Tag: NZ

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Family

Of Setting Up Roots – Our First Home

Needless to say, the past few years have been a whirlwind of events for everyone, including our family. From the pandemic to career changes to having our first child to now, having our first home.

Howell and I take pride in our capacity to lay out plans, set them in motion, and see it to completion.

From our first year in New Zealand, we already knew the things we wanted and made sure to plan them out so plans would move. We usually set a special day and place when we’ll just go out into nature and present our desires in prayer and discern which ones we are to pursue based on God’s leading. It has been amazing seeing all these desires come into fruition. One of those God has fulfilled is our desire for a home of our own.

In planning for our home, we knew it would entail diligent saving up of money and knowing our preferences even before we seek out for one. So we set up all our finances in a way that we have set up the amount of savings we’ll have and then work our expenses around it. We were not earning heaps but we were earning enough. We lived in a humble 2-bedroom flat for the first four years, planned for cost-effective but fun holidays, and generally lived way below our means during the years we were saving money.

Come 2020, we knew we were ready to pursue our first home. Now we all know what happened in the great year 2020. During the lockdown here in New Zealand, we had time to set our essentials and preferences for our first home. We knew that location is prime factor, options for expansion, and just generally good craftsmanship of the house. Straight after lockdown, we finally set our plans in motion. I remember asking the Lord for a powerful testimony from this process…

We asked friends, family members, and workmates of the things we need to consider, the hows of home loans, and just general knowledge of purchasing our first home. We were referred to a broker who also knows of an opportunity for a private sale – easy as! Unfortunately, none of the people we asked had any experience with a private sale!

A few days after our first meeting with the broker, we were already viewing the property. We knew that properties were on the upward trend then so we locked it in straight after we viewed it for a few minutes. A few weeks after, we already signed the Sale and Purchase Agreement – this was on September 2020. Again, easy as! The catch? We had to wait for the property to be subdivided prior to settlement.

We were promised just a few months for the subdivision to happen. Yep, we can deal with that. We just negotiated that we live in the property while the process of subdivision was being done. And so we moved to our home on March 2021. We were confident because we were a double income couple with no dependents, nothing we need to worry about.

Until…

A year after, year 2022, we were down to one income and we were expecting our miracle baby… Things have become so unpredictable. The processing dragged a while for a myriad of reasons we did not have control of. Add the changes to CCFA rolled out on December 2021, things looked bleak.

A few days before settlement, we received news that our home loan pre-approval wasn’t granted by the bank. To add to the injury, two other banks declined our home loan application. And not only was our 12% down payment no longer accepted, we had to have the full 20% down payment to secure a loan. We had to request for an extension of settlement as well because, how can anyone complete these requirements in a few days? Haha.

A family member helped us acquire the remaining 8%. After which, our settlement date extension was also granted, and we had to comply with the additional requirements by other banks for our home loan to be granted. Thanks to the people who have assisted us, and also to Kainga Ora for their first home grant, we got there in the end. The settlement came through yesterday, 16th June.

It was such an exciting and humbling experience for us. From being the ideal first home buyers, everything changed in just a year. We initially set out to independently purchase our first home without the help of anyone but ended up needing help from several generous and supportive people in our circles. We were not only given financial assistance, but were blessed with the wisdom of these people. A powerful testimony indeed! It wasn’t what we had, not our skills, not our financial management prowess alone brought us through this milestone. We knew God has walked before us and paved the way for us. He also used other people to help provide for what we needed. He has kept His promise in spite of the challenges, and we know we wouldn’t have it any other way…

I write this today from our three-bedroom home located in a private cul-de-sac, seconds away from the city centre, with also a couple of parks and beaches 15 to 30 minutes away. While I cannot give a home tour now because of the busyness of a first time mum, here are a couple of gorgeous sunsets visible from our place.

…The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.

Psalm 145:13
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Family

Changing with the Seasons, One Day at a Time

It has been almost six years since we arrived on New Zealand’s shores. As someone who came from a tropical country, I have little appreciation for what seasons are and their significance to humans – which is apparently fairly significant. Seasons dictate your daily choices such as your clothing, food, holidays, and even your social activities.

I can, in hindsight, look at the events of my life, and connect them to a specific season as I have experienced it.

