Moving to/from NZ
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If you and family are all dual Australian/NZ citizens, then that part's easy - can ignore the rest of this post other than the electoral enrolment stuff at the bottom.
If you're Australian citizens or residents, but not NZ citizens, that's also easy - you qualify for a resident visa on arrival into NZ unless you have serious criminal or negative immigration history. The arrival card is here:
http://www.customs.govt.nz/news/resources/forms/Documents/Passenger Arrival Card English language version.pdfQuestion 9 is the relevant collection of potential issues - if you can answer 'no' to that, you're fine there. Note that 'excluded from any country' includes a ban, even one which has since expired. Someone who has been refused entry to a country and also banned, as the Aussies often do (watch Border Patrol for examples...), can't ever come to NZ without applying for a visa and getting a special direction before arrival.
The card doesn't say it, but you're also not welcome if you have ever been sentenced to 5+ years imprisonment.
Assuming everyone is good to go on that front, when you arrive, check the stamps in your passports - they should be oval residence visa stamps, not rectangular visitor visa stamps. This is particularly important if you are Australian residents, but not citizens of either Australia or NZ. If there's an issue, try to get it fixed before leaving the border control area - it can be fixed by Immigration NZ branches if necessary, but it's easier to do it at the airport.
Resident visas for Aussies don't carry travel conditions which means they expire every time you leave NZ and you get a new one when you arrive in NZ again. That doesn't matter if you don't intend to return to Oz, but assuming you will travel back occasionally, you can apply for travel conditions from Immigration NZ after you get here - one form, one fee for the whole family ($190 from memory). This means your resident visas don't expire on departure, so your residence is continuous - avoids issues if a government department wants proof of when your resident visa is dated from, and you suddenly discover that it's from last week because that's when you last got back from Aussie...
After 2 years of continuous NZ residency, you can apply for Permanent Resident Visas - again, one form, one fee for the whole family (also $190 from memory).
We don't deport Aussies as easily as they deport us, but keep your nose clean, especially the first 2 years (drink driving can technically get you deported, even if that is rather unlikely).
After 5 years in NZ as NZ residents, you can apply for citizenship through Department of Internal Affairs. This has character requirements and you have to been in NZ for at least 1350 days out of those 5 years. You can apply for citizenship as soon as you reach 1350 days, so you might qualify early. If anyone is eligible for citizenship by descent (e.g. your children), you can sort that out before or after arriving. https://www.dia.govt.nz/New-Zealand-citizenship is the relevant website.
Immigration matters e.g. visas are handled by Immigration NZ, which is part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Citizenship and passports are handled by the Department of Internal Affairs. They aren't the same departments, so don't get them mixed up.
If you are NZ citizens who might qualify for Australian residency or citizenship, sort that out before you leave. https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Citi/pathways-processes/application-options/new-zealand-citizen/New-Zealand-citizens-living-in-Australia has some info. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/297187/fast-track-path-to-citizenship-revealed is an interesting article (and might apply to other Ferners). If you are Australian residents, bear in mind Australian resident visas have travel conditions, so make sure yours haven't expired, or (again) sort that out before you leave.
As NZ residents/citizens, you are required to enrol as voters if you are 18 or older and have lived in NZ for at least 1 year at some point in your life. http://www.elections.org.nz/voters has info on how to enrol. Unlike Australia, you are not required to vote, although you should anyway.
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All good on the citizenship front im a dual citizen and my wife is able to claim by decent through her dad. But thanks for bringing that up as we need to get onto doing that.
Our daughter will have to do the 5 years because i also claimed my citizenship by decent and you can't do that for more than one generation.
Any suggestions on which bank is best for a standard savings/credit card account? Or are all the major banks pretty similar? Won't any debt to transfer which is a nice thing to say for the first time in a long time.
Will add registering to vote to my list. Who should i vote for? Haha joking im sure there is a thread on here for that.
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@Crucial said in Moving to/from NZ:
All of the banks are assholes. I can give you account details for somewhere to put all your money though. It will be safely looked after
Looks not too bad. We've been with Westpac, but they appear incompetent. Unable to execute simple written instructions (ie increase this loan limit by X --> transfer X from one account to another).
When our fixed mortgage is up we plan to shift to TSB or Cooperative (which is a bitmore left field)
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I personally had never had issues with ANZ and was with them for many years, but moved my mortgage to NZ Home Loans, who put mortgages through both Kiwibank and ASB, who I have been with both via NZHL for about 6 years now for everything bar credit card and both have been very good.
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Thoughts on our move to Aus 13 years ago.
