March 2 marked a big milestone for us as it was our 2 year anniversary in New Zealand. Why is this so significant you may ask?

We migrated to New Zealand with Permanent Residency (PR) status under the Skilled Migrant category. If we never ever wanted to leave the great shores of Aotearoa, we’d be fine and would continue to be granted full residency privileges for life. However, if we did want to leave, either for good or for a holiday offshore, we’d need to apply for a Returning Resident’s Visa, else lose our PR status and our ability to return into the country.

The first Returning Resident’s Visa (RRV) one receives is good for two years. Thus, our two year anniversary became important as our RRV’s expired. Obtaining your second RRV or what is called an Indefinite Returning Resident’s Visa (IRRV) is a little trickier as one must fulfill certain requirements in order to be granted the IRRV which is good for life. The most basic requirement is that one must spend at least 184 days (6 months) in each of the two years in New Zealand. Easy peasy.

On March 10th we trotted on down to the local Immigration Office and queued up in the rather long line and waited 45 minutes to speak to a person at the reception desk. The form to fill out is the RRV Form.

Boring details on the process: The primary applicant (me) fills out the form and includes details about the secondary applicants. The fee is $140 no matter how many people you are applying for. You include the application and all relevant passports and put them in an envelope and put it in the drop box. Immigration guarantees to process all applications and return to you within 10 days. (If you are leaving the country sooner and have a ticket to prove it, then they will process the application immediately). NOTE: If you are pursuing a different pathway for obtaining residency (ie: not Skilled Migrant & less than 184 days in each of the preceding 2 years), then you will need to show proof of certain items asked in the RRV Application which can be found on the immigration website in the Guide for Returning Resident’s Visas.

So we dropped off our passports and left not feeling a bit celebratory. It felt strange to leave our passports behind. However on March 20th, we received a call that our passports were ready and I went and picked them up today.

Whoooo-hoooo! Time to celebrate. We are indefinite and NZ residents for life!

Now all we have in front of us is another three years and then we can apply for New Zealand citizenship!

Last night though saw ol’ jack frost show his face as temperatures went to –1 c (30 f). Brrr, it was really cold in the house this morning. Lamenting the poor insulation, we donned our thermals and layered up with scarves and hats in the house. Heaters were turned on in some of the rooms which helps, but it’s never fun to have to put on a layer to get from one warm part of the house to the other.

Yes, winter’s coming. Thankfully we will miss eight weeks of it, but in a place where winter lasts for four or five months, we are sure to return in August to a few months of cold weather. We’ve chatted about our dislike of winter to friend Briar a lot. And after having been in NZ for almost twenty years, she knows how to survive the colder and darker days without losing one’s mind. She’s always full of useful information and so without further ado, here’s Briar’s winter heat survival guide:

CLOTHING:
Wool – lots of wool
Merino longjohns and vests and camis- not cotton or viscose or any other of those underwear fibres
Merino lounge wear
Wool socks
Wool sweaters (not sweatshirts in winter – too cold)
Sheepskin slippers – the ones that look like boots – what a difference in well being!
Wear at least three layers
Don’t be afraid to wear a hat indoors – lots of my friends do

SLEEPING:
Have an electric blanket that fits your bed. Turn it off when you go to bed, but take at least one hot water bottle (covered) to bed with you. If I don’t need it at first I stash it somewhere down the bottom of the bed where I can hook it in with my feet when needed. Which it will be.

Keep a small heater on all night at a low setting – but warm enough so that your nose isn’t cold when it is poking out of bed. (I’m serious.)

HEATING:
Log fires are the best but failing that:

Buy enough heaters – and buy them big enough for the spaces you are heating. Then you have to strategically think room by room if you don’t want to spend all your $$ on heating bills. Don’t try to heat the whole house. Think about living in less rooms than in summer. Organize your life seasonally.

Get a couple of fan heaters for rooms you want heated fast or only use briefly. For instance, when I get up I turn off the small radiator keeping the frost off the inside of the bedroom window, and turn on the fan heater. Then I go have my shower. Once I come back, the room is toasty for getting dressed. A good way to use energy is to heat rooms to desired temperatures as quickly as possible, then turn the heaters down low.

