Thinking about emigrating to New Zealand?

This arrived in my in-box today, thought some of you might be interested:
"To help you on this road the Team @ BritsNZ would like to invite you to a FREE seminar all about emigrating to New Zealand.  The seminar will cover:

• Visas
• Job Hunting & CVs
• Your Financial Migration - general finances, UK pensions & tax issues, banking and currency exchange!
• Your Physical Migration – what to bring, how to break the news to family, how to leave!
• Re-settlement – gaining access to a support network, knowing what to expect, where to find things!
• ………and a myriad of other important issues and information.

Come and listen to a successful migrant, and born-and-bred Kiwis, talk about ALL aspects of emigrating.

Along with BritsNZ we will have our key working partners present and presenting information to you – they are: Migration Associates; PSS International Removals; Halo Financial Currency Exchange; The National Bank of New Zealand.

The actual venues are still being locked in but we will be at:

• Birmingham, Saturday, 12th February
• Southampton, Sunday, 13th February
• Heathrow Airport, Saturday, 5th March
• The seminars all start at 10.30 a.m. and will run until 2.30 p.m.

All seminars are FREE of charge and we will supply a light lunch,  other goodies and special offers!

To register your interest please e-mail Alexandra Cole on alex@britsnz.co.nz and tell her which seminar you would like to attend and how many of you will be coming and she will reserve you seats – no problems with bringing the kids, we actively encourage their participation and at probably both Birmingham and Southampton we will also have our 10 year old daughter, Gabriella along so your kids can ask her whatever is on their minds!

THE KEY NOW IS SPEED AS PLACES ARE FILLING QUICKLY"

That's all I know folks, so please direct your questions and bookings to alex@britsnz.co.nz
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Shortlist of potential emigration countries

Picture from Creative Commons section at Flickr.

Hurrah! Mr MigratingFishSwim & I have narrowed things down considerably.

Mr MFS decided he didn't want to go further than Europe, so that helped; being an EU citizen he can get a work permit comparatively easy in any other EU country, bonus; we want warmth, so around the Med made sense...

It's now between Cyprus, Malta, Gibraltar, Greece, Spain & Portugal. (We're including the Canaries, Azores, etc, in that.) Alas the south of France isn't warm enough for me and Corsica has no British-style international schools, so France had to be ruled-out, to the general chagrin of friends & family who were hoping for nice holidays in France!

Mr MFS as we speak, is ploughing through a book on teaching abroad and is compiling a criteria list to help him decide which countries he'd like to teach in. He's been recommended to take his first overseas post through a reputable agency, rather than applying directly to schools. Presumably as they only work with schools who comply with best practise.

My job this week was to find some expos to visit, to talk directly with emigration specialists, potential employers, work permit departments, etc, but I've had little luck.

There's the Place in The Sun expo in March, but that's 175 miles away in London. When we were planning on New Zealand, there seemed to be an expo in the North or Midlands every two months! There are various property shows, but that's not what we need at the moment. If any readers know of emigration expos for  Cyprus, Malta, Gibraltar, Greece, Spain or Portugal, please let me know.

I've found some emigration online fora, on which to ask others for their expo knowledge. These two sites have an EU and English-speaking country focus, but look like being really useful:
http://britishexpats.com/ and http://www.expatforum.com/

The other down-under

As you know, I've decided not to got to New Zealand - but those of you who are still Kiwi-focused, will enjoy this blog, written by an American who's a new Kiwi.

He gives a warm and intelligent portrayal of life in the other down-under.
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Wide source of emigration information

If you're thinking of emigrating to Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain or the USA, you'll find the Emigrate website really useful. As well as the site, they run expos, sell publications and more.

Thinking of emigrating to Malaysia?

The is the Malaysian immigration department's website. Alas, not a very helpful example among immigration department sites.

Thinking of emigrating to Cyprus?

Here's an interesting post on Expat Forum, giving an overview of issues to consider if Cyprus is a destination you're considering for your emigration.

British emigrants outstrip numbers of immigrants

An interesting story by the New Statesmen, entitled Exodus: the great British migration.