American mechanical engineer looking for work visa. She works for Virgin Galatic.

Forums › Jobs › American mechanical engineer looking for work visa. She works for Virgin Galatic.

kingdragonfly

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#273393 20-Aug-2020 08:01

I have a niece. She's a mechanical engineer currently working for Richard Branson's spaceflight company "Virgin Galactic."

She's one of the few mechanical engineers who hasn't been laid off, since she considered a "go to" employee.

However she's working from home in California, and wondering how much longer "Virgin Galatic" will be around.

She's sent a cold CV to Rocket Lab, but she's open to any opportunities.

She is 34 years old has no children, and is unmarried.

I'm paying for her air fare, quarantine, giving her a car, and willing to sign a lease on a furnished apartment for her.

She looking for a salary of NZD $75,000/year.

Again she'll need work visa sponsorship.

You can send me a PM.

Nate001

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#2544906 20-Aug-2020 08:42

Are you sure she can enter NZ under current circumstances? - Even if you're willing to pay for everything.

Technofreak

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#2544917 20-Aug-2020 09:05

You've got a snowballs chance in hell unless she's being employed on a government funded job through the likes of the provincial Growth Fund. A totally unessential job like this will do it Cambridge All Weather Race Track

I know of visa applicants, for jobs vital for the support of essential industries offering above the required minimum salary, who have been denied visas. Also her salary level is below that being stated as a requirement for visas at this time.

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kingdragonfly

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#2544919 20-Aug-2020 09:07

You may be right.

Suspension of overseas visa applications and introduction of EOI fees

Friday, 31 July 2020

From 10 August 2020 Immigration New Zealand will be ... temporarily suspending overseas visa applications.

...

"Temporary visa suspensions for overseas applicants
From 10 August, people outside of New Zealand will not be able to apply for temporary visas for 3 months.

The following offshore temporary entry class visa applications are not affected:

relationship-based visas for partners and dependent children of New Zealand citizens and residents
visas for diplomatic, consular and official staff and accompanying dependants
Antarctic Traveller Visitor visas and Antarctic Work visas
Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Limited visas. fruit pickers

Since the border closure, we have not been processing visas for overseas applicants unless they meet the strict border exception criteria. This is because legally INZ is unable to grant visas to people who are unlikely to meet entry requirements. However, people have continued to submit visa applications expecting their applications to be processed.

Temporarily suspending visa applications means:

we will be in a better place to process new applications when border restrictions change, and
applicants will not lose money on paying for applications that cannot be processed at this time.

This suspension does not apply to residence class visa applications as these applications take longer to process and may be less impacted by border restrictions.

If you intend to apply for a temporary class visa, do not undergo a medical examination unless you have been advised to do so by Immigration New Zealand."

wellygary

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#2544920 20-Aug-2020 09:08

If she is not a Citizen or permanent resident, then she will need a border exception, and to get one she will need a 100K+ job offer.... and as mentioned above, that's unlikely

https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/covid-19/covid-19-information-for-employers#border-exceptions

Criteria for long term critical workers

A worker coming to New Zealand for the long term (six months or longer) is considered an ‘other critical worker’ if they meet one of the criteria for short term workers and:

they earn at least twice the median salary (currently NZD $106,080 a year), or

kingdragonfly

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#2566796 17-Sep-2020 12:44

Turn out my niece works for Virgin Orbit, not Virgin Galactic.

I sent my nieces CV to 17 recruiting firms.

One gave this reply

"Thank you for the email, however without a valid visa then we cant help sorry.

I’ve got people that have been issued work to residency visas and have secured jobs that we cant get in. The government is very black and white about this and wont budge.

I’ve written to the PM and Immigration Minister, with no success.

We have even gotten companies to guarantee all of the costs of quarantine and travel etc but to no avail. Its very frustrating for all.

Seems unless you are a doctor, nurse or mushroom farmer (believe it or not) then they will not let you in.

Engineers don’t seem to figure in the current government sights and notifications have been sent stating that companies utilize who is in NZ first.

So getting a work visa for an international has become very hard.

Happy to talk when the borders are relaxed but realistically this could be mid 2021 or later."