So, we've been thinking about housing once we get to New Zealand. To buy or to build? There are some really nice energy-efficient house designs on the EEH site - not only are they gorgeous houses in themselves, but they are meant to be much easier and cheaper to keep warm in winter. I know Christchurch should be sunnier than Ireland in summer, but it does get cold in winter, and most New Zealand houses are very poorly insulated. Not to mention that they don't seem to believe in central heating...
If we could get a house built, it would be to our specs and it would be well insulated. That sounds fantastic to me. The only real drawback is the price of land. If we're looking at NZ$300k just for a patch of land in a nice area, there won't be any money to build the actual house.
Of course, there is cheaper land. Ordinary housing-estate land in ordinary areas. Are we being greedy by hoping for more? I honestly don't know. I know there should be a good big deposit once my house is sold and Skry's house is sold; I just don't know how far it will stretch when we get there.
Oh well, no point in worrying too much about it now. We still haven't even got the stuff together for our ITAs! I'm going to have to give Skry a nudge in that direction this weekend, because he has a lot more documentation to pull together than I do. I'll have to keep him in order, as well as myself!
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
A Blase Family Reaction
I was on the phone to my mum last night, and brought up the subject of me moving away from Belfast. I was expecting some kind of reaction, but all I got was, "Oh, we'll miss having somewhere to stay when we're up north"!
It would be pretty cool if that was how my whole family reacted. I know they'd miss me, and I'd miss them too of course, but it would be good to not have guilt to add to every other emotion that I'll be feeling when I leave Ireland.
Of course, there's also the chance that my mum is thinking, "I'll believe it when I see it". Emigrating to the far side of the world is probably something that a lot of people talk about but never do. I didn't tell her that I'd already started the process to obtain a visa, or that Skry will be coming too, as this is something that I'm trying to keep quiet both with family and with work. It will take months more to even get the documentation together, never mind get the actual visa in our passports, so that bit of news will keep.
It was quite funny tonight, though. My sister texted me to say that she'd heard I might be moving to NZ, and could she come and visit? She said we might see more of each other if I'm on the far side of the world, which is probably true!
It would be pretty cool if that was how my whole family reacted. I know they'd miss me, and I'd miss them too of course, but it would be good to not have guilt to add to every other emotion that I'll be feeling when I leave Ireland.
Of course, there's also the chance that my mum is thinking, "I'll believe it when I see it". Emigrating to the far side of the world is probably something that a lot of people talk about but never do. I didn't tell her that I'd already started the process to obtain a visa, or that Skry will be coming too, as this is something that I'm trying to keep quiet both with family and with work. It will take months more to even get the documentation together, never mind get the actual visa in our passports, so that bit of news will keep.
It was quite funny tonight, though. My sister texted me to say that she'd heard I might be moving to NZ, and could she come and visit? She said we might see more of each other if I'm on the far side of the world, which is probably true!
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Our ITAs arrived!
Skry and I got back from the Netherlands two days ago, and our ITAs were here waiting for us! Well, his was -- I had to collect mine from the post office today, as it required a signature, and there was nobody at my house to sign for it when the postman called.
I am really surprised that the ITAs arrived so quickly. They are dated 17 July, which was only a few weeks after our EOIs were submitted. I fully expected us to be waiting two or three months before we heard anything, but it looks like we've been put in the fast lane for some reason. Maybe the London branch of the NZIS is catching up on its backlog.
It's all good news, anyway. Now we need to start getting our documentation together. The biggest two things are the police certificates (we both need certificates both from the UK and from the Republic of Ireland) and the medical checks. There are two immigration panel doctors available in Belfast, so we'll have to see about getting an appointment with one of them. We've got less than four months to get everything together, so the clock seems to be ticking quite loudly already!
I am really surprised that the ITAs arrived so quickly. They are dated 17 July, which was only a few weeks after our EOIs were submitted. I fully expected us to be waiting two or three months before we heard anything, but it looks like we've been put in the fast lane for some reason. Maybe the London branch of the NZIS is catching up on its backlog.
It's all good news, anyway. Now we need to start getting our documentation together. The biggest two things are the police certificates (we both need certificates both from the UK and from the Republic of Ireland) and the medical checks. There are two immigration panel doctors available in Belfast, so we'll have to see about getting an appointment with one of them. We've got less than four months to get everything together, so the clock seems to be ticking quite loudly already!
Monday, July 17, 2006
Post #1 - The Background
So, my boyfriend Skry and I are moving from Northern Ireland to New Zealand. Hoping to, anyway! I thought it'd be interesting to blog our progress, both for me to see how far we have come, and for other people who are thinking about emigrating.
We submitted our EOIs (forms expressing our interest in obtaining permanent residency visas) towards the end of June 2006, and both of us were selected from the pool of applicants in the very next draw after we submitted, which was fantastic. Applicants need at least 100 points to even be considered, and we were lucky enough to have 115 points (Skry) and 125 points (me), but it was still uncertain if either or both of us would be selected. It was great that we both got selected at the same time.
Last Friday we each got a letter from NZIS (New Zealand immigration), confirming that we had been selected from the pool of applicants. The next step is for NZIS to send us the ITAs, Invitations to Apply, which should be sometime in the next two or three months. We then have four months to gather all our supporting documentation (degree certificates, proof of work experience, birth certificates, and the like) and have our medicals done. Skry doesn't like needles, so he's not looking forward to that last bit! But hopefully it will all be pretty straightforward.
I still haven't told my family about our plans to leave Ireland. I'm not sure whether they'll think it's a good idea or a bad one, but for the moment I'm just keeping it under my hat. It's not that I don't want them to know; it's just such early days, and we could be waiting the best part of a year for our visas to finally come through. Then we have another 12 months to get ourselves over there. It just seems a bit early at this stage to start rocking the family boat...
We submitted our EOIs (forms expressing our interest in obtaining permanent residency visas) towards the end of June 2006, and both of us were selected from the pool of applicants in the very next draw after we submitted, which was fantastic. Applicants need at least 100 points to even be considered, and we were lucky enough to have 115 points (Skry) and 125 points (me), but it was still uncertain if either or both of us would be selected. It was great that we both got selected at the same time.
Last Friday we each got a letter from NZIS (New Zealand immigration), confirming that we had been selected from the pool of applicants. The next step is for NZIS to send us the ITAs, Invitations to Apply, which should be sometime in the next two or three months. We then have four months to gather all our supporting documentation (degree certificates, proof of work experience, birth certificates, and the like) and have our medicals done. Skry doesn't like needles, so he's not looking forward to that last bit! But hopefully it will all be pretty straightforward.
I still haven't told my family about our plans to leave Ireland. I'm not sure whether they'll think it's a good idea or a bad one, but for the moment I'm just keeping it under my hat. It's not that I don't want them to know; it's just such early days, and we could be waiting the best part of a year for our visas to finally come through. Then we have another 12 months to get ourselves over there. It just seems a bit early at this stage to start rocking the family boat...
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