Immigration is like Driving...

When I was first learning to drive, my instructor, who had a penchant for the overly dramatic, harped on the concept of making sure you look ahead to find your "Point of No Return". Essentially, the point when crossing a traffic light where if it suddenly turns red, you will no long be able to safely stop in time. I think he was subconsciously teaching me how to run yellow lights, but regardless, I think we just found our immigration Point of No Return.

Looking through the documentation for the ITA, there's a ton of "official" paperwork that needs to be provided:

• Certified copies of passports
• Medical examination results
• Criminal background check (including fingerprints!)
• Proof of employment for all the jobs we put do
• Proof of qualifications, including transcripts
• Proof of marriage, both the certificate and some sort of proof that it's legit (photos are allowed so long as they are dated... wtf?)

and...

• A check for 685£ for the application fee. That's approximately 1336.45 $.

Given that we've already dropped over 500$ on the paperwork above plus 400+ $CDN for the EOI form and there's more to come, we're now at the point where we're "putting our money where our mouths are". Other then the actual buying of the plane tickets, this would appear to be the biggest expense so far.

I think I'll put up a table of all costs incurred at the end of this little adventure.

What's strange is that it now feels real for the first time. I don't know why exactly it takes attaching a price tag to this for my mind to clue in, but it probably says something about the way I'm wired.

It's a terrifying feeling all of a sudden.

Just Found: Flowchart Explaining What We're Going Through.

I'm not 100% certain everything on this is accurate (it says we'd get an interview before our ITA, but that didn't happen) but overall it's a very good explanation of the system:
In fact, the page it comes from has some good stuff on it. We've decided not to go with Immigration consultants, but I sometimes wonder if that wouldn't have been simpler.

http://www.proteapacific.co.nz/new_zealand/nz_detail.asp?id=12&bhcp=1

Level 2 reached. ITA in our hands.

Kickass! Just when I thought we'd have to seriously give some thought to living in NZ as tourists for the foreseeable future, we got our ITA (can't remember the acronym meaning right now). The ITA package is a big stack of papers. A fairly thin stapled package is what we actually have to fill out. The rest is supporting documentation (probably a 100 or so pages of it) explaining the process.

Essentially, this stage is when we are required to prove that all the stuff we put on our EOI form is in fact true. This means we need certified copies of all our degrees, job references confirming our employment, police checks, medical checks (including x-rays!) etc. I'm guessing this will take us a week or two to assemble, get notarized, and ship back off. Assuming this all checks out, I believe (research to follow) that we'll be at the (perhaps optional?) interview stage, which is the last stage before we get the official acceptance.

One of the more disconcerting things about this package is they state not to make any travel arrangements until the process is complete. That doesn't really work for us, given the selling of the house etc. so we'll need to get better informed about that...

It's nice to get a little bit of hope, it was getting a little depressing.

Plans Before We Go.

We've got a few people we need to visit before we leave for the year, and doing it through plane flights etc. is going to be prohibitively expensive. I've always wanted to drive to Vancouver and we'd been talking about driving the country to see it, so combining the two seems like a good idea.

Here's a tentative itinerary...

View Larger Map


Definitely some more challenges to come on this one...

A couple of thoughts that struck me off the top:

• We'll likely buy a beater car either here or in Halifax, get it checked out by a mechanic, then go from there
• It needs to be able to carry all the crap we'd be flying out with
• Selling it in Vancouver would probably be a nerve racking experience, but I bet if i drive it to a bunch of different dealers I'll get some moderate amount of cash for it.
  

As always, pro/cons pop directly into my head (I'm a nerd that way)

Pros:

• We get to see everyone we care about before we leave (note, a Montreal trip is planned before this!)
• Gets us into a traveling frame of mind that we'll need for the next three or so months until we get all settled in
• Cheaper then flying to each spot
• We'd see people we haven't seen in a long while
• Flying out of Vancouver is cheaper and also avoids flying through the States
  
• Exciting!

Cons:

• Damn that's a lot of driving
• We'd be exhausted once we get to Auckland/Wellington
• Selling the car would be a nightmare
• What happens if the car falls apart?
  
• When you factor in gas, hotels / campsites, how much is this going to cost us before we move???

It's just an idea at this point, but I think it would be a fun adventure that would be a great way to see the country.