The first six years of our marriage has mostly ranged from autumn to winter to spring. We have toiled and built up our careers to the point that we were able to have a good harvest of our investments prior to having a child. We were able to save up and have a kickstart to prepare for the arrival of a child. We were able to enjoy each other’s company and got to know each other fairly well. It was a beautiful season we have now moved on from.

My pregnancy was summer-like. It was in the literal sense summer here in New Zealand – way too warm for my liking, but very sunshine-y and it held so many promises of a beautiful new season in our lives. I’d say it passed by quickly, but those nine months were very significant for us to mentally and emotionally prepare for this blessing of a new child in our family.

Now that our son has finally arrived, I know we are transitioning to a whole new season of which we know so little of. I’d say that since the start of my pregnancy, I have been learning to live life one day at a time. I remember celebrating every week I have carried him because my high risk pregnancy can bring a lot of good and bad surprises and I was really anxious I might give birth prematurely. Every weekly doctor’s appointment brought in different challenges for us. There was the potential cleft lip they saw in the scans, echogenic bowel, him being too small for his gestational age, and him being in the breech presentation. Week by week we had to watch out for these things and find how they will finally turn out. Fortunately, his breech presentation was the only issue that had a significance on us.

With Howell back to work and with me solely caring for Raphael for majority of the day, the value of living day by day made more and more sense to me. My compulsion to plan and to fix everything ahead of time are all out the window – there’s no planning everyday because I do not even know what time his next feed will be! It is frustrating not knowing what’s going to happen next.

For my art practice, I curently have 3 books in my pipeline – 2 of which I’m currently working on. I’m also building a body of work for my dream art exhibit.

Between everything I wanted to happen and my current reality of a first-time mum to a newborn, it’s like time has been suspended somewhere. I am at a loss and all I can do is live life daily – not out of choice but out of sheer need to preserve my sanity. I take small steps to get back to normal but it has been tough because I have real, physical bounds that stop me from going into full gear. I am stilll healing from my C-section and Raphael’s routines has not been established yet.

I have heard from more seasoned mums that I’d need to learn to cherish this season because it comes by so fast and that this is indeed just a season – it will pass eventually. My bubba will grow up fast and I can never turn back time and go back to how small he currently is. If this were all true, then maybe slowing down and being comfortable with the unkown is something I’d need to deal with for this season. How I’ll do it, I still do not know, but for now, I can decide to shut the computer down, breathe deeply, and maybe hug my son for a few moments longer…

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Family Musings Uncategorized

Our Birth Story – Baby Raphael

Our son, Raphael, was born on 5th May 2022, 2:23PM, at Wellington Regional Hospital via elective C-section.

I was honestly hoping for a normal delivery for my fear of recovery after a C-section. I have heard stories of how easy the procedure was but how demanding and tedious it can be during recovery. At 32 weeks, it was explained to me that because of a high risk pregnancy, I cannot go beyond 38 weeks. Therefore, my options would be an induction or a C-section at either 37 or 38 weeks.

However, at 34 weeks, I was presented with a surprise from my dear Raphael that he flipped and that he was in a footling breech presentation. As I understood it, a vaginal delivery is still possible, but was not advisable in these cases and so I was offered either an ECV (External Cephalic Version – turning a breech baby) or an elective C-Section. I initially booked an ECV at 36 weeks but opted off it after careful discernment and discussions with fellow mums, friends, and family. There may be a reason why my bubba turned at 34 weeks and I will never know what that was but we chose not to meddle with whatever was going on in my tummy.

This, then, meant that an elective C-Section was my only option.

I was booked for a C-Section at 37 weeks and 4 days. I was given detailed instructions on how we would go about it. I did a blood test the day prior and put in a request for blood bags should I need it for the operation. I also took Omeprazole the night prior and the morning of the surgery. I was required to fast the night before the surgery and no liquids an hour before I come in the hospital.

On the day of the surgery, we arrived at around 7:20AM and was told that I was the only C-section booked for the day. However, as with any plan, some other things come up. I was bumped off twice because an emergency C-section was performed on another mum and a C-section booked the day prior was moved to the day of my surgery. I was then bumped to be the last one to have had the surgery. The only issue I had was being too thirsty, hungry, and anxious if the procedure was to push through that day or not.

