Tax information

This is a good summary for NZ income tax for 2014-2015 (Tax might change in future).

The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) is responsible for administering NZ's universal no-fault accidental injury scheme. Citizen, residents and temporary visitors who suffered personal injuries could be supported by this scheme. It provides financial and medical supports. 

Election is coming soon and we have decided to vote in advanced to avoid the traffic on the voting day. The democracy system here is very transparent and mature. Yes, even PR can vote.

NZ is running MMP system which requires big political parties to work with smaller parties to win the election. There is candidate vote and party vote. You can vote who is going to represent your electorate.  We have to choose which party to govern NZ as well. Wait, there are more rules here. Party vote is the important one (I heard) and if you can get more than 5% party vote, even you have no candidates wining the candidate votes seat, the party can bring 5 members into the parliament. More rules... blah balh blah

We have moved to East Auckland Dannemora and the family has agreed this is the best place we live so far (compare to Browns Bay and West Harbour). There are way more restaurants (really good one) around this area. Every serious retailers and hypermarket do setup their footprint here, together with all sorts of Asian shops and bakery. Another important one we liked most... this area has ultra fast fiber optic network! Good (in term of cost and variety available) to have internet TV running unlimited broadband.

Oh by the way, due to the rock star economy in NZ, the job market is very active at the moment (happy to see so many companies are hiring Java engineers haha). Some company even host BBQ and Beer session to attract talents to join the company. If you have skill and able to perform, you will be valued. 

Process to convert to Permanent Residence (also known as IRRV)

Someone asked me about the process to convert the permanent residency after the 2 years had passed. Well, it is pretty straight forward.

Conditions:
- Stay in NZ at least half a year in each year
- Must be 2 years full. If you received your resident visa on 1 Jan 2010, you can only apply the permanent residency after 1 Jan 2012 (2 Jan 2012 onward).
- Your last 6 months must be in NZ. (June 2011 - Jan 2012)

Download the Permanent Residency application form from the internet, fill it out,  go to any Immigration office, take the queue and submit it. Kid less than 16 years doesn't need to attend. The immigration officer will process your application and it is pretty stress-less process :)

Very useful flowchart

Extract from Creative Commons.

Before you come

Go to your dentists and do whatever before you come, dentist cost is $%^&* :)

Renting price in Auckland

I find out that this list is quite good reference if you want to know how Auckland renting market can go.

http://www.crockers.co.nz/media/46415/auckland%20rental%20table%20-%20june%202011.pdf

In general, the cheaper the place, the "rougher" it is. If you have kids (primary and intermediate level) coming with you and you wish them to join "better" school, here is general advice:

1. Most areas in Northshore except (Glenfield, Bikdale and Beach Heaven areas)

2. West Auckland (Waitakere) good places are West Harbour Marina View zone (this excellent operated both primary and intermediate school), Hobsonville, Titirangi, Henderson Height (not henderson), Te Atatu Peninsular and Te Atatu South

3. East Auckland (Manukau) and Central zones, I will avoid Otara, Mangere, Otahuhu, Papatoetoe, west side of Pakuranga, Manurewa, Pukekohe, Avondale, Waterview, north side of Mt Roskill, Panmure, Mt. Wellington related areas.

If you are coming without kids, it is easier. Basically, you can live anywhere except Otara, Mangere regions. City Center apartments are cheap and convenient but you might not have car park space and make sure water bill is taken care of (CBD areas water bill is crazy) in your rent. IF you wish to live in good place which is near the city and top facilities around you, Ponsonby, St Helier, Mission Bay, New Market, Remuera, Epsom, Parnell, Meadowbank are the most sought after zones in Auckland (pricey though ...)

If you use Bus service mainly, Northshore has the best bus infrastructure and the environment is lovely :) My wife still loves there ... but it is pain in the ass if you like to drive to work during the rush hour.

West Auckland (Waitakere), West Harbour pwns you :) Te Atatu is also very nice place to live.

Not really familiar with East Auckland but Howick/Dannemora/Botany areas are considered good areas and lots of Asian living there.

