 Hey welcome back to my YouTube channel guys. Today we're going to talk about how to move to New Zealand and I'm going to share my story on how my family came to New Zealand. It's something that I shared like way back like my first video so I thought probably good for a refresh to kind of share how we came about coming here and then how you can work on moving to New Zealand. Here we go. Welcome to my channel. I'm glad you're here. If you're not familiar with this channel we are a family of six that have moved to New Zealand from the U.S. and have been here for six years. We have not been here for six years consecutively so we came here for two years. We went back to the States for two years and now we've been back here for four years going on five years. So yeah after five years of being permanent residents and living here consecutively we can apply for citizenship this year so that's exciting. Anyway so I just thought I'd share a little bit about our story and then a little bit about what it takes kind of your first steps in moving to New Zealand. I get this question so many times and so we're going to just start dealing with all of these questions now. So a little bit about us is why did we come to New Zealand? What was the process for us? Well basically we just wanted to give our kids like an international experience. We know that you know America is the greatest country on earth and then there's no reason to leave it as so we were taught so many times but we just thought hey let's just get out let's get an experience. Our kids were I had four kids from two to 11 years old at the time and we came here and it was just easier with younger kids and it was English speaking and that's part of why we chose it and we didn't know anything. We didn't know anybody but I did do lots of research. In fact I was driving back from Florida to Wisconsin and it was such a long drive that I just googled New Zealand the whole ride just reading anything and everything and the interesting fact is that I could not find one bad thing about New Zealand and I'm like what is this place? Is this like paradise? You know like you're always familiar I think Americans are very familiar with Australia but New Zealand is like some no some don't you know but it's not you know it's popular I'd say in talk as Australia but so you're just like okay what is this place? There's one lady that did complain but I think it was more she was the issue just reading other things that she wrote anyway so what is this place? I have no idea we don't know anybody here we've never been here we're gonna move our whole family here for two years for an experience let's go are we crazy? Yes are we glad we did it so yes very much so so we came here and we settled in and we kind of had the attitude of we just want to experience anything in everything New Zealand we thought this was our only time coming here and so we traveled every weekend we would just jump in the car grab some food and just took the kids and explored explored we saw most of New Zealand we did pretty good in two years just you know didn't get to really enjoy all these places but we definitely made it and saw all of them and so that was really wonderful and we yeah we just really loved it here in fact I'd say I was surprised at how much I really loved it you know and the way that they do things of course it's different but it really as an American wasn't a huge adjustment it's definitely different but it's not like vastly different where it's hard to adjust so of course you know I was most nervous about driving on the left side of the road really was no big deal with the roundabouts surprisingly easy um you know and then just slowly kind of integrating the culture so I had my kids in school I had I got a job my husband worked we just tried to you know all these different things like let's just see what it's like here what's it like to go in an interview let's say you know so it's always good if you're going to go to another country to kind of have that attitude of willingness to try new things okay don't come to a country and just be like I'm just going to eat what I like to eat and do what I like to do you know try new things make new friends go to places get involved in things and that's how you really start to connect and so we had a wonderful time but we had only planned to come for two years so we had went back to the US no intention of ever coming back to New Zealand would really like to was really hard to leave in fact we had to take kind of a long trip to southeast Asia but we went to the US just to kind of deal with all of the feelings um and so we got home and it's always great to be home and with family and you know for us the US is home it feels like home okay and so you know we got reintegrated into our community and the kids back in school and just doing all the things and it was really nice definitely missed New Zealand was trying to figure out a way where I could come you know maybe once a year I don't know I don't know I just was like it was so great we had such a good experience but then um my husband through this whole situation like I'm probably not going to go into it for the length of this video but he ended up getting this job offer that was like amazing and we were like oh my gosh we are not moving our whole family again across the world I think we're legit crazy for considering it but we just were really like oh my gosh it's just like the most amazing job like he literally like what happened was is when he came back to the US he changed kind of what he was doing completely and then we when he got a job offer here it was like a couple steps up what he could probably it would take a while in the US to get that and it was in a new area that he was interested in and it was in Wellington where