Silver Fern: proof of evidence that you meet the requirements

Once you succeeded to submit your online Silver Fern application, please, accept my warmest congratulation: YOU did it! This step is a way too far away from your first step on the New Zealand land, however, everything that you will have to arrange now are so called pleasant problems and worries.

Your visa place is only theoretically yours, to make it real you have to send a set of papers to the nearest NZ branch. Don't worry, you will receive a detailed e-mail with instructions next day after you pay for your visa, however, I'm going to cover it hear briefly anyways for those who think one step forward.

Papers which you have to collect and send to the nearest branch (address will be included in the e-mail, London in my case) by the set day (3 months after the day of submitting the application):

1. Your passport

NZ visa will be issued in the passport. Make sure your passport is valid for long enough.

2. A Medical and X Ray Certificate (INZ 1007)

See www.immigration.govt.nz/medicalforms to download a copy of the certificate.

Basically, you can get this certificate from any country and city you like, prices vary a lot.List of available government approved doctors you can see here: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/stream/work/skilledmigrant/LinkAdministration/ToolboxLinks/paneldoctors.htm?level=1

Speaking about prices, in St. Petersburg, Russia, you would pay around 500e, in Helsinki, Finland,- 600e.

I chose an Estonian doctor, Dr Jaak Talli, from Tallinn. The reason was not only the price, I paid around 250e for everything including fary tickets, but also because Tallinn is simply a wonderful city with most beautiful old town, delicious food and they also sell a huge variety of stuff for dogs there :)

Anyways, first I made a booking reservation by phone, after that printed a few copies of the form available from immigration.govt.nz, filled in sections that were marked "fill in by yourself" and made enough pictures. I would also recommend to check the form at home carefully to be certain what questions you will be asked.

The rest was very simple, the clinic is situated in the city center of Tallinn and I found it easily. Staff was very kind and helpful, surprisingly, nobody spoke Russian.

First, I had a meeting with the doctor who filled the rest of the forms, checked my heart and lungs. Finally, I was sent to X ray, blood and urine tests.

Whole time spent in the clinic was 1,5 h maximum. Results arrived in Helsinki one week after by post.

3. Police certificate from the country of your citizenship and any other country where you have lived for more than 5 years.

In Finland it was simple as 2x2, I just filled in a form online and received my certificate something like 10 days after together with a 10e bill.

In Russia, however, I had to go twice. First time to submit an application by filling it by hand (!!) and waiting a few hours in a line. Second time, one month later, to collect it. 

"Wonderful" Russian service was free of charge. Though the certificate was issued in Russian language only, and I had to send it to the translation agency later.

If somebody is interested in more detailed advice about Medicine and Police certificates part in Saint-Petersburg, please, see my online friend's post/ I don't think anybody could put it in a better way!

http://maxedin.blogspot.fi/2012/04/blog-post.html

4. Evidence of the equivalent of NZ$4200 for maintenance - bank statement on your name

5. IELTS of 6.5 or higher/other accepted proof of your language proficiency, for example, university degree, received completely in English language.

 My Finnish degree was not ready yet by the application time, so I had to take an IELTS test in Helsinki. Both Academic and General kinds of test are suitable. General is easier. I took Academic because there were no places any time soon for the other kind.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do reserve your place before hand, I would recommend around 2 months at least. They run out very fast! 

I won't go into details about the test as there's a lot of info online. Would just note that, in my opinion, the test is easier than TOEFL content wise which I took a few years ago. However, organization in IELTS is quite complicated, I would definitely recommend to make a few sample tests beforehand no matter how good in English you think you are. You can loose a lot of points simply by not knowing how and when to put your answers.

In my case, I planned to prepare well before hand, but it was a short Finnish summer, you know :) in the end i did a couple of sample tests before the exam, that's all. My result was 8 out of 9. 

But mind that I have lived in Finland for quite long, plus I'm generally very good in any kind of tests.

I received my lowest score in writing, by the way :)

It took about 2 weeks to receive results by post.

6. Evidence you meet the qualification requirements, in other words, your diploma.

You should check much before hand that your University is in the list of exceptions, IS recognized in NZ and doesn't need to be examined in NZQA. If not, you have to send it to NZQA which will take all together from 1 month to..

I can't say much about NZQA at the moment, as my Russian diploma was recognized. 

Unfortunately, the Finnish one won't be so lucky, I'll get back to you later about the painful process.

Finally, you need o print out your e-mail with instructions, mark that you send all documents and post it to the given address. 

Progress of your application can be seen constantly from your cabinet on the immigration web page. They also send you an e-mail when any changes take place. medicine get's to be checked first.

It took me all together about 1 month to confirm my place and issue the visa.  Just to mention, my passport and other documents were "lost" a few times by Finnish or UK post. Next time i would rather send my papers by a secure post, not the normal one :)

This is basically all in brief. I'm struggling with my thesis at the moment, so writing DOES hurt almost physically. May be i add more detailed info later. 

Please, feel free to ask questions any time!

Yahoo-ho,

Lena

2.1.2013 Helsinki (still)