General: New Zealand > Reviews (24)

NZ the Move

You may have read a report in this section about my trip to New Zealand in March this year, I recall giving it a glowing reference, my opinion and memories of the place are still strong and positive, due to the experience I had, myself and family have chosen to take another trip, but this time for a year.

For people considering a similar move it is not as straight forward as you might think.

It all began in the summer, myself and my wife were still basking in the glorious memories we retrieved from our previous trip, and we were already planning a return. The thought occurred “why not take some time off work and visit New Zealand for a year” this was very appealing to me as the three weeks spent in Auckland were not enough to explore even a tiny fraction of the countries fantastic scenery. We were both agreed and set about researching the possibility.

The first thing I needed to arrange was my employment, luckily for me my profession is highly sort after in New Zealand and a willing recruitment consultant was not difficult to find, I needed to create an up to date CV, the CV we have here is different to the “Resume” they have there, in the UK our employers like a brief CV but in New Zealand a novel is more appropriate, guidance on this was required but the internet is a useful place to look for this sort of information. On completion of the CV I forwarded it to the consultant who immediately sent it to interested employers, feedback was almost immediate, leading to telephone interviews within a month. Due to the time difference of 12 hours these calls would be early morning or late evening which is not ideal, but it was the first time I had attended an interview in shorts with a beer at my side with Eastenders playing in the background.
After initiating contact with the employers and securing offers with several firms I needed to look into Visa’s, after speaking to the firms it was clear that a visa could be obtained on appointment in New Zealand with the company financing it, alternatively I could obtain one off my own back from the UK, this was the more expensive option so I decided to go with the former. It is possible to gain residency in New Zealand without a job offer but this is an expensive and long process, it is based on a points system categories for age, qualifications etc, you need to reach the minimum of 100 points to be eligible, if you have a profession which is in the priority occupations list you will have a greater chance of gaining this. A working holiday visa is also an option this can be a good option for young people wanting to travel for up to a year, you are allowed to work in New Zealand but if you have dependants you are not eligible for this scheme the visa for 18 – 30 year olds will only cost you about £50 and can be obtained by post in the UK. In the end I chose a Talent Visa which is awarded to people in the priority occupations list and allows you to live and work in New Zealand for up to two and a half years with an option to become resident on the completion of this term.

After sorting the employment I needed to decide what to do with our house, the options were to sell or to rent out. The selling option was by far the most hassle free but typical of me I took the complicated option. We approached a Letting Agent and found they would take the lion share of responsibility when we were away, we achieved a letting rate that cleared the mortgage and Letting agent fees and left us with a surplus, the surplus is important to keep in the bank in case something needed fixing when we were gone. The house needed some work to make it suitable for letting so I ensured these works were completed before the tenant s moved in, we decided to let the house before we left the UK to ensure there were no snags and touch wood its going well so far. A thing to remember when letting the house is your building insurance must be maintained and both insurer and mortgage lender must be aware you are letting. In our case we needed a re-mortgage to raise the funds for the trip the lender we chose would not penalise us for letting the property which was important as some would increase the interest rate.

The next thing was to organise our belongings, were we to store or ship? In the end a combination was the best idea. Shipping is expensive about £250/m3 so it is only worth sending small but valuable items or items of sentimental value. Storage is also not cheap a 21ft Container would cost you £200/month to store, we were lucky in that family were able to assist in storing our belongings at their houses, and as a result our storage costs were minimal.

I leave in two weeks and am very much looking forward to it, all the work is done and hopefully it will be worth it, keep any eye out in twelve months time for a further report on how it went.