So You Want to Move to New Zealand
American friends and relatives are asking how to escape America and join me in New Zealand. Here’s how I did it.
Don’t panic.
Trump just got elected. The world won’t end tomorrow. It will end, just not tomorrow. You have time to plan this move, maybe six months, maybe even a year before things fall apart. Here are the things you need to think about: Finding a job, getting through immigration, getting your pets over, and a back-up plan. If things get really bad, just come on a tourist visa until you figure things out. The below can help you out, but feel free to contact me. I’m more than happy to chat.
A little background
New York: Election night. I tucked my ten year old kid into bed saying, “Don’t worry. The Democrats will win.” “What if they don’t?” he asked. I laughed. “That would be the end of the world.” The next morning we found out Trump won, and I had to eat crow. I spent the rest of the morning breaking immigration websites for Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
That was 2016, the first time Trump got elected. I was ahead of the curve.
It took me nine months to find work here. I had never been to New Zealand, didn’t know the first thing about the country. I’m not making this up: I thought they still had natives living in mud huts.
The first step I took was to talk to recruiters. They shopped my CV around (it’s not called a resume here). After a few months they told me, “No one will employ you without meeting you first. You have to be in the country.” So in August 2017, I lined up a few interviews, hopped on a plane, and hoped for the best. Luckily, of the five interviews I landed that week, one of them made me an offer.
I was in. On October 2nd, I was in my sleeping bag in an empty apartment in Auckland, my belongings on a ship somewhere in the Pacific, and my family still back in New York due to visa problems and the cat. I was not popular with them at the time.
Fast forward to 2024. We are New Zealand citizens. I have a New Zealand passport. We came through Covid in one piece. I have a good job in a cute house in one of the safest countries in the world. And America’s political problems seem a world away.
If that’s what you want, here’s how to get it.
Finding a Job
It’s difficult to move anywhere without finding a job first. New Zealand requires an employer to endorse you for a visa. The best way to do that, and what worked for me, was to be in a career listed in the skills shortage list and the Green list.
Don’t worry. It’s a long list. New Zealand is a tiny country, only 5 million people, so we’re short of almost everything. If you have anything to do with construction, health care, or IT, you’re on the list. There’s even some surprising career paths. We’re terribly short on chefs, and they get absurd salaries in Queenstown. We need schoolteachers (but be prepared to spend a year in a school here to get the certificate). Engine mechanics, dairy farmers, midwives — mine your CV (ne resume) and you’ll find a way to fit in. Make sure your employer pays for the visa fees when they sponsor you. It’s over $6,000!
I hope you’re healthy and under 55
We have free health care, so we’re very picky about who comes in. Immigration wants to keep out anyone with a pre-existing health condition so they don’t drain the system. As an American you know what that’s like. Your health care provider has been doing this for years.
I can’t emphasize enough how difficult this can be. My wife had an easily solvable medical issue, and it delayed her visa by three months! Another friend of mine had a son with a medical condition that took two years to get him in the country. Good health is the number one factor, I would say, in getting accepted.
Get an immigration lawyer
If you can afford it, I highly recommend using a New Zealand based immigration lawyer. Most of them are former Immigration employees, so they know the system and have contacts inside. We used Saunders & Co. They earned every penny by making a few phone calls when the process needed a push. I cannot recommend them enough, and when it comes to Immigration you can’t afford not to.
Finding a house
We’re in the midst of a housing shortage, so finding a place to live won’t be easy. Finding an affordable place to live will be damn near impossible. The last round of inflation boosted house prices so that the average rat-trap costs a cool $1.2 million, and you’ll need at least 20% down. Renting usually costs more than buying. New Zealand doesn’t have great housing stock, either, even if you bring lots of money. I don’t want to paint a rosy picture. New Zealand has problems like everywhere else. Here’s a few more things not so great about New Zealand. But on the whole, they’re not that bad.
It’s not cheap
Moving here cost us over $15,000, up front, and that was back in 2017. God knows what it would cost now. $7,000 to ship our household goods. $5,000 for the cat! Another $5,000 for the paperwork, and that’s with the company paying for the visa fees.
And now the cost of living is quite high. How high? Whatever your salary is in the US, you’ll make the same dollar amount here. But the buying power is effectively the same as the exchange rate. Confused?
Let’s say your US salary was $100,000, so your salary in NZ will probably also be $100,000. But the exchange rate is .60. Since prices are still high here, that means you’re making the equivalent of $60,000 (not 100). You’re effectively earning a Kiwi salary but paying New York prices. The buying power is quite low.
But what you get for your money is what makes it worthwhile:
A lifetime of safety and security. A functioning government. Friendly neighbours. A childhood for your children that has been missing in America for fifty years. Free health care. One of the cleanest and most beautiful natural environments in the world. Distance from the Northern Hemisphere’s troubles. A trusting society that takes care of each other.
What you buy is peace.
Good luck! Let me know if I can help.
To see a few videos about life in New Zealand, check out my Youtube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@RonanCray
Or check out my photos on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronancray/
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