we loved and it was like oh my gosh so um needless to say we decided to come back and now we've been here for four years and it's definitely a different mind shift it's definitely a different mind shift to move from coming here temporarily than to coming here permanently and setting up routes here and it's it's definitely different I found the stress is different we moved more things we you know like where your kids are getting settled in school was more important you know your community was suddenly more important because I didn't have any family here everything was just like it wasn't just like a fun experience like an extra long vacation it was like okay now we're serious right and so uh yeah so that was really you know different and I think it took me a little bit longer and it was definitely a mindset shift for us for sure so it was good we um obviously still we really like it here we I mean New Zealand is just such a wonderful place and I would highly recommend if you can visit here move here for a couple years do what we did I highly recommend it was just a really wonderful experience because part of the reason why I wanted to come here was you know just close family time and I definitely got that I got way more than I was even expecting like just bonding because when your family moves to another country together all you have is each other and so your relationships get stronger you're all kind of going through the same thing together at the same time and that's very unusual because you have kids like if you see in one spot all your kids at different ages and different grades starting to get into their own world and it's hard to connect right so you can go on like a week vacation but it's just like a week but like connecting and like learning cultural things or somebody said this and I learned this and it's just we're all kind of going through at the same time it's very unique and I highly recommend it especially if you have kids around the ages that I had when I first that was really the best time because when I do the second time my oldest was like 16 so it was a little bit harder but that's a different story but everybody's great I mean all my kids loved it here and so it wasn't like a hard like oh you know they they know they loved here but obviously you know it's hard to leave again and to make that kind of decision but it's really a wonderful place to raise a family and a wonderful place with the work-life balance the health insurance the beauty okay the untouched it's kind of the ease of life the low stress like all of these things not only impact like your quality of daily life but also just raising a family and just like kind of being in an environment that you want to be sometimes you'll find and I think I've talked about this before sometimes you'll find that you find more of yourself in a different environment which could be a different country or it could be a different state or territory or wherever you're from right so like if you go into an environment that just feels more like you it can make you happier it can make you more comfortable anyway that's a whole all the stuff that we could talk about but in addition to just telling you my story I just wanted to talk to you about some of the processes in moving to New Zealand because I get this question so many times and I don't mind it it's okay to ask me but I let's just kind of talk a little bit about this so if you are thinking about moving to New Zealand meaning like whether it's temporary like just for a year or two or more permanently where do you start right what's the first step okay and so this is what I'm going to tell you the first step number one is you need to figure out what visa makes sense for you okay what visa makes sense for you now I am not allowed to give immigration advice to you and that's fine and I'm not giving you I'm just telling you where to start I would go to the New Zealand immigration site I would look at everything and I would figure out what visa you want and what visa you qualify for because there's point systems depending on which visa you're going for and what country you're coming from and what I what I would say about this is that the New Zealand immigration site has everything that you need to know we did not use like immigration lawyer or any outside source we literally just applied to come here through the New Zealand immigration site and and that was fine and we did fine with that we just felt like it was very well done the Australian one is very similar so if you want to go there that was also easy I think to navigate and to figure out and so I that's really all you need you really just need the immigration site now depending on your situation or kind of what you're comfortable with an immigration lawyer consultant may make sense for you and in the description below I'll put somebody that I recommend for that you can at least call them and talk them through if it makes sense for you guys to work together just because that can be helpful if that makes sense for you but most of the information you're going to need or just is just on New Zealand immigration site and it's really great and really thorough I think and it's going to be most up to date so due to COVID and the crazy world that we live in now it's always changing and so you don't always know what you know I can't tell you like this is how you do it because it's always changing and it might be out of date by the time you watch this video anyway so a couple things to keep an eye out in terms of the immigration site is pay attention to the shortlist so start there is your qualification what you do for a living shortlisted and what that means is that New Zealand doesn't have enough people with those skills here in the country and so they're looking outside of