From student to resident

My name is Pratik and I am from India. I moved to New Zealand in 2019 with my wife. I had come to NZ to pursue my master's in business. After I finished my Master's degree, we were applying for an open work visa and that is when approached New Zealand shores.

We had a thirty minutes free session with Julia Cooke and we decided that we would do our application with Julia Cooke. The only challenging part in that application was, my wife was on a visitor visa and her visa was finishing about 2 weeks before my master's degree was supposed to finish. We were a bit confused but Julia's guidance helped us sort it out pretty smoothly. We received our open work visa in about 2 weeks. We decided that moving forward if we ever need any other consultant we will not go to anybody else but Julia from New Zealand shores.

Just in about a years' time we heard the news about 2021 residence visa. Fortunately, I was eligible for that I did fit into the salary criteria. We did not even think once before approaching Julia again as we knew her way of working and we were confident that if we apply the residency through her there would not be any issues. She was very understanding and helpful all throughout the application process. It was very smooth. We used to hammer Julia all the time asking the status of our application and she would always reply to all our emails say.

When I worked on the cruise ship, I had visited NZ, hence why I had decided to move here. Except our families, we do not think we miss anything else here. We do have everything available here even some traditional Indian snack items. There are lots of Indian stores & restaurants around if you crave for Indian food.

We are happy to call New Zealand our home now.

Our advice to other migrants would be, its indeed very challenging to move to other country and start from the beginning again, however if your focus is clear nothing is impossible. Moving to NZ was one of our best decisions. People here are supportive and helpful, and the beauty of NZ is breathtaking. The final advice will be if you are choosing New Zealand shores to be your immigration adviser do not even keep 1% doubt in your mind.

We would like to thank Julia again for her help in getting our Residency. We are happy to call New Zealand our home now.