Once they started preparing me, it only took a few minutes before I found myself in the theatre. I was immediately briefed on how my epidural would be done. The only time I felt pain was when the anesthesia was being injected on me – I felt sharp, stabbing pains on my spine area which lasted for a couple seconds. After which, everything from waist down went numb and the doctors were off to delivering my son. In about 10 minutes, Raphael was out. They stitched me back for about 30 minutes and then I was wheeled into the Recovery Room.

In the recovery room, they waited for my anesthesia to wear off. While waiting, they gave me an ice block, water, and a sandwich. I was so drowsy but wasn’t in any sort of pain. Once they saw my toes and my knees twitch, I was then brought to the postnatal ward. They constantly checked baby’s and my heart rate, oxygen levels, and glucose levels. It took two days for Raphael’s sugars to stabilise. On Day 2, I was supposed to be transferred to Kenepuru Hospital, one that’s nearer us, for my recovery. However, I was given the option to stay in Wellington Hospital or be discharged home instead – whichever I prefer. There wasn’t much trouble for us in choosing our options because healthcare in New Zealand is free – we just choose whatever works best for us. This was one of the things we greatly appreciated here. It would have cost us a fortune to carry and give birth to our dear one if we were in the Philippines.

Our movements were very limited in the hospital and so we chose to be discharged home instead. We invited my in-laws to our home that night so they will have an opportunity to meet baby as they were not allowed to visit the hospital due to Covid restrictions. It was great for them to have met baby and help us set up stuff that night. In the succeeding days, though, we decided it was best not to accept any visitors until I was fully recovered, which was graciously accepted by the people wanting to visit us. It was mentally and physically taxing for me to be receiving visitors as we were also trying to establish our breastfeeding routine and was waiting for my milk to come in.

I am writing this on Day 9 post partum. Milk came in at Day 4, midwife already visited us twice, my bleeding has subsided, and I am down to paracetamol for my pain relief. We took off my wound dressing already but everything is still sore. I still take things slow, walk and move very slowly. Howell took 2 weeks off work so he is currently in charge of everything house-related. We are all getting better everyday but it has been a very slow and gradual process. The adjustments are not just physical – it is mental, emotional, even spiritual.

At this point, we are just taking things one step at a time. I am personally looking forward to going on my daily walks with Howell and Milo, this time along with Raphael. I look forward to doing art again, moving freely without pain, meeting people again, this time with our first child in tow. Life is good, we couldn’t ask for more…

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Family

Preparing for Baby: Meal Preps

I’ve always liked preparing for things – events, holidays, school, projects, etc. It’s no surprise I carry the same enthusiasm in preparing for baby’s arrival. I’ve been reading books, forums, Mum groups, so that I’d know what to expect and what can make our lives way more manageable. One of the things I read was that it could tremendously help to have frozen meals ready for the first few weeks once the baby arrives.

And that’s exactly what we did! Last weekend, we were able to produce double serve of 43 frozen meals!

Here’s how we did it:

  1. Have a list of the meals to be cooked and prioritise the order of cooking

I had to have varied choices of meals because I get tired of eating the same things over and over. We chose Filipino foods, a mix of vegetable and meat dishes. While completing the list, I have also factored in the time every dish cooks and which equipment I can use so that I can prioritise which to prepare first.

2. Do grocery shopping – preferably in places where you can bulk buy, especially the meats

We are fortunately located in the city centre so we are spoilt for choice with vegetable and meat shops so we were able to get the best prices for the ingredients we needed.

3. Clear a working space for chopping ingredients

We cleared 2 tables and the kitchen counter so that everything is organised. All cooking utenstils and equipment were washed as soon as they were used.

4. Have all cooking equipment ready.

Here is a list of the useful equipment we used. I don’t think it’s completely necessary to have these but it definitely did help for us to get things done.

Crock-Pot (for slow cook and pressure cook)

Vacuum food sealer

Upright freezer

Freestanding oven

5. Lay down and sort ingredients for each dish that needs to be prepared

6. Howell did the chopping of ingredients and packing of the cooked meals while I cooked up a storm and did the dishes

Having specific assignments for tasks makes everything easier. We also did assignments based on our strengths. Howell is great at organising things and dealing with spaces so he did the packing and clearing space in the freezer for storage while I cook well so I took it on.

