Get Permanent Residency in New Zealand ASAP.
Here is a TV interview with the Scottish couple who are now over-stayers in New Zealand thanks to duff advise from Immigration New Zealand and having a Work Visa rather than a Permanent Residency Visa.
I cannot stress enough the importance right now of making sure that you can stay in New Zealand permanently. Please do not be fooled into thinking that a Work Visa is going to be good enough.
It is unlikely that INZ will ever be held responsible for the mess they causing to peoples lives.
While getting a Residency Visa is no guarantees that you will successfully settle here and love your new life - it does mean that if you lose your job due to the recession - you have a lot more options. You would be able to find work in any field, rather than having a work visa which only applies to a specific job.
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The Price for Citizenship? $10,000
The Herald reports that a ‘friend’ of a number of MP’s, who quickly and miraculously got Residency and then Citizenship after making donations of $5,000 each to the Labour and National parties, has now been arrested.
(Allegedly) Arrested for various Immigration, deception, identify theft and false passport issues. I can see name surpession here would have been an issue, since he goes by at least five (5) different names.
The good thing I draw from this particular article is that either the Government, or NZIS, are getting tough about previous breaches of ‘immigration good practice’.
I wait to see how long the court case takes to happen.
Weekend Blog and Forum Roundup July 4th
Glasgow Gal on Move2NZ tells the rather depressing tale of having to go back to the UK because of a work visa and having a job that dried up. The most important things in this forum post is that
a/ Work Visas are causing untold agony for many migrants, and
b/ NZIS staff gave these people incorrect information which means that they became overstayers. I look forward to the day that NZIS staff are finally held accountable for the number of times they stuff up and don’t do their jobs properly.
The Brunts Big Move explains Fluffies – the New Zealand phenomenon that basically makes you want to be 3 yrs old.
This New Zealand Life posted a bloody good blog about how migrants are ready to deal with Earthquakes. Its something you just have to get used to here, particularly if you come to the Wellington Area to live. We were fairly lucky in that when we arrived there were an awful lot of little quakes as it was just after the Boxing Day Tsunami. “Lucky” because it meant we rapidly got used to the sensation of being stuck in a building that shook!
Chez Lee held a Star Wars party for her Daughter which has left me (as a total Fan-girl and geek) a bit jealous.
Update
Glasgow Gal’s Story is reported in The Press: Immigration Nightmare. The NZIS spokesperson says bugger-all about the cock up - which is business as usual really.
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New Money Transfer company.
Filed under: For the numpties amongst us, General Budgeting, Getting to New Zealand
I was contacted a few weeks ago by a company called Currency Online, offering me the chance to become an affiliate and market their product. Of interest was the fact that they said they were part of HiFX, which is the currency transfer company I have always used and recommended.
So I took a look.
HiFX confirmed that indeed CO was now a part of them, and so I looked at the rates.
One of the reasons I really like HiFX is the lack of extra charges. So I was a mite miffed to find that CO were going to charge a whopping £12 every time I made a transfer from the UK. To cover the electronic transfer of funds. {Cough} BS {Cough}.
But hey I thought – the rates are supposed to be the best around – so maybe the rates are so good it will counteract the silly charge.
Um. No.
I’ve been checking these numbers for a few weeks now – and I can categorically say that HiFX still beats CO hands down. In fact the only benefit I can see to CO is that it is – well – online.
So – how did I compare the two?
Well, firstly – I made a spreadsheet to keep all the info together, and make it easier to compare. So at random times (like when I remembered) I would look at three things:
1/ The HiFX website charts which give you the current Interbank Rate.
2/ The current Currency Online price for £5000 to be converted to $NZD
3/ I phoned up HiFX for their current rate for the same trade.
But – you also have to remember the £12 it will cost you to transfer using Currency Online. So – to take that into account I took the amount of $NZ that I would get using CO, and divided it by 5012 (£5012) – which gives you the EFFECTIVE rate at which you are transferring. I then worked out how many $NZ I would get in real terms taking that charge into account.
I also made a note of the difference between the HiFX Rate and the Interbank rate and the CO and Interbank rates. What I got was this:
What this shows is that if you were to transfer £5000, you would overall get about $100 MORE if you went with HiFX, and today - when I actually made a trasfer, I came out better by a whopping $337.
Now - there are some advantages to Currency Online, and ill cover those in a separate blog. But if the main issue is how many $$$ you get - I’m still sticking with HiFX!
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Character Waivers Part 2 – Intent to Deceive.
It appears that although lying on your application form for a visa to New Zealand will mean that you fail the good character requirements – Immigration New Zealand are supposed to work on the theory that you made a mistake, rather than assume you lied.
It seems there is a principle in law called Mens Rea – or “Guilty Mind” , and without the intent to deceive INZ on your application form – you actually do pass the good character requirements.
