As it turns out, moving to New Zealand for a period of time longer than 6-12 months is a fairly involved process. Who knew? A student visa, for example, is fine for 6-12 months (provided you can prove your studies will take up to that amount of time), but if the program you want to complete takes longer than 1 year, which mine does, there are one or two extra hoops to jump through.
First off, there are the medical examinations. Each applicant has to arrange for a doctor to give them a thorough inspection, and then head to a lab for chest x-rays which will hopefully prove a complete lack of tuberculosis. At around the same time, there are criminal records checks [for civil purposes] which certify that the migrant is of good character. As of the time of this post, the RCMP website claims that these checks are taking upwards of 120 days to complete.
So, "what's the problem?", you may ask. Well, there are stale dates imposed by NZ on each of these pieces of paper, and they differ. Your medical certificate must be no more than 3 months old at the time of application, while the police certificate must be no more than 6 months old come application time. It's not a big deal, really, to get these things timed properly but a bit of planning is needed.
While I'm feeling impatient about getting over there and getting on with life, there are moments where it feels good to have more time to digest this stuff.
author info
- Drew
- Somewhere in October of '07, I decided to sell off my belongings, quit my job, and move across the globe to study winegrowing.
2 comments:
Get yourself a wall calendar, set a leaving date and work backwards from that.
It's so much easier to see upcoming deadlines and it makes the planning so much easier.
Hey, that's a great idea. Much better than all of the mental math I've been doing.
Post a Comment