We cooked 11 dishes for about 6 hours. Howell did the packing of meals for about 3 hours. Next time, though, I wouldn’t recommend doing this all in one go. It was too exhausting for both of us but I’m glad it’s all done now. We’re hoping these meals would tide us through for about over a month after baby arrives.

Ta-da! Our frozen meals all packed and ready!
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Family

My pregnancy journey thus far

Happy to say I’m at 23 weeks now and the reality of the having the baby is finally sinking in! As I previously shared, I function as normal and didn’t have the usual aches and pains a pregnant woman can expect, which I’m so happy about. In spite of this dealing with pregnancy is not a walk in the park still.

Here are the things I have been experiencing so far:

Diabetes and my medications

I was diagnosed with diabetes in 2019. It has been controlled so far with proper diet, exercise, and metformin. However, I learned that as a pregnant woman, it can be expected that my blood glucose levels can get out of whack so apart from metformin, I had to take both fast and long acting insulin.

I record my blood glucose levels before a meal and 2 hours after a meal, which meant pricking my fingers for a minimum of 6 times a day, not counting the times I go hypoglycemic. With my insulin, I take 1 fast acting one before every meal and twice a day of the long acting one, for a total of 5 injections a day.

It has been a challenge for me since I had to plan all my meals, time them, and adjust my day’s schedule to get my sugars in control all the time. I empathise with mums who work full time! I work from home and yet this challenges me still!

A diabetes nurse monitors my sugars once a week and adjusts my meds depending on my readings. Happy to note that my numbers have been really good the past few weeks.

Food

Apart from all the food you need to avoid while pregnant, I had to adjust my meals to suit the baby’s nutritional needs and my carbs and sugar requirements. This one has been a biggie since day 1 I learned about the pregnancy because I am not used to eating vegetables and I also get hungry all the time! One thing that helped is having a plan.

All my meals and even snacks are planned. I have a limited choice of snacks I can choose from so I didn’t have to think about food all the time and so they’d always be ready when I need one. It’s a great thing that my husband has been cooperating with this diet in a sense that he eats what I eat. It would have been way more difficult if he’s a picky eater who’d want to eat what he wants when he wants it!

Exercise

To manage my blood glucose levels, I also incorporate exercise into my day. Even prior to getting pregnant, I have been walking twice a day with my dog and swim about 3 to 4 times a week. I have kept this routine to this day but I give myself permission not to exercise on days I feel tired. I also do resistance exercises recommended by my trainor who’s a mum herself.

It has kept my moods in control and I found that my energy levels are consistent throughout the day because of this! Bonus is that it keeps me from experiencing aches and pains I’d normally have if I didn’t exercise!

Sleep

One new thing I have been dealing with at the moment is difficulty sleeping. I usually sleep face front and I just learnt that you are suppose to sleep on your left side when you are pregnant because it’s best for the baby and man it has been a challenge for me! To help with my sleep issues, I’d usually keep a book beside me that I can read when I couldn’t sleep and if it doesn’t work, I just sleep sitting down!

Preparations for the baby

We are blessed to have friends and family who already have kids. My sister-in-law has 2 boys and we have seasoned mums at church who have all been so generous giving away their baby stuff to the point that we only had to purchase a pram and a bottle sanitiser for baby. Everything has been provided for by these wonderful mums!

I am already halfway there and each day, I grow more confident that this is doable. It is challenging but I have an entire village who would be there rallying with me and supporting me any way they can.

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Family

My Journey to Pregnancy

My story goes way back 2012 when I was first diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). I had irregular periods then but that was the only symptom I had until it progressed to weight gain, insulin resistance, and eventually, as the doctors called it, an unexplained infertility.

It really didn’t bother me until we started trying to conceive, which started in 2018. We were already in New Zealand then so I can say I had sufficient healthcare. We were referred to a fertility clinic and we tried 3 rounds of Letrozole but never in any of those rounds did I ovulate. It was about the same time that I got into a major vehicular accident which impaired me in numerous ways. My regular physical activity rapidly declined as I dealt with my injuries and my undiagnosed PTSD from the accident, which then led me to emotional eating. It all spiraled to a point that I was diagnosed with diabetes in 2019.

