How difficult is it to get sponsored by a New Zealand employer?

Shala1993

31 August 2017 11:59:53

Hello all

So I currently hold a one year working holiday visa to New Zealand which was granted on the 31st of October 2016.

Unfortunately, as fate would have it, on the same day my visa was granted my grandfather was diagnosed with a serious life threatening disease. Thus, I took the decision to postpone my trip to be at home with him and my family.

In the meantime I have secured my first job since graduating from college, a job which is good, stable and is providing me with the perfect experience needed to add to my CV. Furthermore, my grandfather is still facing an uphill battle so being close to home at the moment is a priority for the next six-eight months.

However, as October is fast approaching I am faced with a dilemma. Go out to New Zealand and activate my visa and then head back out there in a few months when things are better at home or take a risk let the visa expire and head out again with the hope that an employer will sponsor me to work.

Both have pros and cons. If I head out in October I can rest easy knowing I will have a visa when I arrive next year which will make it easier to start working however, the trip will set my back a couple of grand just to go out and activate it OR

I can let the visa expire go out to NZ when I'm ready (I can stay for up to six months without a visa as a UK passport holder) and try to find an employer to sponsor me/help me get a visa.

If the likely hood of getting sponsorship from an employer was high I would be inclined to wait it out until next year to go out so that I wouldn't have to take time off work and spend a couple of grand heading out in October.

So does anybody know how difficult is is to get sponsored by an employer in New Zealand?

I hold a upper second-class honours degree in business management, a upper second-class honours master degree in human resource management and will one years experience as an office manger on my CV.

Should I stay or go out in October?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

schaz

31 August 2017 22:51:25

1454

Palmerston North

Getting employment at NZ is certainly a challenge. What I have learnt during my stay is, that if an organization or an employer desperately needs someone, they will do all efforts to get him/her on board, however if the availability of people for a certain profession is wide, they prefer to hire from the local market with prior NZ experience. Here, the Luck factor plays a role. There are examples of people having prior NZ experience seeking jobs while there are few people who just enter the country and get the employment. But in general, for the non-technical jobs like HRM, Business Admin, Marketting etc, the local kiwi people are widely available and most of the employers take less hassle for hiring the expats. Your passport is a strong factor though, so you should really think about your current scenarios versus your future aspects.
If you're financially stable and could manage a bit, then you could perhaps plan a month's trip to NZ. That will broaden up your ways of proceeding further on. Entering NZ would be another advantage as you'll be able to utilize your visa and it will not negatively impact the next time you extend or apply a new NZ visa.

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