I have made my way a little further into the Moon "Living in New Zealand" book and think it will be a valuable resource once we have job offers in place and are deciding where to live. There are some good tidbits about the different suburbs around the major NZ cities, including their accessibility to the city centers and transportation. It also provided interesting info about cost of housing and immigrant populations in each area. We both enjoyed the case studies about those who had already made the move.
Unfortunately, it didn't offer much help on the moving process or timeline. I had also hoped it would provide more detailed information about day-to-day life beyond where to find a post office or how to find a hotel. There was also nothing about how to deal with paying taxes in two countries or differences in school curricula.
I'm still glad we bought it, but it was not the fountain of information I had hoped it would be.
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FYI - I posted two more documents under the Immigration tab regarding our Approved in Principle (AIP) status. We have opted to take the additional 6-months grace period offered by the immigration office before we officially accept the famous PR blue stickers to our passports. Once the blue stickers are on, we will have 12-months to make the move. This gives us until May 2010 to find jobs and sell our house. Since the holidays are typically a slow time of year for job opportunities, we don't expect to start our search in earnest until mid-January. This will also give us some extra time to get the house ready for sale and purge the tons of STUFF we have everywhere. In order to make a little money, we're going to try our hand at selling our things on eBay and save the rest for a monster yard sale. We were officially approved for permanent residency for New Zealand today!! After months of planning and applying, its surreal to know that the approval process is now done. All I can think about is what we need to do...Find new jobs, prepare our house for sale in a terrible market, break the news to our friends and family, pack, research new schools. Oh boy, my head is already spinning. It will be difficult to focus on work today. Let the journey begin!! |
AuthorA working mom of two from Virginia muses about moving to New Zealand ArchivesCategories |