Above is just my owned opinion, no offense to anyone.

Job reference check

Well, my company was hiring test programmer. One of the candidate who is shortlisted (among 60 applications) became the final candidate (she is Malaysian as well) and people are excited about it because she is quite pretty hehe.

My PM sit behind me and therefore I know we are going to hire her from his conversation with another manager. she will be hired if reference check are done. First reference check went fine but not the second one! The second reference check gave her quite bad impression to my PM and the decision to hire her was dropped immediately due to this! Even we had to re-select again and ask the recruitment agent to find another one all over again.

So guys and gals, please, when you are working, be professional and leave your job in good term. I don't know why she chose that to be her reference but it really screwed her up due to his input. This is not the first time I saw this. Reference check is quite crucial in NZ here and they will call to Malaysia (my manager called all my ex-bosses who hired me as developer before when he did my reference check). So, choose your reference wisely.

house!!

We will get more settle down from now on as we purchased a house in west harbour zone. The school is good and in walking distance from my house :) So I don't need to worry about much about the kids' education like I did in KL.

House is always a big topic for people life and I guess many people would like to know more about it.

In NZ, especially Auckland, house is quite expensive compare to other cities. Sure, terrace linked house or apartments are more affordable but the price will not go up because of few issues here here. First, buyer preference is always towards house/bungalow. Another issue is the leaky house in NZ. Apartments and linked houses are prone to leaky issue. Apartment is usually range in between 150-300k (lifestyle apartment can go up to million though but i think those are over-priced haha). Terrace link house is usually 300-400k, house are high 300 to 800k++ (million dollars houses are not included here, I am talking about the normal working class affordable houses). The major problem for buying apartment or terrace house is banks are reluctant to loan money for these type of properties due to leaky issues.

Leaky house is one of the worst nightmare for people to purchase house here. The problem is not because of the house is leaking (this is small matter), the problem is caused due to the house is NOT letting the water leak out from the wall and trapped inside the house because of bad design and stupid Green govt approved to let builder use not treated wood to build house during 1994-2004 era. Water trapped inside the building causes the house frame rot and mouldy. Fixing it might cost more than 100k+ (more info http://www.consumerbuild.org.nz/publish/leaky.php)

So, to mitigate this, it is highly recommend to get house pre-purchased inspection which might cost 380-800 dollars depends on your house size. Another recommended report is the LIM report to know about the house history and check if the dwelling has other issues such as flooding zone, illegal pending building structure etc.

I will talk about houses finance, contracts and some idea in next post :)

So, we bought a house which is 15-20 min driving (no traffic) distance (18km exactly) to town center, on top of a hill, 2000 sq ft floor area with 4000+ sq ft land area for 400k+, near sea and marina shipyard. Just think about if you can afford a 400k property in KL, you might get one here as well, but it is a house instead of condominium.

Latest Update

Well, it has been long time I didn't update this blog.

After all these years, I am getting more adopted to NZ life :) The kids are still loving it and we just bought a house and moving in end of this month. At least, they have place to run around in this summer :)

The school is 600m away from the house. So, I won't need to worry about finding the primary and intermediate school for my kids (as long as I am living here)

I recently did a pr visa transfer to new passport for my wife and son. It is actually quite easy and stress-less. We go back to KL last year and apply new passports, when we came back to NZ, we just need to wait in the airport for extra 15-20 min as the officers needed to verify the visa and passport. MAKE SURE YOU BRING YOUR OLD PASSPORT BACK WITH YOU!!!! DO NOT FORGET ABOUT THIS!!! Say out loud in Immigration office you need the old passport back!


To transfer, just go to nearest immigration branch (I went to Queen St branch) and tell the receptionist you want to transfer, it will be done on the spot :) oh ya, 90 dollars per passport though.

Well...finally :D Residence obtained!

Finally getting it in 2 years 10 months of blood, pressure and sweat experience. Son is really enjoying the school here, and my wife is starting to feel the differences instead of KL lifestyle. Auckland, is not as big as KL, but the infra development has much better quality in term of water supply, road experience (the traffic jam in Auckland can't compare to KL), the weekend lifestyle, the cheap car etc. A simple clerk work is much better paid than her account/finance exec job in KL due to minimum wages requirement here.

