Monthly Archive for February, 2007

what we have here is a failure to communicate

Published
by
antonyfoster
on February 23, 2007
in new zealand
. 0 Comments

considering the very significant effort, cost and most notably time required to get us this far in the nz immigration process i found the following news report from radio new zealand particularly (humourous / frustrating / hard to believe)?

Posted at 8:56am on 23 Feb 2007
The New Zealand Government has proposed a major shift in immigration policy to target skilled migrants in a bid to address key labour shortages in areas like IT.
The proposed move is part of a major overhaul of immigration policy designed to ensure New Zealand competes with other OECD countries for skilled migrants.
Cabinet papers on the new policy say an increasing global demand for skilled workers will make New Zealand’s current immigraton services unviable.
The government has allocated the Department of Labour an extra $2 million to start developing the policy changes. The aim is to have it completed in 18 months.
Pro-active policy necessary
Immigration Minister, David Cunliffe, says New Zealand is going to have to be more pro-active when recruting new immigrants if it’s to survive the current skills shortage.
Mr Cunliffe told Morning Report officials will have to increase marketing around the world in areas like information technology.
Earlier he said what’s needed is an immigration system that actively recruits skilled workers, rather than one that just waits for people to come here.

nz connections

Published
by
antonyfoster
on February 20, 2007
in job search and new zealand
. 0 Comments

way back in my orange days we needed some specialized skills for a project we were working on. working through connections we found a consultant named andrew watkins who worked out of his home in the uk. i never got the chance to meet him but he did a great job. so last year when i needed someone again with the same skills i went to his website to retrieve his contact details and found that he had just recently moved him and his family to new zealand. now that’s a little spooky - particularly since i later found that he had never been before he, his wife, 3 kids, dog and cat made the jump. considering that the uk is even further away from nz than boston, you’d have to be truely adventurous to make the move unseen. andrew kept a great journal of the moving, settling and their first year in nz - http://avowkind.livejournal.com/

i contacted andrew earlier in the week to get his advice on how to begin my nz job search. he gave me lots of good pointers including an introduction to the recruiter that found his nz job for him - larry beck. earlier today i had my first skype call with larry and we’re off and running. great to have someone local in nz, who understands the local market and job search process. larry gave me some good advice on how to update my cv (resume) to be more appropriate for the nz market. now he’ll begin the search.
Larry Beck

you’ve always got a boss

Published
by
antonyfoster
on February 15, 2007
in ita and new zealand
. 0 Comments

jackie pointed out that i missed one of the better details from our adventures. as i mentioned earlier everything in our application need to be an original or a certified copy. a certified copy involves creating a document that says “on such and such day i made a copy of the following original document in the presence of so and so, blah blah blah.” the copy of the original is made on the back of the document and the notary then makes it official with his or her seal. finding a notary at a copy shop on the weekend was a major hassle but we did find one (UPS Store #5001) so we gathered up all our docs and headed out. when we arrived we were greeted by a teenager with a ‘tude that had her chewing gum more out of her mouth than in.

Chewing-Gum
nice.

we explain what we want and get the smack down - “we can’t do that.”

sigh. deep breath. i had done a test run at another UPS Store (#1705) the previous week so i knew this was bogus. now the dad comes out swaggering with a sense of authority - “whutdaya need.” best part is he is also working the gum. the two of them were straight of a saturday night live sketch. so we explain again what we want and once again get the smack down. me mentioning that the other store would do it was a dead end. there is now this awkward pause before he offers what he can do - and no surprise it is more than close enough to what we need. the whole exercise was just establishing who’s the boss.

we start the copying and signing process. i sign the docs right at the counter and pass them to him - “these are already signed - i can’t certify these”. i say “right - i just signed them here on the counter”. gum chewer #2 - “but i didn’t see you sign them so i won’t certify them”.

another very long awkward pause.

gum chewer then offers “but if you sign them again in front of me that should be fine.” bloody hell. another round of “who’s the boss”

ultimately we left with what we needed but what i learned was as much as you try, you’ve always got a boss. it may be your manager at work, some bureaucrat who needs to process your paperwork - or the weekend manager of the a ups store - but you’ve always got the person who can make things easy or hard and that you just have to grin and watch them work the gum.

******

searching for a gum chewing image i first found this one. i wondered what it was about. fortunately the google translation cleared everything up.

Patugas-1

Nicolas, the son of the Senior police officer Principal Fortier has been just removed in Paris, in full Latin Quarter.
To find quickly and at all costs, it is the task which Mik set at the return of Blois and the extraordinary adventure of the Assassination of the Duke of Own way.
In this perilous company, Mik has wire with retordre well. Without the support of Fortier itself, of Mitou, the kitchen boy of the Three Cheetahs, of his/her Francoise cousin, the printer of elite, mysterious Pataugas and of all the buddies of small disappeared, it would live quite difficult hours..

application accepted

Published
by
antonyfoster
on February 15, 2007
in ita, new zealand and timeline
. 0 Comments

accepted - not approved mind you - but still it’s good to get the official letter from nzis confirming that they received the application and that it is complete.

the letter updated the overall timeline, unfortunately extending it a bit. the application is currently with the “queue officer” where it will sit for up to four months (previous estimate was three) before being assigned a case officer for review.