their country for it then there's even like an essential skills so essential skills are like we're desperate we need these skills either we don't train for it here or we don't have enough people for the amount of demand we have here and those are essential so if you're on the essential skills list I think you're in luck because it's much easier to get in they if you if you apply that way then you can get in easier and they'll kind of source you a job and you kind of work together with somebody on that and so that's really good but if you're on the shortlist also very good if you're not in either of those lists in terms of your job that's fine it doesn't mean that you can't apply right but it's going to take a while so just to tell you our story is we came in on the skilled migrant visa and it took us about a year and a half so plan on the process taking a while okay for one this isn't a fast process okay so if you're even mildly thinking about moving here just maybe consider doing the expression of interest so that you can get um everything rolling because it can take a while and then worst-case scenario if you decide that that's not something that you want to do then it's okay too then you don't need to so yeah that's where I would start definitely um and then the other thing is is you know some visas are going to be easier to get here but maybe you won't have all of the benefits of here and that's okay like just get here and get it figured out and get it sorted but if you have a family you know you probably want to kind of get certain ducks in a row in order for that to happen so those are kind of the the basics of getting your visa so go to the New Zealand immigration site and that's where you start that's how I would start the process figure out how you can actually live and work here if you just want to travel here that's different so depending on what country that you're coming from depends on how long you can stay here with the passport that you have so the US passport I believe you can stay here for two or three months you'll have to double check because that's probably updated um you know a Canadian passport or uh you know a Mexican passport like I don't know they'll give you like how much you can just travel around but you won't be able to work so obviously if you want to come for a year time at least you're going to want to work um you know unless you have enough money to just travel around New Zealand's expensive so keep that in mind um but it's all worth it the second step if you're thinking about moving here is the job search now it isn't like you do the visa first and then the job I would do them hand in hand okay so you're going to be looking through your visa you're going to start your visa application then I would start applying for work as well now you're going to be frustrated with the job situation unless you're on the short list or the essentials essential skills list because they're actively looking for you and that's different but uh if you're not on those lists you're going to be frustrated because it's a bit of a catch 22 because you're going to see all these job ads like are you allowed to to work permanently in New Zealand yes or no and so it's like you can't apply for the job unless you have a visa but you can't get a visa until you have a job so it's like that so like if you can get a job that can speed up your visa process okay but um yeah so keep that in mind but it's a good idea to start applying maybe talking to some people seeing what makes sense a lot of times you'll find that there's different words that they use for things I am a professor at the university and the words that they use or things are so different and so miscommunication can happen right because the words are different so for example in my industry like taking a course is called a paper you know I never would have made that connection you know and then just like just a lot of the words that they use is very different and so you know finding that out understanding the jargon and the industry that you're in will be helpful and then you can also reach out to me because I do have like some CV at interviewing help if you need that we can get your CV you know with all the the correct things that would appeal to New Zealand and just kind of talk through what you have on your CV and if this makes sense and kind of what they're looking for because the job description in New Zealand will give you a clear idea on what they're looking for but what I'm saying is some of the words won't make sense to you because you're like okay I don't know what that means they use different things and so I'm just sometimes I've noticed because I've worked with clients on this and they're just they're kind of missing it because the words are different so you know email me or reach out to me make an appointment with me I'm happy to help you with that um but yeah so do the job in immigration at the same time my recommendation for you is to take a job wherever you can get it don't decide I want to move to Wellington I want to move to Auckland I want to move to the South Island it's I'm just going to be frank it is not easy to get into this country it is not easy so let's just start at the immigration and the job and then we'll move into where your options are going to be there is a part on the immigration site where you can see the job the shortlisted job so but if you are on essential skills and shortlisted you can't pick your region a little bit easier um and then where you want to go and then and then you have to decide where you want to go now of course you can read all about it everything is on the internet right uh but I'm happy to talk to you about that as well talk through the different areas I haven't lived in every area I have been to every area though