There are a number of cases particularly at the residence review board which show this, and helpfully they are summarised by Immigration Lawyers Ryken Law in a very useful document. No matter what problems you are getting with NZIS - I think this is a must-read!
10. Good character issues
10.1 Residence Appeal 15141 (31 January 2007) G Melvin. Wrong information on EOI.
Intention is required for an error to amount to a good character breach (Chiu v Minister of Immigration [1994] 2 NZLR 541 (CA)). Discussed whether the jurisdiction of the Board is ousted because the invitation would not have issued but for the putative misrepresentation, ie, whether a mens rea element is implicit in s18C(2A)(b)(i). Held that intention is required. The case involved a mismatch between the job title in the EOI and the actual job. The matter had not been adequately addressed and no adverse character- finding had been made. Appeal upheld.
10.2 Residence Appeal 14840 (11 May 2006) G Melvin.
False information arose because name used on the EOI was different from the name used on work references. Chiu applied, appeal upheld, no intention established (and held that there must be evidence that establishes on the balance of probabilities that the person has deliberately and dishonestly mislead or provided false information). (Author’s note: it is quite common for persons in some cultures to be known by a name other than their official name – in any event the use of more than one name does not create a presumption of dishonesty.)
10.5 See also Residence Appeal 15015 (16 October 2006) G Melvin.
The appellant it was held knew that one of his children had mild autism at the time of his application. No question on the EOI was answered incorrectly (but the medical form on the residence application was) and the Board held that the appellant had not withheld relevant information on the EOI (and so had jurisdiction to entertain the appeal). Further, the fact that the child had assaulted a female child sexually at intermediate school was not a change of circumstances event that would require disclosure and the failure of which would oust the Board’s jurisdiction under 18C(2A)(b)(ii). However autism had not been referred to in answer to one question on the medical form submitted with the residence application although the condition was in fact referred to in another document filed with the application (a Family Court decision). The question then remained whether the incorrect information on the medical form was intentional. Chiu was applied and the appeal upheld, leaving the good character waiver issues to be determined.
So there you go. If you can show that you made an honest mistake on the form, then you have a good chance of overturning a “no” decision via the RRB. But – as one of my friends so succinctly pt it – if you deliberately lie – “you’re hosed”.
Also, according to appeal 14920 at the RRB, INZ have to take into account all forms of evidence that you provide in applying for a character waiver. While they can use the seven items listed in my previous blog – they need to allow you to present other evidence. If they do not allow that, or ignore other evidence provided when determining whether to waive good character requirements, then it looks like the RRB can overturn the decision.
“[45] Having considered the character waiver assessment on the file, the Board
concludes that the assessment conducted did not take into account all of the
evidence presented by the appellant in respect of the circumstances surrounding
the conviction. To begin with, the assessment has been restricted to the factors
set out at paragraph A5.25.1.b (see i-vii) and appears to have paid no attention to other evidence presented in support of the appellant.
[46] The assessment of a character waiver is guided by, but not restricted to,
those elements set out in paragraph A5.25.1.b. Here, a number of matters of
some significance, including a psychiatric report, a report from a counsellor at a
drug and alcohol dependence bureau, a letter of support from one of the
appellant’s victims and her parents in which they specifically address their desire
not to have the appellant’s offences affect his future in New Zealand, were not
acknowledged, addressed in any way or weighed up in the course of the
assessment process.”
I think one of the most important things I’ve learned going through all this is that you need to hold steady and not give up. The sad fact is that different applicants are told different things by different case officers and managers, and sometimes the only way to know how to deal with problems in the processing of your application is to do the homework and make sure YOU understand how the system SHOULD work. Please don’t rely on INZ staff to tell you the truth, because while some will – some patently won’t. And as we have seen first hand, higher management won’t do more than slap a few wrists if your case officer and their managers are obstructive and unhelpful and are not following the proper procedures.
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When does “interest free” mean 17.5% interest.
When you want to buy a plasma TV from a well known New Zealand electrical retailer (starts with H and ends with …arvey Norman).
As I come to the end of my rather impressive splurge to celebrate my parents gaining residency (and –in my defence- making the house warmer and more liveable for 5 adults without us all going barmy), I felt it was time to buy a second TV.
This means that we can have a separate TV upstairs in our “flat” and we can then watch stuff that the Parents don’t want to, and they can watch what they want without having to wait for us.
So we started the investigations today with what was supposed to be a wander around a shop looking at plasma screens and going “oooh” and “ahhh” a lot and working out just how big a screen we can get away with without it pulling the wall down.
We finally found a Panasonic 50″ Full HD (as opposed to just HD which we are told is just so last year), with a ticket price of $3999. So far so good. I took a note of the model number, so we could research and do a price check. (Something I always do).
Then we get asked how we are going to pay for it. I make it clear that we aren’t actually buying it today – to then find out that there are different prices depending on how you pay.