What is next? Of course, a house (not linked-house or apartment) and my dream to own a white mercz CLK :P

A landed house in good areas (nice neighborhood, lots of good schools, close to commercial areas) may cost around 350-500k here. A 2004 CLK/SLK cost 18-28k :P (only obstacle for this is my wife's approval now....)

Permit obtained.

Well, just got my permit renewed today and luckily I am not over-staying. To be honest, here is my advice if you get WTR thru the skilled migration to NZ.

1. It is recommended to get your family to here once you get your PR. However, you may have long time not seeing them though

2. Apply your work permit at least 2 months before your WTR expiration date (while waiting your PR)

3. Get a consultant, immigration rules is real complex than we thought.

4. If you are in Auckland, choose other immigration branches such as Henderson one. Don't choose Queen Street one as the number to process is too high.

5. Be prepare, be very prepared. Your skills (if you are technical, you will be asked some real technical question. I was tested online with Java certification test when I came to interview my current job), your way to communicate etc. To be honest, if you are not a native english speaker, don't expect too much to get PM or higher unless you are really the special one like Jose Maurino :D

Prepare your resume in Kiwi style, tough mind (this is most critical) because It is not easy to lose your job in Malaysia and finding job here is NOT as easy as Malaysia. It is hard, really hard (as at 2009) we are competing the job among local and immigrants.

However, once you overcome these challenges, the reward is there. This country is so good, quality education for your next generation, 0 air pollution, nice weather etc. My 10 years allergic problem disappeared after I came here just 2 months.

Bah...another headache

Well, my WTR defer PR visa is going to expire on 17 April so I called NZIS what can we do about it. They informed me that due to "extreme" number of applications, my application successful date mostly beyond the expiration date (as my case officer still not assigned yet). However, I can apply for work permit for the time being...at my own cost! DArn! That is 240 for work permit application, man!

I checked with my other colleagues who came here with WTR, ya, they faced the same thing as well! Well, it is good money for NZIS then.

Fishing at Bayswater/Devonport floating platform

Text fishing??

You can have your own quarter at the fishing floating platform

What if a snapper pull my fishing rod into the water? Btw, behind is the northshore bridge which connect north shore with Auckland city centre. It has totally 8 lanes but it is still jam heavily during the rush hour.

Well, it is sunny and nice weather. Good day for fishing, ai? (ok, I am trying to start using kiwi accent :P ) We went to Devonport/Bayswater floating platform and hope to get a grouper or snapper there :D

If you don't know about Devonport, it is located at the north shore of Auckland and definitely a lovely place to stay (price is lovely too...).

In the end, we didn't get any fish though. It seems they don't like the squid as bait. Other fishermen can catch quite many but they use smelly tuna meat as bait.

After finishing the fishing, we went to Torbay and Albany to watch the area as I am thinking of moving there. Good primary school and second school there, but just a bit far away from city centre as the trend of Auckland usually setup the working place in the city centre. I gotta drive 52KM (return included) everyday to work if I stay in Torbay/BrownBay or Albany. However, this is the same distance from my home to my office when I was in KL.

FYI, you should bring a good sun block. Even it is partly cloudy and we started to fish at 3:30pm - 6pm, I got sun tanned (luckily not sun burnt yet ... I am paranoid to sun burn after my serious sunburn at Kotsamui Island many years ago)

New Immigration rules!! darn!

There is a new immigration rules announced which will affect anyone who get work permit after 30 Nov. (I saw this on newspaper) For those who can't earn more than 33700 per annum, the children have to pay international fee (Primary and secondary education included) instead of free education. This will increase the risk of new immigrants as they may want to start low in wages for the first job.

By the way, did I mention .NET developers and Microsoft experts have more job opportunities here? Many large banks use SQL instead of Oracle. Most Oracle DB job I saw are in Wellington (governments). Of course, there are always exception but so far, if I remember it correctly, I never see an Auckland Oracle database job before... Microsoft infra technology such as Exchange, ISA, AD are even more dominant in this area. Java is slightly less demand than .NET but it is still good enough.

