Waiting for our visas to be approved has been, by far, the most agonizing part of the immigration journey (at least…to date). On June 12th, our immigration adviser submitted our work visa applications. To recap from previous posts, the work visas are temporary and last for 30 months. This is why we are also applying for our residence visas, which are indefinite and allow us to live in New Zealand without having to worry about our visas expiring. It also allows us to enjoy the benefits tied to being a New Zealand resident, such as healthcare coverage.
Back to the main story, on the same day that our work visa application was submitted (June 12th), I mailed the physical documents needed to submit our residence visa application. It contained all the paperwork included in our work visa application, the only difference is it was printed out and each page was notarized. Might I add, that was expensive. 100+ stamps adds up quickly. I sent New Zealand a literal ream of paperwork.
Once the ream of paperwork was off to New Zealand, all we had left to do was wait. Waiting has been a recurring theme throughout this process. Well, waiting and patience, since they come hand in hand. We really didn’t have to wait long for our first batch of excellent news. On June 27th, we received an email from our immigration adviser stating that Immigration New Zealand (INZ) pulled our Expression of Interest (EOI) from the pool and that we received an Invitation to Apply (ITA) for residency. This is where a little background info comes in handy. When our immigration adviser submitted our work visas, she was also working on submitting our EOI. INZ pulls EOIs from a pool of applications every fortnight (two weeks). They pull all applications that score a 160 or higher (the points are based on many factors, you only need to know that our application had 260 points). Once your EOI is chosen, INZ then decides to extend (or not) an ITA. Once the ITA is received, that is when the residence visa application can be submitted.
We were ecstatic that we received the ITA because that meant that our immigration adviser would go through the ream of paper we had just sent in, advise if anything additional was needed, and then submit the residence visa application. She did end up needing one thing from us, so it wasn’t until July 16th that our residence visa application was submitted. But this was still AWESOME because many people that are currently living and working in New Zealand still haven’t received an ITA for various reasons. We really felt that God jumped right in an did a miracle for us, allowing us to receive the ITA before we ever set foot in New Zealand.
Now that I’ve explained the visa applications, let’s get back to the waiting period. The sweet part of the waiting period: no paperwork. Sigh of relief. But while paperwork was removed from our plate, we had to focus on other things. Like selling everything and preparing to make the journey. We bought things over a period of time (think: suit cases, TSA locks, carry-on surprises for the kids, etc.) But a sore topic that we encountered (and put off multiple times) was when to purchase our airfare. The simple fact was that our visas still hadn’t been approved yet and they needed to be approved for us to enter the country. If we bought plane tickets before our visas were approved, we’d have to make our best educated guess on what date to leave based on when we thought the visas might be approved by. If we waited for the visas to be approved to buy the tickets, there’d be the chance that we’d pay up to $1300 more per ticket to leave on short notice.
We finally came to the point where the date we wanted to leave by (July 25th) was no longer an option because the tickets had skyrocketed. I was looking at Air New Zealand’s website and the 28th was still a decent price. At this point, I told Matt that we should probably book to get those rates locked in. Otherwise, we might not leave until August and, according to his job contract, he’s supposed to start his job at the end of July. Matt agreed, pending some questions for Air New Zealand. We decided that it would be better to lock in good rates and pay $800 total to change our flights if our visas weren’t approved in time vs. waiting and paying top dollar for basic economy seats. So on July 9th at 10:30 pm, I called Air New Zealand and booked our flights once all our concerns were addressed. It was set: we had tickets to leave on July 28th. We bought these tickets on pure faith, as we had NO idea when our visas would be approved.
Click for Part 2:
The Cullums Immigrate 