Introducing...

You may be wondering why I'm in New Zealand, and of course the answer is as old as time: I met a woman.

As she is reading this, I have to be circumspect in how I describe her.  Let's just say she's beautiful, intelligent, talented, charming and honest.  (And let's pray to God she's not into acronyms.)  She has a fantastic sense of humour, and did I mention she's a red-head?

She has three kids, which she's raised effectively on her own.  (Her ex-husband always travelled for work and was never around much.  Now he shows up about twice a year and blames her that he doesn't see the kids more...)  Although the 13-year-old took a little while to come around, the 11-year-old and 9-year-old took to me right away (as did the cat).  They're all good kids, with the usual teenage and pre-teen angst thrown in.  (I look at it as karma for all the horrible things I did at that age.)

Plus...it's New Zealand.  She lives about 40 minutes from Wellington, and 5 minutes from the ocean.  I came in January (summer), April (autumn) and September (the tail end of winter) and can say it's gorgeous year-round.  (She complains about the rain, which is true--they get about three times the annual rainfall of Los Angeles, and a third more than London, but still less than Glasgow!)  The only thing I can complain about is the accent--think of a Scouse, only happier.

So that's the short answer.  Right now I'm enjoying the novelty of it--especially trying to pronounce maori names, such as Paraparaumu and pukeko--but in the long run, I have no doubt I'm right where I'm meant to be.

P.S. Before I moved here, I told my mother New Zealand was the same distance from California as the UK, just in the opposite direction, so I wasn't moving any *further* away.  However, it turns out London is 5,350 miles while Auckland is 6,525 miles.  Sorry, Mom. :-(

New Zealand work permit

Goodness, a lot has happened over the past six weeks -- I finished at work, moved out of my flat, got UK citizenship, spent a week with my family, bought a new laptop and have been in New Zealand for three weeks.  I've been far too busy to update this blog, and the only reason you're reading this is because I caught a cold and am awake at 3:30am, feeling miserable. :-(

The rest of the stories will have to wait; today I'm just focusing on the one that is distressing me. The original plan--if it could be called a plan--was to spend a couple months in New Zealand to see if I wanted to move here. However, although New Zealand offers a point-based "skilled work permit" similar to the UK, the process could not have been more different.  In the UK, if you reach the specified number of points, you are pretty much guaranteed entrance. In New Zealand, every two weeks they decide how many people to admit, and then picked the top n applicants based on points.  That means one week you might get in with 100 points, and another week need 140 points!  If you haven't been selected in six months, your application expires and you have to start over.

Since I claimed 125 points, I was right in the middle and had no idea where I stood.  Thus, I decided to submit my application straight away. I applied at the end of August and was passed over in both draws in September.  So I did some more research and discovered that no "skilled work permits" have been issued to someone with 125 points since October 2012, nearly two years ago!  I had assumed skilled migrants were given priority, but in fact New Zealand prefers less skilled migrants with job offers!

So my next step is obvious: Find a job.  Fortunately, I'm told most employers are familiar with the process, and as IT is on the "long term skills shortage" list, the government knows employers can't find enough locals, so I shouldn't have any problem getting issued a work permit once I have the job offer.  The only issue is my tourist visa expires 5 December, and I probably won't have the work permit by then, so I'll have to leave the country for a short while.

P.S. The New Zealand immigration website invites "anyone with 100 points" to apply for a skilled work permit, without mentioning it's been two years since they issued one!  Seems a bit disingenuous to me.  Of course, they pocket $500 NZ (about $400 US) for each application received...