# Work to Residence Visa with Job offer



## s.anandkumarr

Hi friends, 

One my customer in NZ is willing to give me a job, since they wanted me there to support their upgradation of their product. I'm an Business Analyst, helped them to develop their ecommerce online portal. My category falls under LTSSL. So I can apply for Work to Residence (WTR) visa. I understand that if my employer says its long term work on the contract, I will be granted 30 months WTR visa. 

My doubts are

1. My employer is not from IT business. So will they be able to offer me a job in IT?
2. Do I/they need to get some approval from the local govt to recruit me? I understood that for LTSSL jobs, nothing is needed. Pls clarify. 
3. If I reach there, after a short time, If I wanted to change job (incase if I dont like the job or I get a better job), can I do it? How will it affect my WTR visa? will that affect my PR application later? 
4. Since the supplementary form (supplied by the employer) or the offer is not approved by the local govt/labour office, how do the visa officers check the company? Do they do background check for the employer?

I know I have asked too many questions friends. But this help me to proceed my visa processing.


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## escapedtonz

s.anandkumarr said:


> Hi friends,
> 
> One my customer in NZ is willing to give me a job, since they wanted me there to support their upgradation of their product. I'm an Business Analyst, helped them to develop their ecommerce online portal. My category falls under LTSSL. So I can apply for Work to Residence (WTR) visa. I understand that if my employer says its long term work on the contract, I will be granted 30 months WTR visa.
> 
> My doubts are
> 
> 1. My employer is not from IT business. So will they be able to offer me a job in IT?
> 2. Do I/they need to get some approval from the local govt to recruit me? I understood that for LTSSL jobs, nothing is needed. Pls clarify.
> 3. If I reach there, after a short time, If I wanted to change job (incase if I dont like the job or I get a better job), can I do it? How will it affect my WTR visa? will that affect my PR application later?
> 4. Since the supplementary form (supplied by the employer) or the offer is not approved by the local govt/labour office, how do the visa officers check the company? Do they do background check for the employer?
> 
> I know I have asked too many questions friends. But this help me to proceed my visa processing.


Hi,
To apply / secure a Work To Residence visa I'm sure the employer who has offered you the post must be on the accredited employer list....see here :-

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migr...tion/ToolboxLinks/AccreditedEmployersList.htm

.....Although if you take the "Can I apply" test, it doesn't mention anything about your NZ employer being on a list so that in itself causes some confusion.
If you don't find the employer on this list I would expect you cannot apply for a Work To Residence visa but I may be wrong.
If I'm right, you have the option of either a Temporary Work Visa or a Residency Visa and I'd expect since you have the offer of work from an NZ employer you could apply for either or both depending on how soon you would like or need to be in NZ and assuming you meet the basic requirements of each visa.

1. I don't see why a non IT company can't offer someone an IT job. 
It is the 21st century and every company needs IT so there's no reason why a company cannot decide to employ someone to deal with their IT.
2. An NZ employer doesn't need permission from government to employ an immigrant.
They may however need to justify to Immigration NZ employing an immigrant over a person who is already an NZ citizen or resident and already lives in NZ.
That shouldn't be your concern though. The employer should be fully aware of their obligations.
3. I'd be careful if you decide to change jobs. Probably ok securing another job before you resign from the current job but with the Work To Residence visa you must work in the area of expertise that you were given the job in as it will be a condition of the visa.
4. Yes I think Immigration will carry out a full check of the employer and consider their findings in their decision to award you a visa or not.

In my opinion you should maybe apply for the Temp Work Visa not the WTR visa. 
With an open ended offer of employment and assuming you meet all the requirements you should receive a 30 month temporary work visa and in that time you could apply for a Residence visa to stay permanently.
I also think if you decided to change employers there are less restrictions on you than with the WTR visa.

Good luck


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## s.anandkumarr

Thanks a lot. 

Reg the accredited employer, its not necessary for any LTTS jobs. My employer found that from local labour office today. Since the role falls in the LTTS, it skips the works like looking for a local person, accredited company and etc. So anyone can recruit a LTTS skilled overseas employee. 

Why do you recommend Temporary work visa Over Work to residence? How does that differ from Work to Residence? My aim is to acquire residence in the coming years. I will make sure, I work on same line on which visa is granted. 

I also understand that I cannot do part time jobs when I go on these visas. So I have to depend only on full time jobs.


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## escapedtonz

s.anandkumarr said:


> Why do you recommend Temporary work visa Over Work to residence? How does that differ from Work to Residence? My aim is to acquire residence in the coming years. I will make sure, I work on same line on which visa is granted.
> 
> I also understand that I cannot do part time jobs when I go on these visas. So I have to depend only on full time jobs.


