Home > Our Publications > New Zealand Outlook > 2000 > September

By Lawrence Johnston

HAVE all the documentation in full that you need for your application, before you start applying. That is the advice of Jan Clark.
Recently appointed Chief Migration Officer at New Zealand House in London, Jan says that applicants for migration to New Zealand can considerably speed up the processing of their application, if they heed that advice.
"Our turnaround on making decisions on applications can be really fast. The ones that we can turnaround really quickly are those where people have taken the effort to gather all their necessary documentation before they apply.
"Most people make sure they have satisfactory police and medical certificates, but where things sometimes get held up is when adequate verification of any work experience they claim to have had, is not included. You need to be able to prove that you have worked for all the employers for whom you say you have worked. That's the information that we quite often have to write away for," she says.
Also, people sometimes only submit a half rather than full birth certificate - a fundamental immigration requirement.
"The sort of certificate we need to see contains details of your family as well as about yourself. These are routinely things we have to ask for, and which can hold up your application if not complete when you first apply," she says.
The other thing Jan says is worth considering, is visiting New Zealand before you apply to emigrate there.
"Knowing what's ahead of you is probably the key to really settling well into a place, and getting an idea of some of the ways.
"Although the New Zealand and UK cultures are fairly similar, it can be quite hard going to settle in a new place and, for example, trying to establish how you go about buying a house. That is the sort of thing you need to go through once you get there. Job seeking is another thing although that is probably easier to work out in a way because you've got newspapers and recruitment agencies to refer to."
Jan says the type of people that New Zealand might appeal to are those in search of somewhere with a slower pace of life than is customary in somewhere like London.
"Not having to travel for hours on end is a major plus. Also the open spaces and beaches are often close at hand. A high proportion of New Zealanders have easy access to a beach. They vary from the white sandy ones on