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We receive literally hundreds of emails every month from prospective migrants who need a job in order to get into New Zealand (or simply to eat once they are here) asking us whether we can help them to get the job or how they should go about doing it. Naturally it is the biggest concern for anyone moving from one country to another. Given that it is now crucial to your chances of successfully migrating here for almost all Skilled Migrant Category applicants you need to have some guidance on the matter. Just because you have a job at home does not mean you will find a job here. That is the first warning. Just because you may be granted residence of New Zealand without a job also does not mean you are employable here. Just because New Zealand has chronic skills shortages (possibly in your area of work) does not mean any New Zealand employer will be interested in employing you. The fact is that the vast majority of you are going to require that offer of employment in order to make living in New Zealand a reality. We receive hundreds of letters and electronic messages from people telling us that they have sent off many curriculum vitae to New Zealand companies, schools or other potential employers and have not yet been offered any job. They seem surprised. We are not. Most of the net based recruitment companies clearly point out on their job sites that you cannot apply for the job if you do not have residence or a work permit. But you may be in the position where can't get residence without a job and you (usually) cannot get a work permit without being offered a job. So what gives? How do you reconcile these obvious contradictions?
The first thing to do is to appreciate
that our immigration policies are as dysfunctional as the next
country's. This is not to excuse it; just to state that our
bureaucrats and Government have come no closer to solving this
problem than most Governments. We don't know why as it is not rocket
science! The fact is our employers would always prefer to employ locally if possible for reasons of cultural certainty and because they don't want to deal with the Immigration Department if they can avoid it.
On the other hand they increasingly
have little choice as local candidates become more and more scarce.
If we haven't put you off you might just make a good migrant...... Clearly there are major difficulties lying ahead of you. How do you get around the problem? Is it possible to find work without visiting New Zealand? The short answer in 95% of cases is no. If you are a nurse, possibly; a high school teacher or a tradesman you might get lucky. The first thing which you should do before even contemplating seeking employment in New Zealand is to find out from a professional immigration consultant what your options are with regard to meeting Government entry criteria, whether that be temporary or permanent and what issues you might confront. No point looking for a job if you are unlikely to either gain a work visa or residence.
We are constantly amazed how many
people find jobs in New Zealand expecting to be able to stay
permanently only to be told that their chances are virtually non
existent because they do not meet permanent entry
criteria. Often this has occurred after they have shipped goods to
New Zealand, uprooted their spouses and children and naturally it
comes as a great shock when they get here. So before you do anything
else, download our questionnaire, e-mail it to us along with your
payment for our consultation assessment fee and we will then advise
you whether we can get you to the starting gates! If we believe you have sufficient points (less the 50 - 60 a job offer is worth under the Skilled Migrant Category) and we believe that you are employable (if necessary we will discuss your employability with qualified recruitment specialists), we will advise you to seriously consider retaining us. We will then advise you on what is required to file your Expression of Interest (in permanent residence) and on the basis we believe you will then receive your invitation to apply for residence we will instruct you on what documents you require, encourage you to travel to New Zealand, seek work and once you have found a job instructing us to apply for both work and residence permits at the same time. If you do so and have a willing employer (who will jump through the necessary hoops - which many will when they have our guidance) then the work permit should be secured within a few weeks while the residence process takes its course at the same time. Our assisting you will often reassure most employers for whom dealing with the NZIS over work permits is at the very least perceived as being an ordeal and at best time consuming. The alternative (and less certain route) will be to buy an airline ticket and book a trip to New Zealand, which will last at least 4 - 8 weeks to find a job before beginning to prepare to lodge residence papers. The risk of failure is far higher if this approach is taken as the time frames become drawn out and employers don't like being kept waiting.
Might it be
possible to line up interviews before you land in New Zealand? Possibly, but again it is less likely than if you are here. If you have some specialised skill and a patient employer-to-be in New Zealand then this does happen especially in occupations where there is a desperate shortage. You should really only begin this process a few weeks before you get here or you will be of little interest to employers and recruitment agencies. It is unlikely a recruitment company will market you in this way before you are here to actually attend any interviews they might be able to line up. So generally our advice is to start this process when you are here. Who is the best person to market my skills? Once you are in New Zealand we believe that as a general rule the best person to market you is you. Personnel recruitment agencies generally speaking have shown a lack of interest in people who are not permanently resident or who do not have work permits. We know of many who will not deal with you at all if you cannot start work immediately i.e. you need a work permit or residence. They will seldom give you more than a passing consideration as a consequence. Even if they do consider you it will probably be because they have some incredibly desperate employer/client who cannot fill the position locally. This doesn't mean there aren't jobs - it just means Recruiters are not interested in helping you because New Zealand employers are often reluctant to get involved with the migration process (and having to deal with the immigration bureaucrats) or are reluctant to get involved with migrants full stop. Therefore if you do not want to apply for residence and get your points approved first, we advise the best way of finding a job is as follows:
Try Personnel recruitment companies but don't be disappointed if they don't appear overjoyed to see or hear from you. The role of the Internet in job seeking. The internet can be incredibly valuable for checking out who is looking for workers and what jobs are going. It appears to be the worst place to look for work if you are an immigrant or thinking of emigrating to New Zealand. If you check out any of the major internet based job sites almost every one of them will tell you that you must be a New Zealand resident or citizen to apply. These employers are not interested in thousands of CV's arriving from offshore by migrants on a job fishing expedition. It is common to be rejected because “you have no NZ work experience” or "New Zealand qualifications". There is nothing you can do about this except try and stay sane. Then if you set your sights lower and apply for lower level jobs you may be told that you “are over-qualified” for the position. This is often a polite way of telling you that the employer does not wish to employ an immigrant who has English as a second language or a name they cannot pronounce. Do not let these responses deter you. Those that persevere generally succeed if you have the time, the patience and the drive. This part of the process will really test your commitment! The bottom line is that the more advanced you are with the residence process the easier it will be to find employment for those with English as their home language and who are culturally close to 'European' New Zealanders. The speed with which migrants obtain work is probably related to how high up they are on the list below:
If this makes the process sound racist, that is an accusation that can perhaps fairly be levelled at many New Zealand employers. We are not excusing that but would like to try and explain it to you. We believe that most New Zealanders are not racist on a one to one basis but are as racist as the next bunch in terms of stereotyping groups of people. Potential migrants must understand that generally, New Zealanders who are old enough to be employers, largely grew up in a country that was effectively mono-cultural - read, British - and many are taking time to adapt to the new multi-cultural paradigm. Many are simply afraid of what might happen if they employed an engineer who has a name they cannot pronounce and who might have english as a second language. This frustrates immigrants beyond belief but it is reality that will take time to change and thankfully has begun changing in major centres like Auckland. In our experience once a company has employed one immigrant they are usually keen on employing more. The Auckland Chamber of Commerce has established a website which you may wish to visit. This is an attempt to put recently arrived migrants in touch with New Zealand employers who are happy to be dealing with migrants. You can go there now by clicking on www.newkiwis.co.nz
Is there any
other way of finding a job? What happens if you are offered a position while visiting New Zealand? What should you do then? If you are offered the position you must understand that the employer is in all probability going to want you to start work immediately or within a few weeks. This creates problems. The employer has made the offer, they want you to fill it, therefore flying home and handing in and working out your notice, selling your house, letting the children finish the term at school, packing up and flying back to New Zealand some months later with permanent residence may well not be an option as far as that employer is concerned. Obviously a starting date can be negotiated but again it is our experience that one of the reasons non residents are not offered jobs in many situations is because of their unavailability in the short term to take up the position offered.
You can increase your chances of
success by being prepared to either:
(i) remain in New Zealand and
apply for a work permit while preparing and processing your
residence papers, or If you were to decide on option "ii", and you are married it is probable that you will then arrive back in New Zealand to take up that position on your own with your spouse staying behind to tidy everything up. This is stressful but it is a reality for many of our clients. In order to keep the job you have got to be here to do the job and that will cause many inconveniences and further strains along the way. Having read this you may well be thinking that it is almost impossible but I can assure you that of those clients that we have given this advice to who speak fluent English and who come from English speaking countries, we estimate around 95% have actually obtained the offer of employment they require which has then lead to a successful conclusion to their residence application.
And under current policy settings many
of you do not require job offers to gain residence. This "window"
opened up in September 2004 and remains open. Inevitably however it
will not last forever.
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