House price is increasing after 1 year of slumping, houses are sold like hot cakes (this may explain why so many house agents own wonderful ships for weekend relaxganza). By 400k, you can get quite a nice landed house in a good area. 500k can be in high-end area already, but you will work your socks off to the bank here for sure... However, I don't think we can get a landed house in KL for 500k (dollars to dollars). Wages here is more than Malaysia. A Linux engineer can earn 5k per month (but tax is higher than KL, for my tax bracket is average 21% vs 30% here). Interest rate is about 6% in Malaysia, NZ is about 6.5% - 9%!!! (when economy is good, interest could be crazy to fight inflation)

Permanent Job offered.

I have gone thru quite a few interviews within this month and successfully land a permanent job! (Another headache started as I need to get a car now... BMW...CLK...some European sporties start flowing on top of my head but I shouldn't do this, my logical right brain told me to get a cheap and economic car until it is more stable.)

I have recently been offered as a Data analyst/developer doing the MS SQL and some development work in Java. This should be fine for me. An opportunity in KL which is quite a very senior role is in progress. The pay of this NZ job is quite low (if compare to my contract job but hey, it is permanent and the contracted company doesn't seem good since they still couldn't get hold the project and still owning my wages!!). Honestly, the position is opened for 2-3 years experience developer but I still go for it (and spend lots of work on the manager explaining over-qualify is beneficial to the team, not a bad omen). The wages should be able to support myself or another family member. Give it maximum of 3. However, the "Ken" family has a headcount of 4. My wife will need to find a job once she permanently start to station here. My plan is to get the rental in KL to support us while wife is looking for job.

At the same time, I am asked to sign a 1 year contract as the manager told me that I am "over-qualified" for the role and quite risky if I am using this as a stepping stone. I fully understand that because I will do the same if I am the manager. Hiring over-qualified staff is good but the royalty won't be there since their value is actually higher. The risk of losing over-qualified staff is usually high. I haven't signed yet, but I need to see how is the detail and how fair it is to me. We can negotiate here.

Nevertheless, the market unemployment rate is still high. Many people are struggle looking for job but this has little improvement if compare to 4 months ago.

Jobs opportunity

So far, I mostly focus on technical related job. I was lucky to engage in a short term contract job and this opened the opportunities for other jobs. (Kiwi employers like people to have Kiwi experience, the first job is always the hardest).

In term of job market, to be honest, it is not really good at the moment (2009). Many jobs are competed heavily. I recently just applied a job which the agent told me there are 140+ applications. However, I need to keep myself optimistic and positive. Few days ago, I was turned down by a Java developer job even I have 7 years of Java/J2EE experience and certified. The HR manager told me there are 200+ application on this post. I felt I was lucky even I am selected to get interview. Haha I remembered when I hired a system engineer in KL and there were 50+ applications, I already felt it was too much to read....

Kiwi economy is small, there are many jobs are listed in the job sites but many of these jobs could go anytime. I had met a few cases that the agent told me the position was withdrawn and didn't make it thru (after applying and a few exchange with the agent). Agency only attend us if we have a chance to success else they won't entertain us since they usually have several other candidates. I think I am coming at the bad timing, nothing about my skills or skin. I currently still have 1 response going (after ton of application sent out) and hope it can make it to the hire company and success from the competition. Miracle please!!!!!!!

Nevertheless, I got to stay positive. This place is good, my allergic has even gone since I came here. Free TV channels here are full HD standard...just the timing to watch Premier League is odd haha

Follow up

Well, the interview went on yesterday seems positive (and hopefully I will be shortlisted). I was applying Java development job but somehow my mixture of software and infrastructure skills caught the IT director's eye. They will employ me (if I am hired) with a probation period of 1 week (if compare to Malaysia 3 months or 6 months) to see if I can deliver my tasks and the ability to merge into the company culture. I think it is fair enough.