If your house is prone to damp and mould (like mine) you need to air it pretty much every day, or/and get a dehumidifier, and move it around form room to room. They will suck the moisture out of the curtains and furnishings — they’re amazing.

Try to avoid unflued gas heaters, except as a emergency back up. (The electricity here is prone to blackout at least once a winter.) They dump a whole lot of moisture into the room and are fumey.

And painful as it seems, accept and expect to pay a large amount of cash simply to keep warm – it totally pays off in wellness, wellbeing and productivity.

FOOD:
It pays to eat seasonally here – a fact that is bourne out by Chinese medicine, which perceives food as inherently warming or cooling. Lots of traditional winter food, like lamb roasts, oatmeal and pumpkin are considered warming. Cooking warms food, the less water you use the more warming the food will be, so for instance roast vegetables are more warming than steamed. Something I have noticed that makes a difference.

I think we’ve got enough heaters now (one for each of the main rooms) but I still need to pick up a hot water bottle, or a hottie, as they’re affectionately called here. I don’t know when was the last time I’d seen or even used the words ‘hot water bottle’, but they’re all the rage here, even coming with cute covers and even ones made from possum. Nothing like snuggling up with a warm comfortable hottie!

As I mentioned in the previous post, we’re continuing to socialize and meet new people. Many have come via the Ex-Pats In New Zealand yahoo group, a very worthwhile list to be on if you are considering moving or have moved to Aotearoa.

I’ve been on the list for 1 1/2 years. There are close to 800 members with something like 80% ‘keen on moving to NZ’ and the remaining 20% who ‘have up and moved’. Most of us 20% are clustered in the three major cities: Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. A handful of us are here in Christchurch but not many have had the opportunity to meet.

So, always in search of a good party, I decided to rally and offer to host a pot luck gathering at our place. Planned well in advance, we had an excellent turn out of 20+ people, several of whom had only just gotten off the plane days before. Most were Americans, one was German, one South African, and we had two kiwi husbands here. All were quite fascinating in their own right with amazing stories of their journey that brought them to NZ. Two of the couples (the ones with kiwi husbands) had met via the internet. We had a wide breadth of professions (IT, airline pilot, counselor, photographer & writer, students, realtors, documentary filmmaker, horse breeders) and interests (astrology, home brew and spirit making, gymnastics) to name but a few.

I have to give a shout out to Dennis, a fellow west coastian, who also keeps a very interesting blog called Samadisoft. Here’s Dennis’ review of the party.

All in all, a really fun & succesful day.

To explore my neighborhood and surrounding areas, I’ve taken to going on afternoon walks following some suggestions in the “Walk Christchurch: 60 Short Walks That Explore Your City” book which I stumbled upon at the library. It’s a keeper (if I could only find it for sale)! Produced by the Leisure Unit, Christchurch City Council (hey, I want to work for them!), it’s a nice glossy 9” x 6” book with photos and maps laid out by neighborhood. The walks average two to six kilometers and each one hits up a park or two in the neighborhood. I’ve done about six of them so far and each time I’m delighted with a new surprise: a small grove of gorgeous bamboo, a little duck pond, a children’s playground with a rather long zip line. We live within walking distance to two of Christchurch’s gems: Riccarton Bush and Mona Vale. The walks also allow me to take in the architecture of the homes (almost all are single or two-story dwellings, built from a variety of materials (brick, cement blocks, wood or stone) depending on when it was built, and the gardens (everyone keeps a tidy garden, with flowers, fruit trees, ornamentals, or herbs).

