Hi Debbie
The NZ Government has an official Immigration website similar to the DIAC website:
Immigration New Zealand
I have not read the NZ site so I have no idea what the criteria for NZ are.
A couple of firms of Migration Agents in the UK also offer visas for NZ:
Sort Out My Visa: Home
Overseas Emigration Visas - Immigration and Visa Services
Oceania Emigration - Australian Emigration
As it happens I was chatting with Ashley McEwen of Oceania Emigration the other day about something quite different but he mentioned NZ as a possible route to Oz for a friend of mine who is a little over 50 in an unusual line of work.
Asked how the idea would work, Ashley said:
1. The guy could get a skilled Permanent Residency Visa for NZ pretty quickly - Ashley thought about 5 or 6 months.
2. He would then have to live in NZ for not less than 5 years in order to qualify for NZ Citizenship.
3. As an NZ Citizen, my friend could simply fly to Oz and walk straight in on a subclass 444 visa which is apparently granted on arrival at the airport in Oz. Apparently this visa enables the holder to do any job they like in Australia and to live wherever they like in Oz too.
4. However is it a temporary visa only. It expires if the holder leaves Oz for any reason and he has to get another one on his next re-entry to Oz. Because it is a temporary visa, there is no entitlement to the Australian Aged Pension in due course and no access to any Centrelink (social security benefit) if the Kiwi with the sc 444 visa falls on hard times whilst living in Oz.
Whether there is any access to Medicare in Oz would - I would guess - depend on whether there is a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement between Australia and NZ. My guess is that there probably is one but I think the Medicare website probably has a special section for Kiwis in Oz. I think one would have to check the Medicare website and probably also ask Medicare about this element.
5. In order to get Permanent Residency in Oz and then Australian Citizenship etc later, a Kiwi Citizen has to pass the same criteria as a British applicant would need to pass nowadays, so Ashley told me.
I then checked the DIAC Visa Wizard to find out what the story is if you are a British Citizen living in NZ, you want to live & work in Oz but you do not have an employer sponsor and you are over 45 years of age. Answer: you are not eligible for a visa, so the Wizard told me.
It seems to me that it is quicker, easier and safer just to get the required qualifications and migrate straight from the UK to Oz without going via NZ.
Best wishes
Gill
