Fly over and interview?

[Canadabound1]

Hi, We've been in the EOI since 10th Feb 2010 & still not picked (120 pts, no job offer, not on long term list / short term list): this time last year I think we would have had a chance of being picked - from viewing 'history of pool' in immigration website.
Does anyone whose been through this and moved to New Zealand recommend flying over and staying the 6months (tourist time) and trying to obtain a job offer. From what I gather if I get a job offer over it'll bump my points past the 140 mark and we will be automatically selected from there. I'm thinking about booking flights during the summer for Sept., as it's where we want to be!

ps. Alot of companies have come back to me online stating they'd be interested in my application but only once I'm in the country (same for husband).

[topcat83]

Originally Posted by Canadabound1

Hi, We've been in the EOI since 10th Feb 2010 & still not picked (120 pts, no job offer, not on long term list / short term list): this time last year I think we would have had a chance of being picked - from viewing 'history of pool' in immigration website.
Does anyone whose been through this and moved to New Zealand recommend flying over and staying the 6months (tourist time) and trying to obtain a job offer. From what I gather if I get a job offer over it'll bump my points past the 140 mark and we will be automatically selected from there. I'm thinking about booking flights during the summer for Sept., as it's where we want to be!

ps. Alot of companies have come back to me online stating they'd be interested in my application but only once I'm in the country (same for husband).

Hi there

I'd hope 120 points would eventually get you selected - but as you say, the number of points needed has risen recently. I think you'd definitely stand a better chance if you came over for interviews - companies do prefer to see someone 'in the flesh' so to speak.

However, I'd treat it as a 'look-see', and a holiday. There's no guarantee it will work, and if it doesn't then at least you'll have some good times to look back on.

[Kea]

Originally Posted by Canadabound1

Hi, We've been in the EOI since 10th Feb 2010 & still not picked (120 pts, no job offer, not on long term list / short term list): this time last year I think we would have had a chance of being picked - from viewing 'history of pool' in immigration website.
Does anyone whose been through this and moved to New Zealand recommend flying over and staying the 6months (tourist time) and trying to obtain a job offer. From what I gather if I get a job offer over it'll bump my points past the 140 mark and we will be automatically selected from there. I'm thinking about booking flights during the summer for Sept., as it's where we want to be!

ps. Alot of companies have come back to me online stating they'd be interested in my application but only once I'm in the country (same for husband).

I came to NZ on a 3 month visitor visa. My husband wanted to move here and I've never been so we took a giant leap, I sold my car and we put all of our stuff in storage. We came, we toured Auckland and Wellington (because those were this likely places to find IT work) and I decided to give it a go. It took about 2 weeks for me to get a job offer. It then took another month after that to get the work permit sorted. It was around Christmas time, and Immigration NZ was pretty much shut down for the whole month. Work permit processing times in Auckland promise 30 days, on top of the holiday closures. You can get same day service in Wellington for work permits, so we drove down there to get it done. Getting a work permit in New Zealand is fairly easy, but residency is another story. I applied for the EOI in November '08 and got selected in Feb '09 (I had 180 points, and was on both the long term and short term list). Even though I qualified for "automatic" selection, it was a long process. I didn't get my residency approved until the end of January, almost a year and thousands of dollars later.

Coming here without a work permit is a huge risk to take. Even though I've done it, I'm not sure I would recommend it. I have 10 years experience in a very specialized field, so it wasn't that difficult for me to land a job. However, I have friends here who have been out of work for 6-9 months. Your chances are very much improved by being here, but it won't guarantee a job. Also, in the process of job hunting your savings drain fast. If you can afford to take 3-6 months off to job search here (and treat it like a holiday) then do it.

[ClemClan]

Originally Posted by Canadabound1

Hi, We've been in the EOI since 10th Feb 2010 & still not picked (120 pts, no job offer, not on long term list / short term list): this time last year I think we would have had a chance of being picked - from viewing 'history of pool' in immigration website.
Does anyone whose been through this and moved to New Zealand recommend flying over and staying the 6months (tourist time) and trying to obtain a job offer. From what I gather if I get a job offer over it'll bump my points past the 140 mark and we will be automatically selected from there. I'm thinking about booking flights during the summer for Sept., as it's where we want to be!

ps. Alot of companies have come back to me online stating they'd be interested in my application but only once I'm in the country (same for husband).

Hi there, Yes a job offer bumps up your points and coming over here on the normal visitors visa is what we did three years ago. My husband works in the construction industry and we would apply for residence in the shortage skilled migrant category. We knew we would be waiting much longer than we wanted to if we applied in the UK. We arranged a rental property and yes, risky I know we sold up and shipped out. He had an interview waiting for him with an agency and got a job with a local company, whom he is still working for and it has worked out well.

When he had the job offer he then got his work permit and my daughter and I got ours. We applied for residency straight away and went into the pool. It wasn't long before we were automatically selected because our points had gone up - a) we were living in NZ and b) my husband had a job offer. We then got residency a few months later and had our return air tickets to the UK refunded. We bought a house after three months of arriving and our furniture arrived!

Although doing it this way can be risky, if you are certain you can get work then it will be fine. We thoroughly did our homework on NZ immigration first until we were confident this way would work and it did.

Good luck, hope all goes well

[Canadabound1]

Thanks so much to all of you for feedback and personal experiences. I'll work out the summer anyway here and see how far we get regards EOI (fingers crossed we'll get selected; I'm being impatient with all the wet weather in Ireland!!).