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We moved our houshold stuff. The thought of seling for fuck all return and buying all new, aside from being an extreme hassle, was likely to be significantly more expensive.
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Moving company dId all the packing. Think it was Allied Pickfords. Looong time ago. Whoever it was was an international firm. They were good. We got 3 quotes IIRC.
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Regarding insurance. Doing an inventory for moving is when you realise you are desparately underestimating your normal contents insurance ...
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We had no great issue transferring money ANZ in Enzed to ANZ in Aus. Have a vague recollection that tge rates they charged were reasonable and the charges at either end weren't extortionate.
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What I found difficult was how similar everything was. I had to keep reminding myself I WAS in a different country. That kind of made things hard as I knew how things worked in NZ and kind of expected the same processes in Aus. Not a big deal at all but I did wonder if there were more significant differences if i would have reset expectations more. (I know what i mean ... ).
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@Crucial said in Moving to/from NZ:
All of the banks are assholes. I can give you account details for somewhere to put all your money though. It will be safely looked after
No worries. Just put your account details on here and i will transfer it all over. Might pay to include you name, date of birth, credit card numbers and any other info just incase its needed for the transfer. Haha.
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@booboo said in Moving to/from NZ:
Thoughts on our move to Aus 13 years ago.
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We moved our houshold stuff. The thought of seling for fuck all return and buying all new, aside from being an extreme hassle, was likely to be significantly more expensive.
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Moving company dId all the packing. Think it was Allied Pickfords. Looong time ago. Whoever it was was an international firm. They were good. We got 3 quotes IIRC.
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Regarding insurance. Doing an inventory for moving is when you realise you are desparately underestimating your normal contents insurance ...
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We had no great issue transferring money ANZ in Enzed to ANZ in Aus. Have a vague recollection that tge rates they charged were reasonable and the charges at either end weren't extortionate.
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What I found difficult was how similar everything was. I had to keep reminding myself I WAS in a different country. That kind of made things hard as I knew how things worked in NZ and kind of expected the same processes in Aus. Not a big deal at all but I did wonder if there were more significant differences if i would have reset expectations more. (I know what i mean ... ).
Yes since starting this thread i've been looking around at all our stuff and realising what a pain and expense it would be to replace it all. Most of it, while it is nice stuff, you would struggle to get $50 for.
I think i know what you mean in point 5.
I guess that can be a good and bad thing. We are looking forward to a change but don't want the change to be that big if you know what i mean.
The place we are now, Southern highlands, has been a bit of a stepping stone away from where i grew up, Northern beaches in Sydney.
While its not properly rural it is definitely a step down in pace from Sydney. We haven't missed some things as much as we thought and others we have missed WAY more, mainly the ocean. While its only an hour away from here it used to be a 2 min walk. With a 2 year old we are starting to see just how valueable something like a beach is for burning their energy nit to mention maintaining our mental health haha. -
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If you and your wife both have citizenship by descent, your daughter might be able to get citizenship without waiting as the Minister can waive any of the requirements, and the policy documents on the website suggest this is one of the more common scenarios. Check with their call centre or drop by an office at some point.
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@Godder said in Moving to/from NZ:
If you and your wife both have citizenship by descent, your daughter might be able to get citizenship without waiting as the Minister can waive any of the requirements, and the policy documents on the website suggest this is one of the more common scenarios. Check with their call centre or drop by an office at some point.
Very interesting, thanks for the tip.
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You may be a "transitional resident" for tax purposes if you have been a non-resident of New Zealand for 10 continuous years prior to becoming a resident again (or never were a resident). Note "resident" and "non-resident" are tax definitions not a standard legal definition or immigration status.
The benefit of being a "trannie" is that all of your passive income derived from a foreign source (e.g. Australia) is not taxed in NZ for 4 whole tax years after you return. The only foreign sourced income that is taxed in NZ in that period is income from employment or from supplying services.
Practically, you could leave some or all of your cash in the bank in Australia and tell your bank you are now a non-resident of Australia (after you move). The Aus bank would pay you interest from which it would deduct Australian non-resident withholding tax (probably at 10%) and you pocket the rest. Good for 4 years.
This obviously works a treat if you are fucking rich and own 10% of the shares in BHP for example. In your circumstances it may be a slight leg up for you.
Disclaimers, seek tax advice etc.
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@Tregaskis thanks for the advice. I had read about that tax scheme, if thats what you call it, and will be getting advice about whether that or claiming family tax breaks (if eligible) is best. As far as i know it is one or the other.
The fact that one of our businesses is a service business and the other is a product business complicates it a bit.