Its Gone!!!

At long last! we have actually submitted our LTBV (long term business visa) application. I just can't believe what a long, stressful and expensive task it has been. We hold business visas for Thailand and Singapore so it is not like we are new to the process, but the New Zealand one is so tough.
We have twelve years business experience behind us and two established limited companies and we still found this application really challenging! I guess that New Zealand immigration are just really trying to weed out the time wasters at the offset (however I think the thousand pound application fee successfully does that!!!)
On top of the application fee we have had to have a financial forecast prepared by a New Zealand accountant and all of our supporting documentation certified by lawyers here in Singapore, so it is certainly not a cheap or easy route in.

Anyway it has gone and the waiting game begins, they reckon it will be three to six months before we get an answer so we are living in limbo till then!

We have made good progress with the packing but have still not decided whenever to take a chance on shipping all of our personal stuff to New Zealand and risk having to ship it back again if the visa is turned down. It is most likely that we will ship the stuff over though, because even with shipping costs and having to pay the tax on everything when it goes in, it will still be cheaper than storing it in land scarce Singapore, and at least we will have access to everything, I must admit the prospect of living out of a suitcase for six months is not appealing!

It would be so much easier to just to stay in Singapore and wait for the outcome, but if we do that then the kids will miss the start of the new school term, and as they have not been to school for six months already we don't want to keep them out much longer.

We have managed to keep on top of the home edding and I think they have really benefited from it in some areas, maths and science especially, six months of one to one learning has brought them on leaps and bounds in these subjects.
English, surprisingly has proved to be much harder to teach at home. They are both extremely proficient in grammar but Poppy seriously struggles with creative writing while Lu is the opposite, she is extremely gifted and is determined to become an author. So I have trouble helping them both but for different reasons and there is very little outside help available here, Singapore so desperately needs to enlist more English, English teachers!

Please excuse me if I am not in touch with anyone for a few weeks, after spending so long on this visa application my work has seriously slipped and it is going to take me a while to catch up on things, will be in touch soon.

Carri x