After getting more settle down here, I start to miss my family and friends back in Malaysia. My parents who is always there when I feel vulnerable, my 2 cute little sisters <(^_^)<, my pretty wife, my prince and princess, the dudes who spend the weekend with me doing guy things...bah. I really miss them :( Really. 

I need to find a job and secure it. I strongly believe I can do it.

Mission bay and One Tree Hill Scenario Raid

Well, NZ is famous for the weekend quality of life. We went to Mission Bay, which is located at the east of Auckland, and it is one of the most expensive property area (can compare to Devanport in North Auckland). People just sitting there, watch the beautiful scene, play remote helicopter/airplane, kiting, dating (I am alone.... sigh sigh).

One Tree Hill has a huge park, people just jog/cycling/walking in the park there. On top of the hill, there is a monument there. Cornwall park is providing free fire wood and BBQ stove. 

Auckland Food Show

Eatting out in Auckland can cost you a bomb. Really, go to food court in shopping mall could cost you $11-12 (1 plate of food + 1 drink). So, I usually cooked at home so that I can test the freshness of the food here :)

I followed friends to go to the Auckland food show and bought some food there. See the Tuna steak? It cost me $10.81 for that (it is actually 3" thick)

My place, my broadband and my food

First of all, I rent a room in west auckland which has a distant about 30 min walk to the west harbour ferry station ($12 single trip to down town, return ticket is $20, you can buy monthly ticket which will be cheaper). There is a bus stop just outside the house, so it is quite ok in term of the transport (bus ride to town center is $7.50, pretty expensive huh?). This house has a really good view (see the picture yourself). I really feel I am 10 years younger hahaha fresh air everywhere.... by the way, it is winter now. The temperature is around 6-12 degrees at night. Not bad if compare to Kansas (-8 or worst hehe) where I studied my degree 4 years there.

First thing to sort out...

Recalling my flight from MAS to auckland on 16 July, it was 9pm Malaysia time and reach here around 7am Malaysia time next day. Not that bad, board the aircraft, sleep, wake up and the plane is ready to descend....

Ok, here is what I done once I touched down here.

I went to buy a sleeping bag because I don't bring a duvet here. It isn't that expensive, it cost me around 49 dollars. Then I went to buy a prepaid vodafone card ($35) and open the back account. The bank rules is quite confusing, everything you got charged if you use the counter service. Anyway, I intent to use the internet banking more. The bank required my NZ address and phone number and opening the internet account for me.

The bus here is quite expensive though. I spent $4.3 going in a distance from cheras to KL single trip. I used to hear that things are expensive here, suprisingly, it isn't that expensive. May be due to the recession, every retailer goes on sale everyday.

In the land of the long white cloud!

wow! I was impressed here. Really, fresh air, suitable food, impressive house (ok, I rented quite a good house, but it is a bit far from CBD).

And I went to Murawai beach yesterday, it was really jaw dropping scene. I will put some photos once I get it. Still busy sorting out my broadband application.

Btw, broadband here is more expensive than KL. It also has limit of data exchange. I am getting 3GB per month one, once my use more than 3GB, vodafone will charge my credit card (malaysian one...) for NZ$10 for another 3GB. ok, I can live with it. (in case someone would like to know the price of the bb, ok, 3GB package cost me around 75 per month (or 80... sorry i forget but it should be around there)

I will post some settling thing such as phone, bank tips etc once I sort out my bb. Starbuck here bb isn't free. I spend NZ$3 for 1 hour...it has 1 min left.

Stay tune.


* As at 2014, NZ broadband price is quite good now. You can't compare it to USA/Japan/Korea though *

29 April 2009 - Flight Booked!

Ok, the journey will begin on 16 July 2009. Flight booked. Select MAS because it only cost me RM 886 only!!!! After seeing the price and comparing it to AirAsia>AirNZ or SIA options, I decided to use MAS because I love Malaysia .... hmm I admit the price could be the main reason.

