22/01/2024
From a previous client - she started with a UK based adviser, that didn't go well but is now living the kiwi dream after following her friend's recommendation to work with Clockwork Visa Services - her story is below.
My emigration journey began way back in 2015, when I used to come to New Zealand every year to visit my brother and family. I loved Aotearoa, felt right at home as soon as walked off the airplane on that very first visit, and it was on my 2015 holiday that one my brother’s friends offered to give me a job if I really wanted to live here. I went back to England, got in touch with an emigration bureau and so my journey began – lots of questions, lots of forms and as it turned out, lots of bad advice. By the time I came for what was to be my last holiday in 2017, I had appointments arranged with recruiters in Auckland, and I got the shock of my life to discover that the advice the emigration bureau had given me was not perhaps the best solution, and that there wouldn’t be many NZ companies that would wait 6 months or more for a residency visa to come through. A friend of a friend of my brother’s recommended Cherie, and from that first phone call, all my fears were swept to one side – Cherie took time to explain how it worked, that someone in my position would be better off with a work visa and once here, to then apply for Residency – which was my ultimate goal.
As fate would have it, before I left Auckland on that 2017 holiday, I had an interview in Whangarei and was able to tell them with confidence everything that Cherie had explained to me in my being able to come to work here if I was offered the job. And that’s Cherie in a nutshell, she makes simple what others make complicated! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not easy moving from one country to another and Cherie explains things in a way that make sense, takes the time to understand your situation and what would work for you. And I threw her a couple of curveballs – my medical history and my qualification. I am a qualified accountant and needed my qualification verified, and I needed to go and see a medical examiner to get my health evaluated so that I could prove I would not be a burden to the health system.
Long story short, I was offered the job in Whangarei, my work visa was handled by Cherie and she painstakingly worked with me to get the evidence, proof, letters that I needed, and even advised my new employer in Whangarei what to do. I arrived in January 2018 to start my new life, and with Cherie’s help, I applied for Residency by that April which was approved a few months later in September. And since then, I have become a Permanent Resident.
Along the way, Cherie was there, always at the end of the phone or email, with advice, friendly banter, encouragement and above all else, compassion and patience. I couldn’t have done this without Cherie – if I hadn’t had made that phone call back in 2017 after that meeting with the recruiter in Auckland, I would probably still be in England wishing for a life in the South Pacific. I wouldn’t be here, wouldn’t be living my dream, without her! She held my hand throughout the entire process, laughed with me, talked straight when I need it and listened.
Professional, knowledgeable, compassionate, honest- just four words to describe a wonderful immigration consultant, and a decent human being!
