Hi - Happy Easter! We thought that we would write a bit about the visa stuff as we have been asked lots about what we're doing and what visa we're applying for etc. so perfect opportunity to use the blog and put it in writing.

Firstly, we are going out as tourists on a 6 month tourist visa. We will probably stay up to 4 months because if it's not working out then we won't stay and flog dead horses we'll come back and come up with plan B. 

The way that NZ immigration works in a nutshell is that if you have skills which are on their skill shortage list such as anything in the medical or teaching professions plus trades etc then you have to go through an application process but it is pretty much guaranteed that you will get in (providing your health, police record and standard of engligh is ok.) However, being the skilled beasts we are, we are not skilled under any job title listed under the long term and short term skills shortage - believe me we've tried to contort ourselves into being vets or boatbuilders or anaesthetists, but alas no. So the route we're taking is called the skilled migrants stream which is designed for folks like us who are skilled but not in a shortage area.

The skilled migrant stream starts off by having a lead applicant and you accumulate points based on education, age, sisters who live there (yey) and work experience. If you have 100 points or more then you can submit an Expression Of Interest, from hereon known as the EOI for the sake of my typing fingers! The EOIs go into a 'pool' and every 2 weeks NZ immigration pull out the top EOIs based on number of points.

Their current passmark for selection from the pool is 140. We currently have the golden 100 points but the only way we will be pulled out of the pool is to get a job offer - hence the trip. Deb will be the Lead Applicant because of the points we get for Sara being in NZ already and so the onus is on her to get the job offer. A job offer will give us 40 points and a job offer outside Auckland will give us a further 10 points, which is even more reason to avoid Auckland.

As soon as we get the job offer we will submit our EOI, they will hopefully select us out at the 2 weekly selection and we will be invited to apply.

However this process make take a while and we will be very much in the hands of NZ immigration - meanwhile the new employer has to wait. Once invited to apply we then provide NZIS with all the evidence that we have listed in the EOI such as degree certificates, birth certs and job references and contracts. We also need to have medicals at this point and provide our police certificates which we have to get from Scotland Yard (!) before we leave the UK. Because we will need to provide this urgently we have spent much of the past 3 months collecting all this data and getting the necessary paperwork ready to take with us. As soon as we have residency granted, then Rich will come back, sell up and ship out! Deb may come back but it really depends on how long it's taken to get to this point and whether the employer would really be prepared to wait any longer. So that's it - complicated but straight forward at the same time! And highly scary! Hence the skydive if the job offer comes in - I figured a scary situation requires a scary reward!!!

In the feline Willett world, Molly and Tish have had their first jabs in order to be residents at their Essex cattery once again. They're currently on a strict diet of biscuits and games of follow the string. We are hoping that once we get out to NZ and they join us we will build them a decent run so they can get more exercise - i think after 9 years of being indoors their social skills are fairly simple so they won't be going out on the prowl on their own, certainly not to begin with and only once we've seen where we end up.

That's all for now. We will report next week on the exciting trip to France which is lined up before our departure in order to Jonnyginge get married.