Now this is a bit unusual for us Brits – but Noel Leeming do the same thing – only they have a Credit Card price and an EftPOS price – I presume to “offset” the higher cost to them of taking credit cards. Bit cheeky – and possibly why I have never bought anything from them yet.
This wasn’t the case today. Turns out if we paid by Credit card, cash or EftPOS – we would actually pay $3000. Not a bad discount (except I’m always dubious that they are actually overcharging by $1000 in the first place in these cases).
If we want to take out the “Interest free” finance – it will cost us $3500.
WHAT????
Ok, lets just look at this. Its supposed to be interest free right? So I can pay it off over 2 years with no interest. For which I have to pay a $25 “admin fee” anyway.
But it’s going to cost me $500 MORE to buy the TV.
That’s a whopping 17.5% interest already built into the price.
Just be careful – there are just so many reasons already to avoid these types of deals – but the minute you are being charged more upfront – you are being fleeced straight off the bat.
Always do your homework, and always check the prices – and if you do take an interest free deal – just do your sums and make sure it really is “interest free”.
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Watch those School “Donations” when you move to New Zealand.
I blogged about the rather mis-named school donations a while back, and how for many parents it is not the voluntary donation it should be. Well now it seems that some schools are going even further to try to force parents to pay up.
It seems that some schools are now reporting unpaid donations to the Credit agency to Baycorp, the credit agency -which now means that some parents will have problems with credit scoring. Worse – there are also schools who have passed on the “debt” to debt collection agencies.
This is so far out of order it just isn’t funny. We all know that schools don’t get enough money – but hey – parents don’t either, and screwing up their credit rating is just appalling. Pulling a stunt like this is just not on. It’s dishonest and unethical at best.
“Principals say the tactic shows that schools are under-funded and want the Government to stop “playing games”.”
I agree – the government should pull all funding to schools that try and extort “donations” out of parents and blackmail them by using credit agencies and debt collectors.
Just take care when you move here – the free education is getting less free as time goes on, and you need to be aware of the situation and ready for it. Make sure you budget for it – and make sure you find out what the fees will be for any schools you are considering for you family.
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Air NZ has a new toy :)
I do like gizmos - and Air New Zealand have a pretty nifty one. Its called How Far Can I Go, and it really fun to play around with. OK, you will get bored after 5 minutes - but hey - it’s 5 minutes of free entertainment.
Basically - you tell it where you want to travel from, an then you use a slide bar on the right hand side to say how much of a budget you have. Then you watch as the lines expand out from your base and show you how far you can fly for less than your budget. It then shows you the flight options and prices on the left hand side, from where you can investigate further.
Just be aware that as this is Air New Zealand, some of the prices quoted are one-way and some are return flights. It can make flights look cheaper than they really are.
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Weekend Blog Roundup 28th June
On the money and budgeting front – there is an interesting blog at Money and Markets
Readers of the blog have sent in stories, anecdotes and thoughts on money managements, and it has been compiled into a list of 5 rules. The first rule is Start Budgeting – so I’m happily on board with this.
Domestic Executive has an amazing photo show of the tickertape stock quotes on the NZX building in Wellington. and also reveals that at some point they managed to bring their UK£ over for more than $3 to the pound. I have tears in my eyes just thinking about it!
If you want to see some photos of Wellington’s stunning coast – you will find that at Chez Lee.
And if you are thinking of getting a lifestyle block and growing Olives – you might want to take a look at Moon Over Martinborough. These guys are in our neck of the woods – but are a whole lot less lazy than I am and have a large area of land for Olives. And can tell you what to do with them. Not that I like Olives – but hey – they are enjoying their lives – and that is what matters. They also take really nice photos !
And just to prove that I am not the only complete skeptic when it comes to Swine Flu – This New Zealand life comments on the stupidity of thinking that a msak can save you.
“Those same nano-sized viruses that are to the weave in his face mask like marbles to a football net.”
On the forum front - someone has posted on UK2NZ asking for people living in the UK but considering emigrating if they would take part in a survey.
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Auditor General’s Report - we got a mention :)
As we (slowly) work the OAG report in the stuff ups that Immigartion New Zealand have been making for years - we were a bit gobsmacked to find that a (small) part of our submission to them was included.
Knowledge of complaints processes
5.132
We received an expression of concern from a member of the public (Thats lil ol’ me) that the
complaints procedures were hard to find. Certainly, it is not possible to easily
submit a complaint either through the Department of Labour website or through
the Immigration New Zealand website. We were told that the Department is
reviewing the publicly available descriptions of, and means of access to, the
complaints procedures.
5.133
In our view, members of the public should be able to easily find out how to raise
concerns with Immigration New Zealand and know how their concerns will be
dealt with
Way to go!!!
This is a small reminder that no matter how tiny and insignificant you might feel as one or two people trying to make a change in the world - it is worth perservering in the effort.
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