20 April 2009 - NZIS set my final date to arrive NZ

Finally, NZIS sent the notification to me that I must arrive NZ before 20 July 2009. After all this time and effort that have been spent onto this, I started to feel the next "BIG" change of my life. It became real and start to feel hesitate to let go my current status qua. The job, the social status, the friends, the work connection network, the family etc..... all of these were occupying my mind every moment. However, I still can remember my most respected man (aka my dad) encouragement, "Man should put your mind at the globe level!" I know how he felt last time when he chose to stay in Sabah instead of his dream to go to Canada.

I strongly believe, god will give me the best option for my life and my family. I will continue my old man destiny and show him that his son can do it!

27 Feb 2009 - WTR approved!

WTR invitation arrived! OMG, I was so busy in my job and I already forgotten my NZ application. Now, I am bond with a contract until end of 2009 and the world economic is getting worst everyday, and even NZ economy is slipping fast. I was getting extreme pressure over this. I have a car to sell, I am doing pretty well in my current job and have a family to feed….well, people said I am always optimistic so I decided to give it a go! kakaka



Here is the the WTR approval:





Ever since I submitted my EOI, I started to browse a few NZ websites almost every night which I believe it would help me to know the country more. Below websites are extremely valuable for anyone interested to go to the Land of the White Long Cloud :)

1) http://www.immigration.govt.nz/ - The official immigration website. Submit EOI here.
2) http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ - News from NZ
3) http://www.emigratenz.org/ - The best emigration website for NZ. Extremely useful.

19 Nov 2008 - The judgement day

Both my wife and I applied leave and we prepared for this interview whole week. We tried to prepare many answers to the questionnaires sent by my CO. For example, how you think you can find a job in NZ, why you choose NZ etc…. the clock was ticking towards 2 pm and I started to feel unrest. OMG, it has been quite a long time I have this kind of feeling…you know, the feeling of waiting an important call (my last experience of this kind of feeling when I was trying to date a girl in high school Hahaha) RING!!! The phone rang and my adrenaline started to pump …

The first question CO thrown at me was that she noticed I have a MBA awarded by Australia University, why I chose NZ instead of Aussie kakaka I just told her the truth, of course, in the beginning, I was browsing the Aussie immigration website and I noticed there was an ads about NZ immigration (business world is all about competition…but even in immigration industry?) After I had read the NZ ads, I found out that is the place I want my child to grow up. A peaceful, open minded, family oriented and multi cultural society. I know they might feel boring living in NZ when they are 20s and finishing their college but that is their own destiny (who knows NZ might be an exciting place 20 years later). I just need to provide them a good nurturing environment.

The interview went quite smoothly and most of the questions were quite related how I could settle down easier in NZ. Of course, I have friends there who could help me to find accommodation and the local network. CO said she would reply me about the result and we have to wait again

3 Nov 2008 - Call To ARM!

WOAH! Finally I got an answer from my CO in Shanghai after all these months have passed. I have a new and fantastic job. I thought my case wasn’t successful because no reply from my CO. CO will interview me on 19 Nov by calling my cell phone.

25 April 2008 - Case officer assigned

A letter sent by NZIS notified me that who was my case officer (CO) in Shanghai. Crossing my finger to get my case reviewed.

9 Jan 2008 - ITA lodged!

Finally, the ITA was lodged and sent over to NZIS today. It took almost 2 full months to prepare all the documents. The steps that stopped me most was the medical checkup. Make sure you bring 3 photos and passports when going to the Hospital. If you have any "NO" in the medical form, even it was a small matter, you better prepared a report from your doctor-in-charge before going to the medical checkup, they will need it.

I believed most people are interested at how much I have spent for this (Below is for Malaysian perspective. Other countries will cost differently). 

Fees can break down to:

1. NZ$300 for the EOI fee ~RM800
2. RM50 to send over my supporting documents to get my EOI points claimed valid thru FedEx
3. RM160 for translating my wife and 2 kids birth certs and married cert
4. RM40 for the police report
5. RM550 for the medical report
6. RM160 to get all the documents certified
7. RM150 for my daughter passport
8. USD1400 ITA process fee ~RM4634
9. RM260 for sending the ALL documents to NZIS in Shanghai thru UPS
10 RM100 for all the transport fee

Total: RM6915 

This does not include the Immigration levy fee yet, if the ITA approved.

