering the country is a massive exporter of dairy products.

watna

Hi Coco.... almost welcome to NZ!

Key items to bring.. hmm. Things are expensive here so get stuff at home if you think you'll need it. I sent 25kgs by air and brought a 20kg bag! I didn't bring many dressy things and then I had a few work nights out and regretted it. My parents sent me a small parcel. Go to penney's before you go and stock up on underwear, tights and socks. It sounds strange but there more expensive here and not as readily available. When are you coming? I arrived in May and didn't bring enough warm clothes with me and had to go buy thermals and fleeces. If you're coming in summer you'll be ok for that for a while

As for furnished apartments, yes, they're very hard to get unless you move in to share a flat with existing flatmates. If that's the case it'll only be bedroom furniture. If you get your own flat you'll more than likely have to buy your furniture. The Salvation Army is your friend. There's a huge second had market in NZ, people don't really buy things new so you can get things cheap enough!

As for salary, yes, I took a €10K salary drop. I'm doing ok though, I'm definitely poorer than I was in Ireland but it's a different lifestyle. I'm getting residency at the moment so will be able to take a permanent job then and the salary should go up then.

Any more specific questions, feel free to ask me!

Ozeire

coco85

If you need an email account to reg i can give you @ozeire.com one that can forward to your gmail account .

Just drop me an email

coco85

pclancy wrote: »

Ah yeah I remember that. I think I used my work address to get around that problem. What about eircom.net or some other non-hotmail provider?

Yeah the furnishing thing is annoying. we had to buy our bed and furnish our room from scratch, they just dont seem to really do furnished houses down here but theres a big second hand market for furniture as a result. You could furnish a place pretty cheap from tradme if you wanted.

I brought some clothes and nothing else except my laptop! Electronics and stuff are on par with irish prices, clothes perhaps a little more expensive. Food and drink I think are cheaper especially eating out. Dairy is VERY expensive for some reason especially cheese. Amazing consdering the country is a massive exporter of dairy products.

watna wrote: »

Hi Coco.... almost welcome to NZ!

Key items to bring.. hmm. Things are expensive here so get stuff at home if you think you'll need it. I sent 25kgs by air and brought a 20kg bag! I didn't bring many dressy things and then I had a few work nights out and regretted it. My parents sent me a small parcel. Go to penney's before you go and stock up on underwear, tights and socks. It sounds strange but there more expensive here and not as readily available. When are you coming? I arrived in May and didn't bring enough warm clothes with me and had to go buy thermals and fleeces. If you're coming in summer you'll be ok for that for a while

As for furnished apartments, yes, they're very hard to get unless you move in to share a flat with existing flatmates. If that's the case it'll only be bedroom furniture. If you get your own flat you'll more than likely have to buy your furniture. The Salvation Army is your friend. There's a huge second had market in NZ, people don't really buy things new so you can get things cheap enough!

As for salary, yes, I took a €10K salary drop. I'm doing ok though, I'm definitely poorer than I was in Ireland but it's a different lifestyle. I'm getting residency at the moment so will be able to take a permanent job then and the salary should go up then.

Any more specific questions, feel free to ask me!

Ozeire wrote: »

coco85

If you need an email account to reg i can give you @ozeire.com one that can forward to your gmail account .

Just drop me an email

Hi All,

Just wrote a big post to you all individually and i timed out before i was finished! I hate when that happens:mad:

So this is the condensed version:
-will i have to buy a new charger for my laptop or will a converter work?
-gonna live on our own-living on our own for so long now would not dream of going back to share with other people. I have seen a few furnished places to rent but the rent is so much more expensive- we just have to work out if it is worth spending $100 extra a week on rent or just buying furniture(trainee accountant thinking here!!!)
-I've heard about the underwear-strange i know. I hope people in pennys dont think i'm mad when i go to the checkout with 40 pairs of underwear!!!
-I've heard that make-up is expensive there too-is this true?-i'm trying to figure out how many tube of foundation i will need to get me through to next June when we come home for my OH's bros wedding!!!
-I was only gonna bring like one suit for interviews and work.. are there many work "do's"..how dressy is dressy?-like is a dress required or will trousers and top do?
-Salary is worrying me,but to be honest my partner was involved in property and with the way things are going over here he has been extremely stressed for the last year and even if we have to take salary cuts anything is better then him being stressed over trying to keep his business going!
- Thanks for the offer Ozeire i just remembered i have a vodafone e-mail. Will try and if that doesn't work i'll PM you.