I just finished a very short (six hours) workshop at CPIT called Know Your Own Plants and it was taught by Kevin Garnett who had been supervisor of the Botanical Gardens for thirty-five years. He was character, but knew his plants! We talked about placement of plants on one’s property and things one needs to know about: Southside — usually in shade and gets frosty, soil will need lots of mulching and use of leaf mold; Eastside — easterly winds, will be drier, soil will like a lot of compost; the coveted Northside — sunniest and warmest, a little microclimate, can potentially grow citrus trees; and the Westside — less sun, best for low-growing plants, soil likely to need lots of fertilizer.
He had us bring in a dozen or so clippings from our gardens to identify and review with the class. Our garden is very, very mature with lots of trees, shrubs, vines, flowering bushes, and the like, about 90% of which I didn’t know the names of. Turns out we have quite a few natives and what he described as ‘old-school’ flowering plants – things that one doesn’t typically find in a newer, modern garden. Our house is almost 40 years old and I’ve concluded that the family who lived here really loved and cared for their garden. I’m pleased to inherit such a fine little piece of land and hope I can continue on with the love.

One of the plants we have, which I found unique, but apparently is quite common, is the Aquilegia, a very delicate, orchid-looking like flower which huge spikey tendrils. Quite sweet. We also have several Pieris Japonica shrubs or Lilly of the Valley shrubs which produce a beautiful bouquet of tiny white flowers which lasts for weeks. We’ve got a few Hebe shrubs (NZ natives), some Clematis, and a lovely Nandina Domestica Richmond – a bamboo-like shrub which produces beautiful red and green hued leaves.

Recommended books:

Palmer’s Manual of Trees, Shrubs and Climbers by Stanley Palmer
Right Plant, Right, Place: by Nicola Ferguson

Recommended nurseries:

Selwyn Grove: hedging & borders
Trees for Canterbury: trees, shrubs, grasses, ground covers
Evergreen Nurseries: topiary, trees, hedging, natives
Ready Tree: large-size deciduous, evergreen, and NZ native trees & shrubs
Old Stables Nursery: 03-342-7312
LetzGo Native Nurseries (Governors Bay): 03-329-9833

If you’re in Ashburton, go see Allan Trott’s nursery out near the raceway. He has the best trees and gardens and give tours (Trotts Nursery & Garden: 03-308-9530)

Not bad for six hours of class, eh?

If anyone out there is looking for an agent, I highly recommend Maggie von Rooyen who was our agent and helped us find our Christchurch home last year. She’s an ex-pat herself and is very aware of the pressures and stresses migrants face. She’s a delight to work with and very knowledgeable. I can’t recommend her enough!

Maggie van Rooyen (AREINZ, LLB)
Abuzz Real Estate Limited (MREINZ)
Christchurch, New Zealand
www.real-estate-nz.com
mvr@paradise.net.nz
+64 3 942 7653
+64 27 29 28 663

Real Estate Webistes:

Nationwide:
Real Estate Institute of NZ
All Real Estate
Property Stuff
Ray White Realty
Harcourts
LJ Hooker
Open 2 View
PGG Wrightson
Bayleys Co.
Harveys

North Island:
First National Guardian
Coulter Real Estate (Wellington region)

Nelson/Marlborough (top of south island):
The Summi Weekly
First National serving The Marlborough region
Haven Realty
Nelson Lifestyle
Ray White Nelson
Lydia Heyward

Northland/Bay of Islands:
Leigh Realty Ltd
Ray White (Northland)
Barfoot & Thompson (Northland)
Bay of Islands Realty (Northland/Bay of Islands)
Russell Realty (Northland/Bay of Islands)
First National Real Estate (Northland)

Coromandel:
Ray White (Coromandel)
Richardsons

On Sunday we awoke to the annoying sound of our alarm clock at the ungodly hour of 7:30 am (heheheh). After a quick shower and breakfast, we made the half-hour walk downtown to the Britomart Transport Centre (ie: train station) where we boarded a slow-moving train for the 10 kilometer trek to Ellerslie. Held every Sunday from 9:30 am to 12 noon at the Ellerslie Racetrack is the Ellerslie Car Fair. We had read that this was the place to find a good used car. Folks from all around Auckland county will pay the NZ$35 fee to display their car for a few hours and be able to reach a rather large audience. Also at the car fair were various agencies to help with car inspections, title transfers, insurance, and registration. It all sounded quite ‘tidy’ as they like to say here and quite a civil way to conduct this type of business.

