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
Friday, November 23, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
Overdue Update
Sorry everyone, this is a long overdue update. Things are just so stressful here at the moment, progress is slow but we are starting to get somewhere at last.
The children have been officially offered places at Nelson Intermediate school and we have enrolled them for a term as international students. We submitted their student visa applications earlier this week and the immigration office has been in touch with us today with a query about their birth certificates, hopefully we should get that ironed out tomorrow and the application will go through smoothly.
The big issue now is whenever we are going to have to apply for an interim Guardian visa. Our business plan and business visa application is just about ready to submit but we can't send it in till I have my new passport, that won't be until the 19th. Once the business plan is in, it can take three to six months to be approved, but the new school term starts the first week of February, it is unlikely that we will have our visas by then and until we have work permits we can't enroll the kids as domestic students, that is why we have had to pay the fees and get them in as 'international'.
The children are not allowed to study in New Zealand without a parent or Guardian present, so it is possible that we will have to apply for a Guardian visa to cover us until our business visa is approved. That is IF it's approved! we are confident that our business plan is a very sound one, but you never know do you - and that is where the big stress is coming from because we just can't plan anything until we get that official 'yes' We daren't take a chance on shipping all our stuff over there until we get that visa because if we don't get it, we'll be shipping it all back again! on top of that, without the visa we will have to pay tax on everything we own going in.
These are all issues that we can get around, the thing that is causing us real problems right now is the fact that it is summer in NZ and peak holiday season, Nelson is one of the top tourist spots in New Zealand and finding any accommodation there at this time of year is proving to be truly impossible. We can't take on a long term unfurnished property because we can't ship our stuff over and all short term furnished accommodation is fully booked up or astronomically expensive.
When we have visited New Zealand in the past we have stayed in a hotel for few days to get over the flight, then hired a camper van and headed off. It is a fabulous way to see the country and we all love living on the road. So we have even looked at the possibility of living in a camper until we can find something more permanent, but again most of the vans are booked up and the only ones available are way over priced.
We are currently toying with the idea of buying our own camper van as soon as we arrive, that way we will have somewhere to live and transport all in one! it is a crazy idea but it may be our only option.
UPDATE - Just been down to the immigration office and the kids have had their student visas approved and stamped into their passports. We don't need to apply for a Guardian visa as they have only given the girls permits until May, but that will be long enough for us to find out whenever our business plan will be approved or not.
Carri x
The children have been officially offered places at Nelson Intermediate school and we have enrolled them for a term as international students. We submitted their student visa applications earlier this week and the immigration office has been in touch with us today with a query about their birth certificates, hopefully we should get that ironed out tomorrow and the application will go through smoothly.
The big issue now is whenever we are going to have to apply for an interim Guardian visa. Our business plan and business visa application is just about ready to submit but we can't send it in till I have my new passport, that won't be until the 19th. Once the business plan is in, it can take three to six months to be approved, but the new school term starts the first week of February, it is unlikely that we will have our visas by then and until we have work permits we can't enroll the kids as domestic students, that is why we have had to pay the fees and get them in as 'international'.
The children are not allowed to study in New Zealand without a parent or Guardian present, so it is possible that we will have to apply for a Guardian visa to cover us until our business visa is approved. That is IF it's approved! we are confident that our business plan is a very sound one, but you never know do you - and that is where the big stress is coming from because we just can't plan anything until we get that official 'yes' We daren't take a chance on shipping all our stuff over there until we get that visa because if we don't get it, we'll be shipping it all back again! on top of that, without the visa we will have to pay tax on everything we own going in.
These are all issues that we can get around, the thing that is causing us real problems right now is the fact that it is summer in NZ and peak holiday season, Nelson is one of the top tourist spots in New Zealand and finding any accommodation there at this time of year is proving to be truly impossible. We can't take on a long term unfurnished property because we can't ship our stuff over and all short term furnished accommodation is fully booked up or astronomically expensive.
When we have visited New Zealand in the past we have stayed in a hotel for few days to get over the flight, then hired a camper van and headed off. It is a fabulous way to see the country and we all love living on the road. So we have even looked at the possibility of living in a camper until we can find something more permanent, but again most of the vans are booked up and the only ones available are way over priced.
We are currently toying with the idea of buying our own camper van as soon as we arrive, that way we will have somewhere to live and transport all in one! it is a crazy idea but it may be our only option.
UPDATE - Just been down to the immigration office and the kids have had their student visas approved and stamped into their passports. We don't need to apply for a Guardian visa as they have only given the girls permits until May, but that will be long enough for us to find out whenever our business plan will be approved or not.
Carri x
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Halloween
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