Two Americans emigrate to New Zealand from Colorado,
USA.
We talk about
our life in Nelson, New Zealand.
Research into what immigration meant was immediately underway. We vigorously poured over everything we could find online. We felt spontaneous, in a planned-out sort of way. We felt like crazy pioneers, we felt exhilarated at the thought of actually living in New Zealand, a country we'd come to love so much. As if no one had ever done it before!
It didn’t take too long to learn about the immigration process. New Zealand Immigration has a great web site that is very straightforward, including an online "test" that one can take to determine if they would meet immigration criteria. There are several categories of immigration, many having to do with work visas and permits if you already have a job offer. You can become an investor in the country by bringing or starting a business. But there is only one way for those of us who don’t fit into any of those categories: the Skilled Migrant Category. This is specifically targeted to people who have advanced skills and other work experience, but don’t have job offers. That would be us!...and, as it turns out, about half the people who are allowed to migrate into the country each year.
New Zealand handles the Skilled Migrant immigration process through a points system. You receive points for everything in your life that makes you who you are … as long as it fits what New Zealand is looking for. They award points for youth and deduct them as you become older. They award points for education, the higher the education the more points you receive. They award points for the accumulation of work experience, and they award many many points if your work experience matches the types of employment they seek to fill.
And this takes us to the skills shortages. New Zealand keeps a list of jobs, actual jobs in particular industries, for which there is a shortage of skilled labour. If you have experience and education to fill one of those jobs, you are far more likely to be brought into the country. There is a short-term list for immediate labour shortages (such as seasonal apple-pickers) and there is a long-term list for labour areas they need to fill on an ongoing basis (such as any type of physician or computer whiz).
If you have work experience in an area of skills shortage, you can get heaps of points for that on your immigration application. It’s possible to obtain bonus points if you can claim your work experience is relevant to an area with a skills shortage—and that is what Angela claimed on our application. In all our research, we reviewed both skills shortage lists thoroughly and found no matches, although Don often thought of becoming a bee keeper, a job seemingly always in demand.
If you are in an industry that is in high demand here, you will likely have little trouble emigrating. The best scenario is to first obtain employment, and most employers will assist with the immigration process. This is the case for most medical physicians and nurses, for example. We came across numerous nurses who interview (some only by phone) for work and accept positions to work here, and then undertake the immigration process.
If you have a job offer in New Zealand, your immigration application is fast-tracked. So, not only do you get extra points for having a desirable employment background, you can move here in a matter of months, if not sooner.
The bottom line for us: we are generalist office workers with years of experience, but not much technical expertise. In all we've read, generalists are desirable here because the country has little need for specialists in detailed areas; you won't find many positions for sales operations forecasters, Don's last job. Generalists are more in demand because you can do a little of everything. We thought we'd eventually have no problem finding a job doing basic office work.
back to Part 2: The idea pops into our heads | Immigration home | on to Part 4: Immigration forms
