# Dr in the USA



## AquamarineSea (Dec 6, 2018)

Hi all,

My husband is a specialist with 24 years experience. I won't mention which area here for privacy. He is a US citizen and I am a Brit with a Green Card. we have 3 teens a 19 yr old about to start her second year of uni, a 17 yr old and a 14 yr old.

We have lived in Germany for 6 yrs previously so have moved abroad as a family before. What would be the best process to apply to come to NZ? I checked on the government website and he qualifies for one of the categories there. We are both 51 so I know we need to do this now or never.

Is the best thing to do find a job and then do we start the immigration process? Would the employer help us? Is there a fast track for drs of is it about 17 months like everyone else? Will an employer hold a job that long? What is the best process, should we just start and keep applying for jobs in the meantime?

I have a degree and work in college counseling.

Thanks all.


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## escapedtonz (Apr 6, 2012)

Hi,

Unless you have a huge pot of gold to invest to go the entrepreneur residency route then the only option is to get a skilled job offer from an NZ employer and use the job offer to either :-
(a) apply for a temporary work visa for the person with the job offer - e.g. Essential Skills or Work To Residency and a partnership work visa for the partner and dependent study visas for the children, OR
(b) apply for skilled migrant resident visa with the person who got the job offer as principal applicant, partner as partner applicant and kids as dependents, OR
(c) apply for both - this is because the temporary route normally takes a matter of weeks, whereas the SMRV route takes many months so you use the temporary route to get here as soon as possible and the resident visa just ticks away in the background and you hopefully get that after being in NZ after a year or so.

You can apply for SMRV without the job offer as it is a points system, however without points in the calculation for a job offer the visas won't be approved - instead the principal applicant may be offered a 12 month job search visa that will allow them (and only them) to come to NZ for up to 12 months to get the all important permanent skilled job offer.

An employer would normally assist with the visa process as much as they could but essentially if an applicant has a third party advising them through the visa process then the third party must be an approved immigration advisor and an employer or employers HR department wouldn't meet that requirement unless they used an immigration service which is possible but unlikely as it is an expensive service.
In my very recent experience employers are steering well clear of employing people from overseas as it is just too difficult to get them through the immigration process due to the effects of Covid-19. My employer agreed a contract with a guy in SA back in March 2020 and this week they had to inform him that they'd pulled the plug and had terminated the contract as they couldn't get him here because of all the new rules that have been brought in due to Covid-19. We've also recently advertised for a skilled post and unfortunately had to remove all the overseas applications as it just isn't worth the time, effort and risk trying to get them here.

Nope there is no fast track. Everyone is quite rightly treated the same no matter who you are or what you do. People who have skilled job offers obviously get more of a priority, however a brain surgeon wouldn't get a visa any quicker than an engineer - just for one example and yes at the moment that skilled migrant route is taking a long time. It used to be around a year but at the moment you should think up to two years.
Nope an employer wouldn't want to wait that long, which is why you would use the temporary work visa route instead to get here much quicker and then look at the permanent route later. 

We really are in tough times now because of the worldwide pandemic. Unless you are seriously seriously needed in NZ because of your skills/experience it is gonna be a long road.


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