Moving to New Zealand in 12 Simple Steps

Getting ready for my big move was anything but easy. In fact, it was s 7-month process, and even then I feel like I probably could’ve used more time.
Here’s a detailed, step-by-step guide on how I moved to New Zealand.

1. Apply for the working holiday visa. Open to people in several English-speaking countries ages 18 to 30, the working holiday visa scheme allows a person to live and work in in New Zealand for a year. Australia has a similar program.

You can apply for the visa online here. There is a fee and you have to provide your education and passport information. It is surprisingly easy to do, and in most cases doesn’t involve any extra documentation.

After applying, you will find out if you gained approval within a few weeks, if not days. After you’re approved, you have a year to enter New Zealand. Your visa activates when you land, giving you a year in the country from your time of arrival.

2. Figure out your financial obligations. In my case, this included my apartment lease and my car lease. My apartment lease ended in February, which fell within my year time frame, so I decided to just wait that out. The car lease was trickier.

In order to get out of my car lease, I paid to put an ad on LeaseTrader, a website designed specifically for people looking to exit their car leases early. The site does require a fee and works by pairing sellers (leaseholders) with people who want to pick up a lease. This could be because they have bad credit, or want a shorter duration than the standard 3 years. In my case, the buyer was in the latter category.

I was able to find a buyer pretty quickly, but the actual process took more than 4 months even though I was told it took a month. I am not sure if this is because I was with Honda Financial, as my research suggests they aren’t easy to work with. Either way, my advice to anyone doing this is to give yourself extra time, and don’t book any tickets until you are close to the end of the process.

3. Start getting rid of your stuff. Sorry, no matter how much you like that dress or how sentimental that t-shirt is, there is only so much you can take on a plane. The more stuff you have, the earlier start deciding what you can live without the better. (I had been living on my own for 12 years and was a bit of a pack-rat, so this process legit took me 4 months. See my post on the process here.

4. Buy your tickets. I recommend doing this as soon as you have a timetable, and ideally before you quit your job and sell your furniture because both of those things are really hard and scary. If my tickets hadn’t been booked when I did those things, there’s a good chance I would’ve backed out.

5. Quit your job, with appropriate notice. I gave 6 weeks because there was no way I was going to start planning if I didn’t, but 2 weeks is usually fine.

6. If you have a pet, make sure you find a home for him or her. Please do your best to avoid surrendering any animal to a shelter. I was lucky enough to find an incredible home for my beloved cat with a coworker.  Giving up Rory was probably the hardest things I had to do. I cried most of the day after giving him away, but know he is happier now than he would’ve been with me.

7. Search for housing. You’ll want to have a place lined up before you land. I was lucky enough to know someone in Wellington before I arrived, and she helped me find a great place with some chill kiwis. However, I did do my own searching before then. The best places to look for flats in New Zealand is trademe. (This is also a good site to look for jobs.) If you are moving to Wellington, I would also suggest the facebook group Vic Deals. (I also found a similar group for Auckland.) There are also several hostels you can stay at long term, as well as Airbnb, but those tend to be more expensive.

8. Prepare and pack. I brought way too much stuff with me because I was unsure what the climate was going to be like. I would recommend no more than one suitcase (preferably carry-on size) and one bookbag. If you’re moving to Wellington I also recommend a good, water-resistant winter coat. (Best investment of my life) Be prepared to get rid of whatever doesn’t fit in your bags.

9. Say goodbye and take off! This is going to likely be the longest plane ride of your life, so prepare for jet lag by doing your best to start thinking in “New Zealand” time ahead of your arrival. I put the time on my world clock app, and this helped a lot. I used this to decide when I would go to sleep and when I would be awake on my journey. It was fool-proof but I recovered from jetlag in about 24 hours.

10. When you arrive, you’ll have to go through customs which is fairly easy. Wellington International Airport had automated machines that scanned my passport and saw I had a visa. I didn’t have to talk to anyone. I would still recommend having your visa printed out and with you just in case. (Legally you need to keep it with your passport at all times anyway.)

11. After you settle in the first things you’re going to want to do are: get a New Zealand phone number, open up a bank account, and get your NZ IRD number. (An IRD number is for tax purposes, and you need one to work in New Zealand.) I would do them in this order as well, as you’ll want to give your phone number to the bank, and you need a bank account to apply for an IRD number.

  –My suggestions for phone service: I started out with Vodaphone’s travel sim. This was a set number of calls, texts and data for 2 months. After that I can either toss my sim card or go on a month-to-month plan. This gives me a way out should I want to leave New Zealand early.

  –You have a lot of options with banking. I chose ANZ and really like it so far. Everything is on my phone which makes my life pretty easy.

-To learn more about what you need for an IRD number, I would suggest just checking out the website here. You can print the application form from the site, or pick them up at any PostShop. The PostShop will mail your application to the agency for free.

12. Find a job. Admittingly you could start trying to do this before you arrive, but I have been told most companies in New Zealand want you on the ground first before they will consider you. While I know of at least one case of this not being true, most of my luck has come since moving here. My biggest advice with this is make sure you put together a New Zealand CV, as it is much different than than a US one. (You can find templates here.)

That’s it! Once you have all this done all you have left to do is enjoy your time in New Zealand. (I’m still working on that as well, and will hopefully share more advice as the year goes on.)