We had to hold off all efforts in conceiving since I had to bring my blood sugar down to a safe level first so it was from that point on that we started rethinking our lifestyle and revamping ways we are doing things. The urgent things I had to take care of then was pulling myself out from a toxic environment we were in. We were part of a group who completely ignores mental health issues and wouldn’t even want to talk about it as according to them, it should only be discussed with professionals. I didn’t even know what they meant – for me, it meant they didn’t really care what I was going through but I still had to do my “responsibilities” that I committed to in joining the group. I had to continuously be emptied without any promise of being filled.

It was in 2020 that we decided that enough is enough. We left the group and by God’s grace, found a church who would love Howell and I and care for us no matter the situation. It was tough trying to rebuild new relationships as the previous ones were completely severed because of misinformation that were given to the other members of the group. Still, it has helped my mental health tremendously. Toxic people and environments aren’t worth the work to keep.

And because I was then gaining momentum to heal, I also started getting physically active again. If I could remember it right, there were still strict restrictions in place due to Covid so I wasn’t able to get back to the gym but I found good alternatives like walking everyday for at least 45 minutes and doing online dance workouts. Once the restrictions eased, I went back to swimming for about twice a week and continued my everyday walks.

It was also the same year that I started going to art school, where I found my tribe – people who had the very same passions I had: art. No matter the expression, we had the same understanding of how art is special to us – for the first time since we moved, I felt fully embraced and understood.

In 2021, with careful planning and discussion with my ever supportive husband, I took a break from work to fully recuperate. I had a discussion with my employer because I really did not know what I wanted to do, all I knew was that I wanted a break to fully heal. My dear employer was kind and generous enough to give me some hours I can work from home while I rethink how I wanted my career to go in the near future. This also meant I was spending heaps of time alone at home so as thoughtful as my husband is, he decided to give me a dog to keep me company, and boy did it change my life. If you are keen to see more of our daily adventures with Milo, check out our Instagram page.

Milo is full of beans but is sweet and is a warm company who keeps us happy with his antics.

With my husband’s unconditional love and support, exercise, eating healthy, continuing with my studies, spiritual and emotional support from church, and my sweet Milo by my side all the time, I continued to heal. I started feeling physical improvement around June, which was also reflected in my lab tests that time. I wasn’t thinking of having a baby anymore because the priority was to just heal. I am so blessed to have been given this kind of support by everyone around me. Now here we are, I am currently 20 weeks 5 days pregnant. God has given us a child in His own time, and it is beautiful.

Filling yourself with good and beautiful things physically, mentally, emotionallly, and spiritually will do you wonders, even for someone as complicated and messed up as I am. Reminds me of this beautiful verse in Philippians:

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. -Philippians 4:8-9

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ash the brush's journey

Ash the Brush’s Journey (The Artist’s Process)

As Ash the Brush’s Journey is my first ever published book, friends have had heaps of questions about it – Have you always had a story in your head? What prompted you to write a book? How did you know exactly what to draw?

First off, I’d like to thank all my friends who have already purchased the book, both in New Zealand and in the Philippines. Really appreciate all your support!

So back to my process…

The idea of writing a book has always been a dream of mine so when my mentor asked me what type of project I wish to do, I instantly said I wanted to illustrate one!

After the phone conversation with my mentor, Leigh Mitchell-Anyon, my mind quickly went into overdrive thinking for a topic. I didn’t have one then – all I knew was I wanted to reach children and introduce them to the beauty of art. Couple of minutes after, I went to the literal thinking throne…

And a storyline quickly popped up! I wanted to share that whatever pains we go through will always have a purpose. Then I thought of how I can creatively illustrate that point and thought of how we use paint brushes! Perfect!

I started working on it straight after that!

On the left hand side is how I conceptualized Ash’s features and colours used so all the illustrations are consistent. The top right photo is the final colour palette I’ve chosen for the entire book. The middle photo on the right are my art materials that inspired my book characters. I’ve especially included a Mongol pencil, a brand I’ve used from childhood. The bottom photo on the right is also an inspiration for one of Ash’s journey scenes.

I did a storyboard so I’d have a concrete direction…

Then researched for the appropriate facial expressions for the character…

Did test paintings of all the pages in watercolour, ink, and coloured pencils…

…And made the final paintings.