We were very curious and a little anxious to arrive and see it for ourselves. Car buying, I think, it more anxiety-provoking than home buying. I’d only ever purchased a car twice in my 25 year driving history and they both occurred when I was in my early twenties with my parents along doing the negotiating. I don’t really have a clue how to buy a car, but Bruce was a little more equipped than I and had packed his torch (ie: flashlight) so he could look under the chassis and check for whatever one does under there.

There were hundreds of cars for sale, all arranged by type of car and price in the raceway parking lot. Utes (pickup trucks), 4×4’s, and campervans had their own locale, sedans/wagons/ hatchbacks/convertibles were arranged in three sections by price: “NZ$10,000 and up”, “NZ$5,000-10,000″ and “Under NZ$5,000″. We had to walk through the area with the more expensive cars to get to the other and as we were doing so my eyes widened with glee as I spied a couple of very nice convertibles for sale at quite reasonable prices. It is my intention to fulfill the middle-life crisis meme and have myself a go at a convertible; it is a gift I’m giving to myself for managing to delay my gratification for 18 years while I drove around in my practical 4-dr Nissan Sentra. I’m not one for ‘wasting’ money on a car, but if I can find a convertible for the equivalent of $US5,000, by golly, I’m going to get one. But just not today……. We have too many bags……… It wouldn’t be prudent….. Next time!

At least 200 cars were in the “Under $5k” section with their owners sitting either next to, or in them, waiting to make a deal with any one of the equally numbered potential buyers. It was a little overwhelming. Originally we thought we’d have to spend around NZ$3,000 to get a nice car, but after our experience at the Backpackers Car Fair the previous day, we realized we could get a perfectly good vehicle for under $2k and possibly even cheaper. We also had come up with some parameters: Car must be a light color, have a boot (trunk), preferably a 4-door (easier to deal with all the luggage), Japanese made (easier to service), and be manual (better to handle on the winding and hilly roads for which NZ is famous). Quite a few cars met this criteria, but before we’d stop and actually scrutinize a car, I wanted to walk through the whole lot to ascertain what was available. Close to the end, we glimpsed a 1988, white, 4-door Toyota with 230k kilometers and a NZ$800 price sticker that caught our eye. (We love a good deal). It was being sold by a limited-english-speaking Japanese man. We started walking around the car checking it out and as Bruce was down on the ground checking the chassis, a middle-aged kiwi man started chatting with me about the car and offering up pointers as to what to look for. I eagerly latched on to him and began asking him all sorts of questions. He was super, super friendly and ended up chatting with me and Bruce for a solid half hour. We all decided that this wasn’t the car for us as it appeared it would need a bit of work in order to pass its next WOF (Warrant of Fitness).

I have to digress a bit here and talk about the WOF as I think it’s the niftiest thing since sliced bread and something that could only be pulled off in a low-density country which also happens to be an island. Every car owner is required once a year, or twice a year if the car is over six years old, to get a WOF inspection. It costs about NZ$33 and is a guarantee that the car is ‘fit’ for the road – ie: the car is driveable, the chassis is in good shape, all key components of the car run well. It is mandatory when selling a car that it comes with an active WOF; the seller must make any repairs before it’s sold. Given that there’s a lot of reselling done here in NZ, especially of older cars, the result is that they are in great shape (we never saw a car with any rust) and last a really, really long time — hence the plethora of cars for sale with over 200,000 kilometers on them. No bother at all.

