New Job -- New Continent!

Most of you already know this but...I got a new job! And it's in Wellington, New Zealand! I've been working on getting a visa for New Zealand for a few months now, since about January. At first I wasn't even really serious; I saw a job in New Zealand posted, and I sent in a resume. But I wasn't expecting to even hear back from the company--it was just a "wouldn't it be fun if..." sort of game. I did hear back, though, and the guy told me that they would have loved to have considered me for the position except that I wasn't legally able to work in New Zealand. He sent me the website for Immigration New Zealand.

I looked through the website and filled out the initial paperwork for a Skilled Migrant Visa (which took about three hours). Even then, I wasn't totally serious about moving to New Zealand. There was never a moment when I thought, "I think my next goal in life will be to move to a different country." I finished the online paperwork and sent it in, and then basically forgot about it for a month.

The first step in the process for getting a Skilled Migrant Visa is to submit an Expression of Interest, which is what I did online. The form is long and comprehensive, and at the end they give you a certain number of points based on a variety of factors like whether you have family members living in New Zealand, whether you already speak English, your age, and (most helpful to me) whether you have work experience in an area where New Zealand is lacking. My ten years of engineering experience gave me a moderately high point total: 125.

The next step is on Immigration New Zealand's end: they do a "draw" every two weeks, where they choose all the Expressions of Interest that are over a certain number of points. For the first draw after I submitted my form, they drew all the applications over 140 points, so I didn't get drawn. But I got drawn two weeks later, when they set the point level at 125 points. (I barely squeaked in!) I got an email saying my application had been drawn, which was a surprise since I had almost forgotten about filling it out! They sent me an Invitation to Apply (ITA) for a Skilled Migrant Visa, meaning, basically, that I had to prove everything I had claimed in the Expression of Interest.

This is where things got to be a real pain, and where I really got committed to the idea of immigrating. I had to get a health check, which was fairly straightforward though arduous. I had to be screened for diseases like tuberculosis and syphilis and AIDS, and I had to have a lot of blood and laboratory work done. I also had to go down to the police station and get my fingerprints taken, and then send the fingerprints off to the FBI to make sure I didn't have a criminal record. The FBI took forever, almost three months, but I, indeed, had a clean record. Whew! I had been reading on online forums about people who were also trying to get Skilled Migrant Visas, who were having trouble getting their educational credentials recognized by New Zealand and who had to take tests or have interviews verifying their skills (a year-long process, in some cases). Most of the people, however, had certificates from tech schools, and I was hoping that having an actual Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution would help me skip that process. It did: they accepted my degree without any hassle.

But the worst part, by far, was that I had to prove I had ten years of engineering experience by getting letters, on company letterhead, from Human Resources, from every company I've worked at since college. I've worked at five companies in the last ten years, two of which have gone bankrupt. In Worldcom's case, it went spectacularly bankrupt, changed its name, laid off more than half its employees, and then got bought out by Verizon. Trying to get a letter out of those folks, or even track down the Human Resources department, was a nightmare. At two of my former companies, my job title didn't include the word "engineer," although that was what I did, so I had to find a former manager willing write a letter clarifying my job responsibilities at those jobs. The process took months. At this point, I became committed to the New Zealand thing: if I was going to do all this work, I was going to move to New Zealand! The day I finally sent in all the paperwork was a great day. I celebrated by getting ice cream at Maggie Moo's.

And then I started looking for a job. I hadn't been looking seriously before--it didn't seem like the right time--but I knew that having a job offer would simplify the immigration process tremendously. It would also speed things up by several months. Some of the people on the forums were being told they wouldn't even have a caseworker assigned to their case for nine months! But having a job offer puts you at the top of the list.

This is where the hand of the Lord really became evident. I had been browsing through New Zealand jobs for months without seeing anything that lined up well with my skills and experience. There were plenty of jobs I felt like I could do, but not many that another company might think I could do, based on my resume. (Excuse me, based on my "CV," because that's what we call resumes on the other side of the world.) But about an hour after I started seriously looking for a job, I found one that matched my experience perfectly. The listing had some very specific, narrow requirements, but I met all the requirements based on experience at my last three jobs. It surprised me to see such precise requirements, because, at least in the United States, it would have been hard to find a person with all the right kinds of experience. I only had those skills because I had worked three diverse jobs in the industry.

Apparently it's hard to find a person in New Zealand with those skills too. I sent in my application for the job, but the job posting wasn't closing for another two weeks, so I didn't expect to hear back until at least then, if at all. But...I got an email back from the hiring agency about five hours after I applied, requesting an interview. I had a video interview with the hiring agency over Skype (which my brother helped me set up--thanks Chad!), and then the next week I had a second interview with people from the company itself. They sent me an email an hour after the second interview, saying that the job offer would be forthcoming in a few days, which it was. Once things started to happen, they happened fast!

So right now I'm just waiting for the visa. There's some paperwork (the actual job offer on company letterhead) that's supposed to be coming from New Zealand any day now, and then I have to sign it and send it to the Immigration New Zealand offices in London (because my immigration from the US to New Zealand is being handled in London--go figure). After that, I don't know how long it's going to take. I'm hoping it's just a few more weeks.

There's a woman in my ward here from New Zealand, and it turns out that her sister is going to be my Relief Society President when I move to Wellington. It's such a small world. I emailed this woman, letting her know I was coming and asking if she knew of anyone who was looking for a roommate (excuse me, "flatmate"). She emailed back right away and said there was a woman in the ward who was going to be losing her roommate ("flatmate") in about two months, and she gave me this new woman's email address. We've exchanged a few emails and it sounds like we're compatible and we'll be able to live together without hating each other. Yet another blessing. Everything seems to be falling into place.