The most difficult task for me was not the painting part but the scanning, editing, and layout! I have been doing graphic arts for years now thus I was confident to do these tasks but it was way different to my typical editing and layout work!

Good thing I have a good relationship with my printing supplier, they helped heaps in my book layout! Shoutout to the PrintCraft guys Dave and Gary! Inputs about printing and layout from one of the artists I met in class, Michelle Mainwaring, helped heaps as well!

It was an exciting project and I am encouraged to create more. If anyone is wanting to also do their dream projects, I encourage you to do so! Start small, and take those small, wobbly steps haha, you’ll get there!

Ash the Brush’s Journey is now available for sale on my shop. Click on this link and buy your copy today!

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Work

Go Mad for Marshmallows these School Holidays!

Staglands yummy winter marshmallows are back and for a limited period only, during the July School Holidays, they will be given away FREE to all visitors!

Toast your own on the cosy Barn campfire and enjoy some wild cooking in the great outdoors.

www.staglands.co.nz 

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Musings Uncategorized

The Myth that is Preparedness

A few days ago, I saw a video on Facebook which talks about time and how not to waste it, basically. I find these videos a cliche sometimes but then this one made sense. It kind of made me look at some areas of my life that I have not been dealing with. Below is a copy of the video if you want to see it for yourself.

I took several steps to fix my schedule and put a structure to it, somehow, but that is altogether a separate topic.

What I’m driving at is that after I took a good look at my schedule and how I am using my time, I saw that I have been spending it on the things that I love doing, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I haven’t focused on doing the things I need to do to achieve what I want. For most people, doing things that they love and doing things to achieve something they want is almost the same thing, but for me, it isn’t.

To contextualize this confusing concept, when I refer to the things that I love, these are my hobbies–swimming, painting, reading, etc. The things that I want to achieve or want to have are: several businesses, good health (yes, it’s something I am working to achieve now!), eetc.

I saw that I have been postponing the concrete things I should do for me to achieve my goals (one specific goal that I am referring to is a business venture that I have been planning for 2 straight years now) because I want things to be perfect. I want to be fully ready before I do anything for fear that I may fail if I were not perfect or ready enough. Two straight years was not long enough for me to be ready, according to my irrational fears.

It was until Howell offered to do ALL the chores at home for this month just for me to have “time” to focus on this business, which was pretty ironic because he works Mondays till Fridays while I work Wednesdays till Fridays. I guess he knows me too much to know that if he gives me all the time in the world, I might eventually get tired of focusing solely on my hobbies. That’s kind of what happened.

So this week, I finally decided to take that step. A few months back, I already secured my supplier for the items I wanted to sell in my shop. I’ve also been paying for a website of my own for 4 months but because of my fear that I wasn’t ready enough, I totally abandoned doing anything to actually push through with my lofty business idea. Due to my indecision, the supplier I secured ditched me already so I had to frantically search for another supplier who should be reliable enough not to leave me. Thank God, I did found one a day after I found out about the other supplier.

When you look closely at your fears, you’ll often see that fears are just a manifestation of something deeper. For me, I do leave things hanging for fear of not finding a next purposeful goal after I have achieved it. Sometimes, I am too fearful that achieving this specific goal may tie me to a spot where I cannot leave. At times, I fear that I am missing out on something better that may still be out there and so I hold off moving as long as I can. Until I’m ready. Until every area of my circumstances are perfect.

Now, I am totally devoted to this cause, in spite of the fear. Why? Because if I wouldn’t take the first step, nothing will actually happen. What changed? The idea that no matter how wonderful and perfect my ideas are, if I do not do anything to achieve it, it will remain as, well, ideas, however perfect they may be. Ideas are good but without action, they serve no purpose.

At the end of my life, how would I account for how I lived? Like every gift given to me, I’d like to use it to the fullest and make something beautiful, something bigger than myself, out of the little or much that I have been given. There is no better time to move but today, now, at this very moment. Being prepared is good, but being fully prepared is a myth. If it makes sense and if it is something that the Lord wants me to pursue, then I’ll take a leap of faith, hoping against hope that what little I have may bear fruit and bless others.