Cheers for the advice- keep it coming!:)

pclancy

Your laptop is already nearly ready, laptop power packs will actually take any voltage and just need a different plug to use abroad. Your laptop power pack will be in two parts, one part that goes from the laptop to the power pack and the other that goes from the power pack to the wall called the "tail". The tail is interchangable with another countries plug so once you get down here just get a new tail (5-10 bucks in a computer store or if you're in wellington I'll give you one theres tons where i work) plug it into your power pack and off you go! No need to get any kind of convertor or new adapter.

I dont think its worth paying extra rent just to hav furniture, its a bit of a pain having to buy but once you do its yours to keep wherever you live in either a rented or your eventual own house. Everywhere delivers often free of charge or its easy hire a man with a van.

/waits for Watna to answer underwear/dresses/makeup questions

coco85

Thanks Pclancy.. we are thinking Te Awamutu/Hamilton area in the North Isl...

/Waiting for makeup clothes advice from watna!!:D

watna

coco85 wrote: »

Thanks Pclancy.. we are thinking Te Awamutu/Hamilton area in the North Isl...

/Waiting for makeup clothes advice from watna!!:D

Yes, make-up is very expensive. I wear quite expensive stuff anyway co I'm fussy that way so that didn't help.

e.g. My Yves Saint Laurent mascara is €21 in Dublin Airport. It's $71 here in the department stores which is around €35. My advice is to stock up. I bought a good few things in the airport when we left (2 things of the foundation I wear - it's Armani and you can't get it here, mascara, face powder and my clnique skin care stuff). Strawberrynet does deliver to NZ and is much more reasonable so I'll be ordering in future from there.

Do bring one suit with you but in my experience work is casual enough (except in law firms etc). and very similar to home Most girls seem to wear skirts and boots and a smartish top to work. I generally wear a pair of black trousers a and a plain top or a skirt and tights and top. I do wear heels to work too. You won't need lots of suits and shirts but do bring smartish work skirts and trousers. Thats one thing you won't want to waste money on when you get here.

As for rent, we pay $300 a week for a two bed place in Hataitai for just the two of us. It's definitely do-able. Finding a place can be hard work though. Make sure you ahve printed references with you when you view a place as a lot of lettinga agents ask for them and when it comes to them it's first come first served i.e. you say you want the flat and have to get all your info in before everyone else who wants the flat!

coco85

watna wrote: »

Yes, make-up is very expensive. I wear quite expensive stuff anyway co I'm fussy that way so that didn't help.

e.g. My Yves Saint Laurent mascara is €21 in Dublin Airport. It's $71 here in the department stores which is around €35. My advice is to stock up. I Strawberrynet does deliver to NZ and is much more reasonable so I'll be ordering in future from there.

Do bring one suit with you but in my experience work is casual enough (except in law firms etc). and very similar to home Most girls seem to wear skirts and boots and a smartish top to work.

Make sure you ahve printed references with you when you view a place as a lot of lettinga agents ask for them and when it comes to them it's first come first served i.e. you say you want the flat and have to get all your info in before everyone else who wants the flat!

Thanks again.. i too like expensive make up and skincare so i will be stocking up before i go!

I had no idea how people dress to work- i had read so much about people dressing casually to work i was wondering just how casually they actually dress!.. Skirts and boots are my fav work attire so i'll fit rite in!!!

We weren't going to bother asking our landlord for a ref but we will now when we are leaving. He's an old country style dude who didn't even want us to have a contract so we figured he'd think we were mad to look for a ref!.. There must be lots of competition for rental accomm if agents are so ruthless. I have e-mailed a few agents with our requirements and i have to say i didn't find them to be very helpful at all:mad:...

OH freaking out as none of the agri contractors he has e-mailed have gotten back to him.. even though he has over 15 years exp in the sector and has supplied referances etc.I figure these type of ppl will only recruit once you are in the country and meet them for interview. OH really wants to have job organised before we leave but i don't think it will be that easy

I'm not as panicked about finding work any recruitment company i contacted have loads of jobs and will sort out interviews once i arrive.. well thats what they are saying anyways!..

I have no other questions for now.. thanks again for all your advice but.....i'm sure i'll have lots more questions before we take off!!!!:):D