24 actually.
just completed my settlement interview with pascale, my case officer from nzis. it went very well. they start with a few questions to ensure you are who you say you are. might seem silly, but i expect that some applicants from non-english speaking countries might try to have someone stand in for them during the interview. the rest of the questions then fell into 3 categories:
- knowledge of new zealand and what to expect
- knowledge of the job market and your ability to secure employment
- motivations for emigrating
once again the nz emigration forum came through for me since members had compiled a list of frequently asked interview questions that i was able to review and think about my answer. pascale didn’t ask anything that i could not have answered, but it’s a lot better to be able to quickly answer an open ended question like “why new zealand?, why now?” than to compose an answer on the fly.
at the end she reviewed the next steps. pascale indicated that everything for my application was now complete and that after a final confirmation review there were 3 possibilities – declining the application (she said that would not happen), full residency or work-to-residency. pascale said she was marking mine for full residency. she said we should hear within two week, but likely next week.
22 minutes from start to finish.
updated timeline:
start: 14-JUL-06, day 1
EOI submitted: 31-JUL-06, day 17
EOI selected: 02-AUG-06, day 19
EOI approved 31-OCT-06, day 109
ITA received: 06-NOV-06, day 115
ITA submitted: 24-JAN-07, day 194
interview: 20-APR-07, day 280
PR granted:
departure: