Believe it or not, the immigration process can be likened to a trip to the amusement park, let me explain with this illustration (follow along with the numbers) :
You wake up one morning and decide you need a little excitement in your life. How about going to the amusement park for the day your partner suggests? Great idea you say, “I’m tired of sitting around at home every Saturday”!
1) At the gate you pay your entrance fee. You have never been to this amusement park yet so you make your way down the pathway to the Info kiosk to find out how everything works.
2) At the kiosk you get a map of the park and look up what rides are available. It turns out that at this amusement park you have to follow the path and take whatever ride is along the path, no cutting across the grass, or skipping a ride is allowed. You may however stop at the shop to buy trinkets and refreshments at any time though as the shop is in the centre of the park. You may also follow a short path back to the entrance at any time if you decide you don’t like the park anymore, you will however not be refunded your entrance tickets.
3) First up is the roller coaster. You don’t particularly like roller coasters, but you have no choice. The roller coaster is part of the path. So you hop on and hold on for dear life so that you get to the end and can continue on down the path to the rides you really came for. The kids all want an ice-cream, so you stop at the shop. The prices at the shop at ridiculously expensive, but what can you do except mutter under your breath, close your eyes and pay.
4) Next up is your favourite ride, the teacups. Now THIS is what you came for! You squeal with joy as the cups go round and round until, all too soon, the ride ends and you need to move on again. The ride makes you quite thirsty so you stop at the shop for a drink.
5) Continuing along the path you reach the stall where you have to shoot the ducks off the ledge for prizes. The only problem is that the guns they give you aren’t particularly accurate and you can’t move on to the next stop on the path until you have shot at least 3 ducks. It takes you a while to get the hang of how to operate the rifle with any kind of accuracy, but before long you are shooting the ducks off the wall like a pro.
6) By this time it is lunch time so you stop at the shop again to see what’s on the menu. The adults order hamburgers and the kids want hot dogs. Just up ahead is a beautiful park lined with trees and benches for you to sit under. There are also jungle gyms and slides for the kids to play on. After lunch you and your partner start chatting to another couple, who are also looking decidedly pale from the obligatory roller coaster ride. With your ordeal in common you have lots to chat about and the conversation is lively. Next minute someone taps you on the shoulder. You look around to see it’s your brother and his family. “I never knew you were coming to the amusement park today you exclaim”, upon which he replies “We were thinking about it, but when we heard you guys were coming, we decided to join you”. Your brother and sister-in-law sit down and their kids head off to go play with their cousins.
After a great day at the park everybody decides to head off home. At the exit the staff are selling awesome “I survived” T-shirts. You just HAVE to have one of those, so you hop in the queue. As you stand in line to get your shirt you overhear the folks in front of you complaining about how bad the food was and how terrible the layout of the park was. You on the other hand think that even though you are gonna be pretty broke until next payday, it was all worth it.
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I think you could already see some of the similarities, but let’s go through them anyway:
Folks decide to emigrate for various reasons, you can read more about the Reasons to Emigrate.
Once the decision is made you need to decide where to emigrate to. In this case you are looking into emigrating to New Zealand and your search has brought you here. We are your Info Kiosk which will guide you through the process. The Start section of the website is your map of the site.
The first step in the process is to decide whether New Zealand is actually for you. In the About section of the website we have included as much info as possible to help you make that decision. You will find general info about New Zealand the country. You will also be able to read up about the experiences of other migrants that have gone through the process so you can get a feel for what lies ahead.
If you do decide that New Zealand is the country for you then the next step in the process is to apply to emigrate. This is where the excitement of the “park” and the “rollercoaster ride” starts. The immigration process is stressful, fun, exciting, painful, and all the other emotions all at the same time. A very emotional ride indeed.
It starts with finding out what options are available to you – what do you need to do to qualify to immigrate to New Zealand. In the Apply section of the website all your options have been laid out for you to help you gain a clearer understanding of the immigration application process.
Once you know which route to take you can apply and hopefully gain a positive outcome which will allow you actually immigrate to New Zealand. This is when your expenses will start. It isn’t cheap, but you will pay them anyway.
That is when the fun starts. You are actually moving to New Zealand! In the Move section you will find all the info you need to make this part of the process as painless as possible. There are checklists, links and heaps of other info to help you along the way.
Once you arrive in New Zealand you find that things don’t always work as you expect. You realise that people sound different, say the same things in different ways, act differently than what you are used to. Your favourite products aren’t available here, etc., etc. Simple tasks like preparing your CV are not the same. In the Adapt section you will find many tools to help you make those adjustments and learn the Kiwi way of doing things.
When you emigrate you are leaving all your connections, friends and family behind. A vital part of the process is creating new connections, a new support network that. In the connect section you will find the tools you need to do that – most notably the Forum where you can chat with fellow immigrants. Please use the forum throughout the entire process – in fact I suggest you head off there right now and go say Hello. There are folks that are just starting out, like you are, but there are also folks that are far along the process as well. There are even some that are now citizens and still return to help others who are still on their way. This is your starting point to re-establishing those lost connections and also in gaining vital, up to the minute info about the immigration process. You may even discover that you know a few folks there already!
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As you can see the process has definite steps. Some overlap, especially the Connect step, but generally you will start off at the left hand Start icon on the site and as you progress through your immigration process, you will find yourself moving to the next icon towards the right.
The final icon is the Shop icon – there are many tools and products that can assist you along the process outside of our website. We have assembled as many of these as can inside the Shop and in the banners you will find throughout the site. Each of these products have been created, hand picked or approved by ourselves based on their quality and value. Everything on the site, including the products shown in the advertisements have been chosen to make your immigration process easy as possible, or to assist you with the process. We ask that you please support our sponsors as they help us pay the bills so that you can enjoy this site for free.
Good luck with your process and enjoy your stay here with us.