and um I could help you with that and just kind of understanding the school system if you have kids or understanding you know what might matter to you in terms of finding housing in terms of what the lifestyle would look like you know so you can reach out to me for that I'm just going to put my website address it's always in uh the description anyway where I can help you with um any of these kinds of things um I have a consulting business that I do that so I hope this was helpful I hope that you're seeing a kind of that's where you need to start because there's no point in really talking about too much after that because all of that will depend on the first two things okay so as we're moving into 2022 things are opening up travel is opening up and it's going to be sooner rather than later that people can come in here they announced this week that MIQ is no longer necessary as long as you have a negative test and so you can kind of come right so everything's going to change quite quickly and so I'm very excited for you guys to apply to come here or just visit or to move here and and all of the excitement around that but I wanted to bring to your attention something that I think will be really helpful if you are thinking about moving here um or even traveling this would actually be helpful as well or if you're already here this would be helpful I'm going to be creating uh like a like a membership area on my website where I'm going to be doing all of these trainings for you if you've talked to me I've met a lot of people and it's really been picking up like people have been making appointments with me talking with me just it's so nice to have a sounding board of someone that you can talk to before you make such a big move for your family and I will give you all the information that I know of course it's limited to what I know but at least it's somewhere to start with someone that understands where you're coming from if you're from the US or from North America in general I can probably speak to the cultural differences and all of that so anyway in the membership it's going to be really really great it's going to be like I've been working on I have it all outlined and so I'm excited to share it with you it's going to be like cultural training like all the things you know it needs to know about moving here how to go through the food store how to you know how to get into schools understanding the words understanding what's okay and what's not in the job in the job sectors and like so many things that are like that took me six years to figure out okay and then still getting it wrong okay because even though it is not hard to integrate into this culture like I said and it isn't and you don't need to do the training if you don't want but like it's there's a lot that you're missing if there's one thing I've learned being so so much exposure on social over the last two years all the things that I thought I understood I didn't quite or didn't realize that it's different in different parts of the country and that's so I've learned a lot I don't know everything but I can give you somewhere to start um you know just a lot of so it'll have like a lot of how to is a lot of exclusive content because I'm finding giving you all the information on my youtube channel is getting more and more difficult because certain information is valuable to certain parts of my audience and and so it's just not really working and they'll always be updated and I can give you very relevant I've had so many emails about the Wellington protest and what's that and I've been to it and I've taken video and it just it doesn't really work as a broad audience thing but it would in my exclusive content it's something that I could show you and talk about and then you guys I'm happy for you guys to decide what you want to know like there'll be a spot where you can say like can you do something on this and then I can do it and share it with everybody and it becomes more useful all around and then a place where you guys can all chat with each other and be like oh you know but it's all like within a community of people so it's really makes sense for people that are moving here probably are people that have already moved here from another country if you're traveling for a long time like for a year and you want to understand the culture a lot of that would be helpful as well but it's just all basics I'm like getting set up and understanding how things work and you know there's really nowhere there's a lot of blog posts that I've been reading but they just kind of barely touch on anything so this is going to be very in depth in terms of what you can learn about New Zealand and yeah so it's exciting so if you want to go to my websites I have kind of a pop up that says if you're interested in the membership just give your email and I'll just let you know when it's ready when it's available and it's also helpful for me to know if people are interested in something like that because I don't want to waste my time creating all of this stuff and then not anybody's really it's not that helpful I just think it will be really helpful to you when I'm talking with clients when I'm getting thousands of emails and I'm like okay like I just need to have a place where you guys can all be and I can give you all of this information and so yeah I'm very excited about so so check out that if you are interested in that but thank you for joining with me today if you are moving to New Zealand I am very excited for you so please at any point don't hesitate to just email me with any questions you have please post comments about any more information that you'd like to know about moving to New Zealand I'm happy to I could give it to you or maybe do another video on that otherwise I'll see you guys next week