In my opinion Temporary Work Visas seem more straightforward to secure than the WTR visas and process time for Temporary Work Visas is relatively quick and can be given in a matter of days assuming you meet all the criteria and have all your documents etc ready to go.

Certainly the one to go for if you need to be here for a specific date - eg to start an offered job.

Immigration also only have to consider you in the country for up to 30 months - ie the maximum length of your visa whereas with the WTR visa they may have to consider you staying permanently as the whole point of the WTR visa is to move to residency.
This means the checks Immigration do on your health / medical report etc etc may not be as stringent as the checks for someone applying for a WTR visa.

There doesn't appear to be that many differences between both visas on the Immigration website.

The main difference - and this may be the only difference......
With a WTR visa you can only apply for residency after 2yrs and that initial 2yrs does not count towards citizenship if that's what you ultimately want.
With a Temporary Work Visa you can apply for Residency anytime. 
You can even have both a Residency application and a Temporary Work Visa application running at the same time.
The period you are on the Temporary Work Visa doesn't count towards citizenship, but as soon as you are granted Residency - assuming you satisfy the visa application, you then immediately turn into a Resident and can stay in NZ permanently with the time counting towards citizenship.

When looking at the Q and A's section in the area "What if my circumstances change?" the answers seem the same so it appears there are the same restrictions with both visa types for example if you resigned from your job because you didn't like it or were fired etc etc.

I'd recommend a thorough research period looking at the advantages and disadvantages of both visa types before you decide.

You could ask an authorised Immigration consultant for their advice also.

Regards,


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## s.anandkumarr

Thanks a ton for your detailed answers. 

Temporary Work visa means "Essential Skills" visa? Do you mean that? 

I understand that Temporary work visa has less process time and relatively easy to get it when compared to WTR. But rest all terms, conditions remains same for my future residency (PR) requirement. 

Also I understand that my below expectations will also be met in this temporary visa. 

1. I can change employer anytime during the visa, but I need to inform & apply for a visa and get it stamped with new employer before I start the new work. 

2. With the temp visa (Essential skills) on hand still I can apply for residence (after 12 months of experience, I don't need IELTS). So its good if I apply after 12 months of work with one employer. 

If you feel this is right, i would go ahead with my application. I have also done too many research on this already. 

Thanks once again.


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## jsharbuck

After completing all our medicals and paperwork, our 30 month work visa was sent in on a Monday and received back in 5 days. It is important to note that your work visa will stipulate the company and the position that you are granted the work visa for. We started our application for residency immediately after getting here. During the processing period my husband received a promotion and we informed our Immigration officer of the change. We were told that we were in violation of our work visa and had to go back to the original job. Those are the limitations of the 30 month visa. We began our residency paperwork in Oct and it was granted in April. Best of luck


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## s.anandkumarr

jsharbuck said:


> After completing all our medicals and paperwork, our 30 month work visa was sent in on a Monday and received back in 5 days. It is important to note that your work visa will stipulate the company and the position that you are granted the work visa for. We started our application for residency immediately after getting here. During the processing period my husband received a promotion and we informed our Immigration officer of the change. We were told that we were in violation of our work visa and had to go back to the original job. Those are the limitations of the 30 month visa. We began our residency paperwork in Oct and it was granted in April. Best of luck


Thanks. 

Does it mean that I have to stick to the same job using which I got the first entry during the Residency Visa process? 

or 

I need to be in job as i was during the Residency application (after coming to NZ) and continue till I get the residency. 

OK, the other question is after getting in to country with temp visa, and I get into another job with all proper visa processing, can I apply for the residency from the second job?


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## jsharbuck

If you enter on a work visa 30 month, taking another job or changing positions is a violation of your visa. Our agent told us that we could submit the new job description and ey would evaluate it against the skills shortage list. In our case, being an engineer was on the critical skills list but being a business manager was not. Since we had already started the Residency process, we stayed with the original position until our residency became final. It did cause us some panic for awhile.


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## s.anandkumarr

Thanks. 

Is it worth to apply for skilled migration with the job offer in hand? Is that a good idea? 

The reason for my confusion is I'm not comfortable with the job (in NZ) or pay that I got it in the offer. So I thought of using this offer just to enter the country and then to find better ones. 

Please guide me on this.


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## jsharbuck

Cannot give advice. Can only relate our experience. Wages are much lower here. We took a 40% cut but were after the change in lifestyle. What type of work?


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## s.anandkumarr

Work is related to ICT Analyst. And it is away from Auckland.


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