Your March Mobile Relocation Newsletter

March 2021

While the return of the month of March brings mixed feelings for many of us, we're hopeful that this March brings optimism about what's ahead. If we can help you eliminate some uncertainty during your relocation, please reach out.

We'd like to share:

Tips for Complying with NZ’s Biosecurity
The Latest Move to New Zealand Resources
Tips for Kiwis Moving to NZ to Live for the First Time
Immigration / Border Updates
Navigating Public Healthcare
Phrase of the Month: Morning / Afternoon Tea

Tips for Complying with NZ’s Biosecurity

You may have come across our strict biosecurity measures when trying to send packages to New Zealand. Moving a household, or even a fraction of a household, will put you in very close proximity to those regulations.

But you don’t need to worry. When you’re preparing your household goods for transport, there are a few steps you can take to make things easier once they arrive at the NZ border.

Familiarise yourself with the rules. You’ll want to read through the list of prohibited and restricted items and the Ministry of Primary Industry declarations forms to get a sense of what items interest the government and what you need to do to comply (for example: scrub shoes and outdoor gear/furniture/tools; sort through holiday decorations to be sure no pine cones are included; only bring in permitted food).

When it comes time to pack or to turn over your belongings to movers, group potentially problematic items together: have all of your shoes in a bin; put all of your wood belongings together; group your holiday decorations; gather any packaged food/spices together. Mark these groupings clearly and, if someone else is packing, educate them on the system.

Make sure you know the box numbers of these items so that you can accurately complete your declarations. Keep your moving paperwork with you through your travel so that you can reference the inventory and declarations if there’s a question about an item or box.

When it comes time to put the boxes in the container - particularly when moving a whole container - load the flagged boxes closest to the container's access point. If any of your goods need to be examined, it’ll make the process faster and less expensive if those boxes are easily accessible.

With a little preparation, you can save yourself days - even weeks - of waiting to be reunited with your belongings.

Tips for Kiwis Moving to NZ to Live for the First Time

New Zealand recruiters are actively searching the globe for highly skilled people with Kiwi passports – it’s the easiest way to get talent into the country with the borders closed.

This pathway brought KPMG Auditor Sean Barclay to Auckland last month. Sean’s father is a New Zealander, but he grew up in South Africa. So, he’s visited many times and has family here but has never lived in New Zealand.

When COVID stymied plans to explore Europe for two years with his partner, Sean took up the opportunity to make a long term move to Auckland.

What might have seemed like a simple relocation to a relatively familiar place is far more complicated right now.

Sean has the following tips for Kiwi passport-holders contemplating taking up a role in New Zealand:

Prepare yourself for remote onboarding and working. It’s not easy, and Sean missed the nuances of face to face contact with clients. But it did provide an opportunity for him to get started in his new role while he was in MIQ.

Get expert advice from an Immigration Advisor if your partner doesn’t hold a Kiwi passport. As a Kiwi, it’s relatively straightforward for you to get here. For non-NZ partners and children, there's an application process which is complex and too important to get wrong.

Saying goodbye to family/friends is really hard. Even though you are coming to a familiar place, it’s not like pre-COVID times because you just don’t know when you’ll see them again.

Navigating Public Healthcare

When you’re used to getting healthcare a particular way, it can feel tricky to navigate a less familiar system. Our national public healthcare system can make delivery more comprehensive and less complicated than in a purely private system.

Who gets coverage? Public healthcare is provided to New Zealand citizens and residents, Australian citizens and residents living in NZ for two years or more, and those on visas valid for two years or more. Note that medical care resulting from an accident is covered through ACC for all NZ residents and visitors. Qualification is usually established through a simple intake question when seeking care the first time.

How do you access care? Your medical questions that can be handled by nurses should be directed to Healthline, which can make referrals where needed. Non-urgent care goes through the network of GPs. You can register with a GP for free but don’t have to register. For urgent care, you can access after hours urgent care facilities, hospital emergency departments, and ambulance services (dial 111).

How is care coordinated? Each patient is assigned a lifetime National Health Index (NHI) number to track records. Because the network is national, the various providers throughout the system may be able to communicate with each other, and care tends to be coordinated through a family doctor or GP.

Is care rationed? Like any healthcare system, you want to advocate for your needs and make sure that your care team understands your condition. There may be times when you have to wait to access some services because others have been triaged ahead of you; there may be times when your condition is triaged ahead of others. If this is concerning, there are options for purchasing private insurance to be able to access the private healthcare system as well.