I am 29, unmarried, having 6+ Years of experience as a Software Engineer in India. How can I get a job in NZ before I apply for visa under 'Skilled Migrant' category?
1 Answer
Many jobs in New Zealand are offered on one of the big job sites, such as http://www.seek.co.nz/ or http://www.trademe.co.nz/jobs. As a software engineer, there are also NZ jobs listed on https://careers.stackoverflow.com/ (those all seem to be Auckland-based when I checked while writing this answer). You can also contact recruiting agencies and companies individually (look for "jobs", "careers", or "vacancies" on their web site).
You may find that many jobs offered say something like "Applicant must have the right to work in New Zealand", which means you need a work visa first. What you can do is try to apply for a skilled migrant visa without the benefit of having a job offer. If you have enough points, this is possible. You can then come to New Zealand on a visitor visa, look for a job (this is a lot easier when you can do in-person interviews), then when you get a job offer you can get a temporary work visa. Having a job will then make your skilled migrant visa process much more quickly.
There are other possible ways to arrange this too. If you have a university degree and 6 years experience, you're definitely on the right track. When I did this many years ago, I found the staff at Immigration very helpful in explaining what I needed to do.
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Thank you for a detailed answer @Greg. I do have a masters degree and 6+ experience as well. But I found many articles that says it is very difficult to get a visa if you dont have a job. Is it true? Can you give me some tips before I apply for visa. Also do i need to show sufficient funds for the various expenses during the stay in NZ? Thanks much for your help!! Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 6:47
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1@shrutivasishta: The first thing to do is to complete the Points Indicator for the Skilled Migrant Category. I tried it using possible answers from your situation, and got 110 points (100 is the minimum required to submit an Expression of Interest). That was without a job offer, so there is considerable room for improvement. If you have enough points, you can submit an Expression of Interest. If your EOI is selected, then you can apply for a visa. Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 7:02
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As for funds, I don't know much about that. There are different rules for people coming from different countries, and I don't know about India. Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 7:04