Monday, September 8, 2008

Belated Update...

Well it's been far too long since my last post and a fair amount has happened in the last 3 months. We received our ITA (Invitation To Apply) on 25 June, 1 day before we went on a last visit to Europe (well certainly the last for a while assuming we do get in to NZ. As a result the earliest date we could get for our medicals was Friday 18th July. Since the rest of our paperwork was already done we just had to wait.

The medical day finally arrived and off the 4 of us went to a mad doc in Rosebank. He was great but a bit eccentric. The whole process took nearly 3 hours - way too long with a 2.9 yo and a 10 month old in tow. I was the only one with any funnies on my medical, all because of a motor bike prang nearly 20 years ago and a small matter of some lung scarring. Extra TB tests were ordered and after a couple of days the results showed nothing to worry about. Now we just have to hope the NZ medical assessor sees things the same way.

The ITA was eventually sent off on 31 July. Then the waiting game began again. The whole PR process consists of 90% waiting and 10% frantic running around searching for obscur documents or infomation.

On the 13th August the next milestone was arrived at. Our credit card was debited £685 - ouch, but good news I guess. This was final confirmation for me that they had now started the final part of the PR process. Then more waiting.

Finally we've just heard that we have now been assigned a case officer. This is the person that now goes though all the papers we've submitted and makes a decision on whether we'll be allowed in. One thing that is fairly unique to South Africa applicant is that each one that doesn't already hold an offer of employment from an NZ company has to go through a face-to-face interview. The objective is to ascertain the likelihood of us settling in NZ. Are we employable, have we done our research, what are our expectations etc. They come out to SA once or twice a year to perform these interviews. Since we are on a fixed time line, I'm reluctant to wait for the next round, so I have made contact with my case officer requesting if it would be possible to be interview in London. She has said it will be, so it looks like I'm off to London for a jollie at the end of the month.

So now it's more waiting and preparing for whatever questions they could throw at me. Also still waiting for confirmation that the doc's are happy with our medical. My thumbs are aching from all the holding.

The next update will probably only be after my interview, so hold thumbs for me...

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