Grant wished us well in our search and we parted. Within a few seconds, however, he spotted a friend, called him over and asked whether he had any cars for sale. Kevin was a stout hobbit’ish looking man with disheveled hair and dirty fingernails and toenails. Turns out he was a mechanic and made a hobby of hunting the car fairs for good deals and then reselling them. He had a thick kiwi accent which was hard to understand at times, but Grant and he did all the talking. Kevin had actually picked up a tidy Honda Civic the week before, planning to use it as his ‘tooling about the city’ car. But he said he’d sell it to us for NZ$1300 if we couldn’t find anything else to our liking. It sounded too good to be true – it was Japanese, 4 door, with trunk, low mileage, and cheap. He had the car at his home but said he would bring it around to us on Monday to have a look. We took his phone number, shook hands, and parted ways. Grant said he was trustworthy, though a bit eccentric, and not to worry and off he went. Bruce and I walked around for another 15 minutes, saw one other Honda Civic with more mileage for NZ$1800 and decided to just take it on faith that Kevin had the car of our dreams. After spending just one hour at the car fair, we hopped on the train and made the journey back to our backpackers where we had a lovely afternoon of exercise, reading, and relaxation.

We called that evening and arranged for Kevin to come by Monday morning at 10:30 am. We were up early again, feeling anxious, and ran over to the Internet shop to do some research on car buying. Bruce found a handy list on a NZ Govt site that detailed what to look for in buying a used car. I was nervous at the thought of driving a manual car for the first time, in a big city, on the left hand side of the road. I had finally mastered my ‘right hand shifting’ these past few months in San Francisco, but I wasn’t confident this was going to easily transfer to ‘left hand shifting’ in New Zealand. We had a moments thought that we might be being ‘taken.’ Bruce mentioned that the two-man con is the classic setup, but that’s not really the Kiwi way, and we let it go.

Kevin showed up right on time. While Bruce checked out the car, I wrote down the license plate number and ran inside to make a call. This is the second niftiest thing since sliced bread: For a NZ$25 fee, one can call an 800 number (0800-53-66-62), give the license number, and get an instant report on the status of the car: what type of car it is, whether any money is owed, whether its stolen, how long the current owner and previous owners had it, and whether it has a current WOF or not. Every car in the entirety of New Zealand is listed in one central database; the license plate the car is issued with stays with it forever. They will also email you a copy of the report. How cool is that? Everything checked out ok; this car had had nine owners in its history, several for under a month, but the others for a few years a piece. Bruce gave the thumbs up and now it was time for me to give it a test drive since Bruce still had not driven here and was quite scared to try on this occasion. We all piled in and around the rather long hilly block we went, only making left-hand turns so I wouldn’t have to cut across any traffic lanes. The car shifted remarkably well and I found it quite easy to ‘left-hand’ shift.

The WOF was due to expire at the end of the month so Kevin needed to go get another. He said he’d take care of it and call us if there were any issues, otherwise he’d be back around 3 pm to finalize the transaction. The car passed the WOF with the minor repair of a new used front tire which, to us, was indistinguishable from the old one. Kevin came back to our backpackers and off we went to the Post Office to file a Change of Ownership form (Form MR13B for the nifty sum of NZ$9.20). Kevin was indeed a bit of an eccentric fellow which endeared him to us and was quite keen on chatting about all sorts of things including global warming, real estate comparisons between San Francisco and NZ, and of course, the requisite politicking and GW. He also had a keen sense of humor. When I mentioned that we first came to NZ on our honeymoon, he quickly responded with “You know there are three rings to marriage: the engagement ring, the wedding ring, and suffering! Hahahaha”. We had a good chuckle and said that was not the case for us thankfully. Kevin drove us to his house, we paid for the car, and we shook hands and said goodbye. We were a good 6 or 7 kilometers away from our backpackers and I started feeling anxious again about navigating back since we lacked a map and NZ streets are highly nongrid-like. Kevin said to turn right and just follow the road and the buses back to Ponsonby. Sure enough, he was right, and if I must say so myself, I deftly motored us back to the backpackers parking area without a glitch.

We own our first kiwi car! We celebrated with a few pints at a local pub and marveled at the Kiwi Magic we seem to encounter every time we come to NZ. We still have to register the car (current registration expires next month) and decide if we want to get insurance (it’s not compulsory because there is national accident insurance for everyone) but we’ve got time for that.