Featured photo from http://passionforfreshideas.com/personalgrowth/leap-of-faith-jessica-mcgregor-johnson/

 

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Settling in NZ Uncategorized

NZ Visa Experience

One of the issues immigrants face is applying for visas to work and stay in another country. In the years past, it was not too difficult for migrants to get a visa to stay permanently here in New Zealand. Unfortunately, we came at a time when a lot of the processes and requirements have changed. As for me, here is my experience of the whole process. Bear in mind that this is not a comprehensive one since everything is already a blurry for me.

What visa do I apply for?

Presentation1
The visas I applied for in a nutshell.

I came to New Zealand through a Visitor’s Visa that will last for 59 days. We opted for this one because it was free. We knew that once I get here, I will apply for another visa, thus we chose not to have any additional spend for this. Note that Howell is already a Permanent Resident visa holder since 2011 so we did not have to worry about his visa here.

When we were already here, we did not know what options we had for my visa so we consulted Immigration NZ. They have confirmed that with our specific case, given that we were already living together for more than 12 months during the time of application, we can opt to apply straight to residency (which can take up to 9 months at the time we called) or if we wish to have a visa that would allow me to work soon, then we can choose the work visa (with processing time of 25 days max) instead. Given that there were more opportunities for me at that time, we decided to apply for the work visa since its processing time is shorter.

After I got a job, we pushed for the application of my residency visa. We needed to save up for another application (because fee$$$ haha) so we postponed it until I had my own job.

Timelines

My visitor’s visa was approved in 10 days if I can remember it right. Processing time was shorter perhaps because it was my second visit already.

My work visa was approved 4 months after I submitted my application, in contrary to the 25 days stated in their website then. This was the toughest visa I had to apply for because I had issues with my urine test. I had to retake because they found traces of sugar in my urine sample (which was not normal). It went downhill from there. For some reason, it was difficult for them then to confirm what stage my application was but it was approved nevertheless.

My resident visa was approved 5 months after my application. Should we have known that the timelines for the work and resident visa would be the same, we would have opted to apply straight to resident visa since we spent a significant amount for both applications.

Requirements

All requirements can be found on Immigration NZ’s website. Their list of requirements are pretty comprehensive and straightforward so there is no guesswork, especially for the visitor’s visa.

The requirements for my work and resident visa are almost the same, except we added a few items like the tenancy agreement and home bills to the resident visa application since we were already renting on our own then. Since my application is partnership-based, we had to provide documents that will prove that we are in a genuine and stable relationship for more than 12 months. A marriage certificate here is a recognized proof of a relationship but is not enough to prove a genuine and stable one so we had to add on several items to the application. Below is a list of all the requirements  I can remember:

  • Marriage certificate
  • Tenancy agreement
  • Statement of joint bank account
  • Statement of joint investments
  • Copious amount of photos, especially the ones we’ve posted on social media
  • Letters from family members posted to our home
  • Utility billings
  • Timeline of the relationship (a friend told me a bullet-type of timeline is acceptable but since I am extra, I did a 3-page narration of our love story;) )
  • Tickets and bookings from all our travels throughout the years
  • Some people submit references (statements from people in NZ who know them and can testify about the status of their relationship) but we chose not to because we are both not comfortable asking people for this

Extra items to take note of

  • Personally, keeping in touch with Immigration is helpful throughout the process of applying. I usually call them at least twice a month just to check on the status of my application. When my case officer emailed me, I emailed her twice. There is a thin line between asking and being pushy in terms of asking for updates so you’d have to strike a balance on this.
  • Be as organized as possible because you may need your documents in another application. We have all our documents filed in one binder so it is easy to produce them when it is needed.

What now?

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My Resident Visa

For those who wanted to know what my current visa is, it will allow me to stay in New Zealand indefinitely. However, should I choose to travel outside of New Zealand after 19th March 2020, I will need to apply for another resident visa to re-enter the country.

I can also apply for a permanent resident visa after 2 years. So if we will be travelling outside New Zealand after 19th March 2020, we might need to apply for permanent resident visa. In 5 years, I will be eligible to apply for citizenship.

As an NZ Resident, I am also eligible to receive all the benefits a citizen or permanent resident has, e.g. health care, KiwiSaver, maternity leave, etc.

Other options

For those wanting to apply for a visa here, visit https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas for more details. The information in their website is really helpful. You can also choose to ring them for specific questions. Here is a quick information on how to contact them.

Hope this was helpful!