Blink and you will miss it…Easter has been and gone and we are now near the end of the fourth month in 2024. The colors of autumn are everywhere and the days are shorter, and getting a little cooler as we gradually move into winter.

With many businesses working through financial year end, now is a good time to start planning ahead for the next 12 months and with tighter economic conditions out there, the more planning ahead you can do, the better.

March madness has its origins in various places because for some reason this particular month creates an unusual degree of chaos in various quarters. In the US it is synonymous with the start of the basketball season, bringing a rush of tournaments and players to the front and centre of the American sporting calendar.

In New Zealand (and particularly in Auckland) it is often associated with a sudden increase in traffic, as students are all back at school, including the Universities. That of course translates to longer commute times and everyone realising that summer holiday are in fact over and we are now really back at work for the year…

Love is in the air this month with February bringing us Valentine’s day (love it or otherwise) and cause to celebrate relationships in all their shapes and sizes. To keep with the theme of the month, Februarys newsletter is all about love and relationships.

Our Family Law team have produced an insightful article on some of the more practical elements of love, as well as demystifying some of the legal concepts involved with a life with your better half.

We also take a look at the process to bring in your loved one from offshore, if love has found you in another country, and take a look at some of the common pitfalls people experience in the partnership Visa process.

This weeks blog is a game of two-halves, with the first part focussing on the trials and tribulations of telling your children, that you are about to uproot them, to move to another country. The second half, is focussed on the slightly more technical aspects of actually including those children in your application (there are different rules for different visas).

The inspiration for this blog came from a conversation I had with a potential client earlier in the week. Bob (not his real name) was contemplating the big move, along with his wife (who was already onboard) their two children - somewhat less enthusiastic. As we discussed the various steps involved, and some of the challenges, the topic of “when and how do we tell the kids” came about. Bob was already knee deep in some teenage angst, having dropped this particular bombshell on his children already.

There is an unfortunate truth in the world of visas, which is not specific to New Zealand, but applicable to any immigration system, where human beings are involved in making decisions that impact on other peoples lives - that truth is that the outcome and the process involved to reach that outcome are very heavily influenced by the person who ends up processing the application.

You can have one set of rules, one set of standard operating procedures and one organisation in charge of all of it and yet, applicants of a similar background with similar situations can end up experiencing the process and coming out the other side, in very, very different ways.

Welcome to 2024 and our first newsletter of the year. The theme for this month is “planning” and making sure you start the year off right by thinking about all of those tasks that often get put off for too long.

We have some useful tips on what to plan for in the year ahead, a few updates from the team and what they got up to over the holiday break as well as the results of our recent Net Promoter Score survey.

I think I say this every year, but I cannot believe how quickly the end of this year has arrived - and what a year it has been. There has been plenty going on in New Zealand over the last 12 months and there is potentially a lot more to come on the Visa front in 2024. With a new coalition Government in place, who have a vastly different view of the world, we are all shuffling towards the edge of our seats to see what might be announced (I dont expect it to be soon however). \

We wind up the year with a bit of a recap and a look to the future. We also line up for more of our free immigration seminars in 2024 (the first one takes place in January) and we have a small (and very useful) gift available for our regular readers (more below or in the original email).

2023 has been a big year for everyone, including the team at Turner Hopkins. We made our long-awaited move to new premises in June, we rolled out our new, fresh branding, and our updated websites were also released in September.

It has been a year of significant change, but change focused on ensuring we can continue to deliver outstanding service to our clients, no matter where they are located.

It’s official, we have a new Government, consisting of (from left to right) the ACT Party, the National Party and New Zealand first. This is a significant first for New Zealand with three political parties sharing the reigns, something that our MMP system has never managed to produce, although we have had some close calls.

This election was was equally touch and go for a while, with no one sure as to whether we would need NZ First in the mix.

New Zealand has voted…well just under 79% of us did at least, in what felt like one of the biggest election campaigns in living memory.

This election may not have seen the same turnout of previous years or a landslide victory for anyone, but it certainly captured the nations attention.

All too often I hear from applicants who have landed themselves in some hot water with Immigration New Zealand (INZ) because they have either failed to declare something or something they declared was in fact not the truth.

INZ treats this stuff pretty seriously and rightly so, and for some applicants it can spell the end of their visa journey…but what happens if you genuinely made a mistake or someone else made that mistake on your behalf?

A big part of what we do here at Turner Hopkins Immigration is coaching people not only on the Visa process, to reach a successful outcome, but we also give plenty of advice on the job search - which usually forms a key role in the Visa process anyway.

I have always been a big advocate for the power or a strong and useful network as part of that job search process, particularly in a country like New Zealand, where who you know, often weighs in far heavier that what you know.

If you have never heard of a Rube Goldberg machine, then the above image might not make much sense, but to bring everyone up to speed, they are basically a clever and very complicated machine (or group of machines) that makes a simple process (like switching on a light) as complicated as humanly possible - with often ludicrous, over the stop steps, added just for fun.

If you have ever tried to decipher what our current Skilled Migrant category looks like or how it operates, with the very simple end goal being to attract skilled, employable people - you could be forgiven for thinking that INZ have created their very own Rube Goldberg machine.

Your application is lodged, you think you have done it right, after weeks and months of sweating over which pieces of paper to find, do all the documents stack up, did the courier make it in time…and then, that email from INZ arrives, the one that says “we need more information” or even worse “we have some concerns”.

Even a really well prepared application can still lead to INZ requesting more information or worse, telling you they have some “concerns” that you need to address. Nothing causes more fear, stress and panic that one of these dreaded letters…

For most migrants, finding a job is not only a key to a new life, but the cornerstone of a Visa application, and so there is a lot to be said for how this process works, what doesn’t work and some of the most commonly made mistakes.

We have assisted a lot of people over the years to secure Residence in New Zealand and as part of that, we have figured out a useful tips when it comes to the job search. If you are planning on a move here, or are here and seeking a job offer, to then pursue various Visas, the following might just be useful in tackling that rather large task.