Step 1 Complete!

I'm happy to announce that our application for Immigration (a.k.a the EOI or Expression of Interest) has been accepted! Here's the email!

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST: SELECTED FOR CONSIDERATION

We are very pleased to confirm that your Expression of Interest (EOI) was selected from the Pool on 13 March 2008 for further consideration. Your EOI was selected from the Pool because you claimed a points total of 140 or above.

Your EOI has been forwarded to the London Branch for consideration. You will be contacted when an officer has been assigned to your case. We will conduct some preliminary checks of the information provided to determine whether the claims in the EOI are credible. Following this checking, you may be invited to apply for residence in New Zealand. For more information about the likely timing of this process please go to the London Branch page on our website
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/branch/londonbranchhome/

From what I hear though, this next step, actually being contacted by the Immigration officer, can take anywhere from 6 weeks to 4+ months. But at least there's some serious forward momentum. Which is good, because I was having a low faith day.