Immigration Process Step 2: Background Checks

New Zealand requires that all immigrants be of "good character," and to show this, all applicants must provide a background check certificate from any country of which they are citizens AND any country they've lived in for five years or more since turning 17.  

To fulfill this requirement, US citizens/residents must provide an FBI Identification Record.  If you are a citizen, these are fairly easy to obtain - you go to one of a number of different FBI-approved third parties, they take your fingerprints electronically, send them to the FBI, and within 24 hours you have your background check.  You can request to get it either electronically through the channeler's website or by mail (or both). Non-citizens must apply directly to the FBI, which can take longer. Rob and I are both US citizens, and neither of us has a criminal background, so this was a fairly painless and quick process.

However, Rob is also a Canadian citizen, and getting a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Certificate was a bit more of a process. A Canadian resident can also go to an RCMP-approved third party to get fingerprinted electronically, and the results are ready within 72 hours. They come directly from the RCMP and are available only by mail. 

Unfortunately, there are no RCMP-approved fingerprinters outside of Canada. Non-residents are asked to have their fingerprints taken on paper by the local police office, and then mail them to the RCMP.  Obtaining these results can take 3-6 months. We didn't have 3-6 months to wait for this, and so we had to spend one of our few spare weekends driving to Windsor to the nearest RCMP-approved fingerprinter. Thankfully it's not a long drive (about 5 hours), and we were able to take a side trip to spend the night with Rob's grandparents (where Gwen and I proceeded to massacre Grump and Rob at Euchre).  We also had the RCMP mail Rob's background check to his grandparents' Canadian address so that they could express mail them to us, as the regular postal service between Canada and the US can take a couple of weeks.

Immigration Process Step 1: The Official Job Offer

One of the easiest ways to immigrate anywhere is to find someone to sponsor you for a work visa. There are many tales of people who pack up their belongings, move, and hope for the best, but we are too cautious for that. I like to think of myself as adventurous, but in a responsible way. Also, I have grown accustomed to a certain lifestyle that living off savings could not afford - namely, one that includes a washer/dryer in unit.  Thus, we were not willing to make this move without some kind of assurance that we can support ourselves once we get there.

Back when I was a newly minted law school grad, I took a job with one of the largest private companies in the world. I started laying the groundwork for this opportunity the day I started working, making it very clear to everyone I spoke with that an international placement was in my future.

After the post-wedding dust settled, Rob and I began to talk about what the next step was. We knew we wanted to move - we just had to figure out where. We narrowed our choices down to New Zealand and Vancouver. At my mid-year review I told as much to my career counselor, presented my business case for both, and waited to hear back.

Weeks went by and I didn't hear back, so Rob and I started learning more about Vancouver and admittedly were very excited about our Plan B. We told all our friends that we were 95% sure we were moving to Vancouver, and they all breathed a sigh of relief, because they wanted to keep us on the same continent.  

Almost a month after our initial meeting, at 9pm on a Thursday, I got an email from my career counselor that said "I spoke with the partner in NZ - he's interested and would like to talk you about about this. He said Tuesday his time would work. Feel free to reach out to him to set up."

And just like that, Vancouver was demoted back to Plan B.

The following Tuesday, I spoke with the NZ partner on the phone, and an hour later, had a verbal job offer for a position in Auckland.  A week or two later, I received an official written job offer, and it included assistance with obtaining a work to residence visa for both Rob and I. This visa is valid for 30 months, and allows you to apply to become a permanent resident after just 24 months.

For those of you looking to make a similar move - transferring within your current firm seems to be the easiest path to a work visa. If your current firm doesn't have a global presence, you could try to find a job in your desired country, but unless you are a high level executive or have a very specific, in-demand area of expertise, the visa process assistance (both financially and bureaucratically) may be limited. 

The other option is to become a dental hygienist, as they seem to be at the top of high-demand, fast-track-to-visa lists worldwide.