We may eventually have a photo for you of our lovely new car-don’t mind the splotchy paint on the bonnet-Kevin points out that the sun can be harsh here, and more importantly, “That’s not what makes it go!”

Update Nov 06:    Car registration for our car is costing us $183/year.    We decided to get supplemental insurance through AMI Insurance.   We purchased basic fire + theft plus coverage for any damage to another person’s property or car due to an accident (doesn’t include any damages to our car since the car isn’t worth much).   $250 deductible.  Total annual insurance premium cost = $80.   Sweet as……

• April 15, 2005: Hire Immigration Law Advocates

• April 15 – 25: Fill out Expression of Interest (EOI) forms. This is a 20-something page document asking questions related to Character, Health, Job History, Education History, Family History, and English Language Ability for both applicants.

• May 3, 2005: EOI filed on-line with NZ Immigration Services (NZIS). Total points = 125. Total points needed to file = 100.

• May 3 – May 9th: Various communication with our immigration consultant clarifying Kathy’s part-time status, type of contract work, positions held, etc. Upon review, points increased to 140.

• May 23rd: Notified we were selected from the pool of applicants in the May 11th drawing and will be invited to apply for residency. NZIS begins preliminary checks and we await their ‘formal’ invitation to apply which will require us to provide documentation supporting all the claims we made about ourselves in the on-line EOI.

• June 23rd: Receive formal Invitation to Apply for Residence from NZIS.

• June 23rd – August 26th: Compile all documentation needed to send to NZIS:

• Birth Certificates: Originals or certified copies

• Passports: Originals

• Proof of Marriage or DeFacto Relationship: New Zealand recognizes unmarried hetero- or homo-sexual partners who have been together for at least one year and can demonstrate they’ve been living together for such time.

• Education Transcripts: Transcripts and original diplomas from each higher education institution.

• Work History: Letters from each company employed with for last 20 years.

• Medical & X-Ray Certificates: Lengthy medical document filled out by general practitioner along with full-size chest x-ray. (Note: the requirement for submitting the chest x-ray was changed by fall 2005; applicants only need to submit if there are any issues).

• FBI Clearance Certificates

• Passport Photos: Extra eight photos for each of us

• Various application forms signed.

• November 1: Invitation to Apply received by NZIS and assigned to case officer. Need to set up a 15 to 30 minute telephone interview as the last stage of the process. Case officer wants to assess our ability to relocate and settle.

• November 11th: Telephone Interview with NZIS. Questions fielded:

• Why NZ? Why now in our lives?

• Why Christchurch?

• What have we been doing so far for our job search?

• What obstacles did we expect to encounter as new migrants with our job search?

• What would be our job search plan once residency was granted?

• What obstacles would we expect to encounter from employers?

• Did we have any friends or family in NZ? If so, what type of support would we expect them to provide?

• What did we know about the cost of living in NZ?

• How will we plan to immerse ourselves into the culture?

• Had we ever made big moves like this before?

Our case officer was very friendly and pleasant and quite professional. At the end of the conversation, she said she saw no reason not to grant us residency. However, there were two types: One gives permanent residency which is basically a 2-year permit to live and work in the country; the other grants residency with the stipulation that the applicant must gain employment within a specified time frame. We were really hoping for the former given our plans for pursuing non-traditional work and for doing a bit of traveling in the year.

• November 24th: Informed we’ve been granted permanent residency – just in time for Thanksgiving. We feel blessed!
• December 8th: Receive formal letter from NZIS granting permanent residency and returning our passports with our visas pasted inside! Bust out the champagne!

All in all, the process was fairly painless and we were very happy with our decision to hire an immigration consultant.

Shortly after being awarded our permanent residency, NZIS modified the point system required for submitting an Expression of Interest, raising it from 100 points to 140 points in order to curtail the tremendous amount of emigration requests flooding into the country . This definitely makes it harder for those who do not have long work histories or higher ed degrees and will almost always require that a person already has a job offer before submitting their EOI.

]]> http://www.kathysgetaways.com/19/immigration-process/feed/ 0