20 Dec 2007 - Police report!

Wow, this suprised me to be honest. I heard people it might take 3 months to get it. hehe Of course, I am clear from any criminal activities involved

18 Dec 2007 - Documents fever

Wow, I never expected preparing documents are such a daunting job. All the past history of my employment records (I strongly recommend to keep all the employment letters and resignation letters) for 10 years plus. 

Medical checkup is about RM700 for 4pax, my 3 months old daughter needs a new passport (she can barely sit to take a photo but that wasn't a problem :) ), I also spend tons of money for document translation and certified it.

(Refer to http://glossary.immigration.govt.nz/englishtranslations.htm )

All documents are readied except the Police Report.

22 Nov 2007 - Police report submitted

I went all the way to Putrajaya and submit the application form downloaded from Malaysian Consular website (www.kln.gov.my) for the police report application form (The form is named as Letter of Good Conduct, http://www.kln.gov.my/?m_id=8&c_id=103). Let see when we can get it back after submitting.

Different countries might be different for submitting the Police report. Please refer to the link below:

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/general/formsandfees/formsandguides/policecertificate.htm 

14 Nov 2007 - Woohoo, ITA!

I received a confirmation from the EOI officer that my appeal was successful after she escalated to her manager. My NZIS website applicaiton status changed to Selection Successful! Now, it is the time for the long journey for preparing the documents .... I think i should start with the medical and police report first.

8 Nov 2007 - Fighting for my honor! Charge!

First, I immediately tried to call the EOI officer and she is a very nice lady with sweet voice. She mentioned to me that my degree and master were not IT related and this caused some problem. Hey, I have worked in this industry more than 10 years and I rated myself pretty good in this field. I explained to her that US engineering degree trained student with programming skills for the design work. and I tried to collect all the relevant documents such as all my professional IT training certs, sun certified java programmer certs, my ex-bosses recommendation letters. I even tried to call my first company's mother company and managed to dig out some very old payslips (found 2!!) to prove that I was their employee. Send all these documents thru FedEx....

7 Nov 2007 - Finally a response from NZIS!

But it was not a good news. I was told that my EXPRESSION OF INTEREST – SELECTION CRITERIA NOT MET because my points wasn't enough 140. My IT jobs was excluded from the evaluation because my degree wasn't IT related (I am engineering graduate). Well, I am certainly going to appeal for this. 

OK, i need to prepare my argument points for this appeal. First, working exp started from my first company...oops, they are no longer exists ...so guys and gals, keep your first letter of offer and resignation acceptance letter for your life because you will never knows when you need it someday.

10 Oct 2007 - Still waiting for ITA...

Darn, this is why my friend asked me to apply earlier coz it is going to be a long wait. Well, I felt like waiting for 2 centuries but actually, it is only 2 months and I become impatient. Opps... I think i am infected by the common syndrome of migration.

27 July 2007 - Submit EOI

Well… reading the news from NZIS that they are going to increase the EOI application fee next month, this made me to complete the EOI faster…and less careful. Total points for Skilled Category Migration is 140 (minimum 100). Hopefully, any mistake I made at this stage won’t become a nightmare in later stage. I claimed points at my master degree, my IT work experience, my wife’s degree, and my age.

5 July 2007 - Exploration

I was browsing the “Migrate to Australia” website and the complexity of the visa requirement really making me headache. I saw a “Migrate to New Zealand” ads there, clicked it, and It is much simpler and cheaper. However, I know I may not make much $$ from NZ, but I just need a safe, democratic and clean environment for my kids to grow up, it is up to them to decide if they want to stay there when they grow up.

Generally, you need to submit Express of Interest (EOI) online, and then wait for the EOI officer to access your profile. If EOI successful, the EOI officer will send you the Invitation to Apply (ITA). ITA will have 3 possible outcome, 1. PR straight given 2. Work-to-Resident (WTR) visa is given for job hunting 3. Reject