The VISA fiasco - Our experience with Immigration New Zealand.

"The grass is greener on the other side."
"You are so lucky."
"You are living the life!"

I've heard it all. Though I would not deny there's some extent of truth in those statements made, there are also a lot of problems that we faced and are still facing at the moment. Definitely not a bed of roses (never actually understood why that is used to describe an easy life... The person who came out with it must not have seen the thorns that come with roses.. )

This post is written, not only for me to reflect on what we went through with this whole VISA fiasco, but also to shed some light for those who might be looking to apply for working VISA to come to New Zealand... Please bear in mind though that everything written here is purely based on our circumstances and what we experienced, and should be read merely as reference :)

Stage One - Understanding the various VISAs.

I am someone who HATES to read legal stuff and my mum could testify to that. Yes, I have been paying for an insurance policy that I have no idea of its coverage and contents and only did so because my parents told me I should lol. And as the saying goes, "One would do all things for love", I found myself spending HOURS going through the immigration website, downloading and reading the guides for different forms, reading forums just to find out my options.

What I found out were - teaching is no longer categorised in the priority list for 'Skilled Migrants', and my best bet was getting a Temporary Working Visa (under partnership basis) to be with Alex for a year before applying for residency.


Stage Two - Medical Check Up

There are different forms of medical check-up for different types of application. Please read carefully. You would not want to end up going through all that and paying for it to find out you been using the wrong medical certificates.

This was quite tricky for me as I was still teaching in Gua Musang at that time, inaccessible to approved panel physicians. So when I had the chance to go back to Taiping during short breaks, my parents helped me from one stop to another to get all that done. I stupidly left my passport in Gua Musang which caused a lot of inconvenience including doing a written statement, had my reports held till I managed to produce a certified copy of my passport, my parents had to pick up my reports since I went back to Gua Musang to teach, and had them posted to me so I could proceed with the application @_@

At least, having a medical report done in Malaysia is a whole lot cheaper than doing it in New Zealand. I can't remember the actual price I paid but it was less than RM300 for the medical check up, chest X-Ray and blood test.


Stage Three - Police certificate

You will need to provide a police certificate to prove that you have good conduct and won't be of risk to the country. In Malaysia, we would have to log on to www.kln.gov.my and complete the form of the Certificate of Good Conduct, get a postal order of RM20 (which I waited in the post office for 2 hours for), and send the forms with a self addresed prepaid envelope, and wait for the cert to be delivered to you.

It took me 2 weeks of processing, and one week waiting period, just to receive this super thin and flimsy paper @_@

Stage Four - Evidence of Partnership

We were confident that this would be the least of our issue since we have been together for 5 years (at the time of application) and I am someone who is quite open about our relationship on social media. So I compiled our partnership timeline from our first date to our in-between trips from Malaysia - New Zealand, to his proposal to our wedding planning with dates, pictures, and even specific links to my blog entries. I also prepared evidences in forms of our e-tickets, corresponding mails, cards he sent me etc...

Turned out I received a phone call from the Immigration officer in Singapore (Malaysia does not have a NZ Immigration consulate and our nearest office is in Singapore) stating that 'though we recognised that you and your partner are in a stable and genuine relationship, but because you have not lived together for sufficient time, we could not grant you a working VISA.'

I was crushed at that time.

So even though we survived five years of long-distance relationship and are in the process of getting married with me relocating to NZ - that was not as good as 'LIVING TOGETHER'...

This officer offered me a 9-month Holiday Visa instead (which meant that I could go over, live there but NOT ELIGIBLE TO WORK), for me to work out the requirement on 'living together.' Beggars can't be choosers and we believe that everything happened for a reason, so I took up that VISA (plus, we paid for it. Cost us NZD360 = RM985.73).


Stage Five - Submission

Unfortunately for me, there was no way I could submit the original documents including my passport personally in Singapore - I have to teach, and the office will not be open during weekends, and the thought of a 12 hour train ride killed me lol. Plus, it will be impossible for me to enter Singapore with a passport, surrender my passport to the immigration officer, and return to Malaysia without one..

The only method I was left with was - to courier my application to Singapore.
This led to another heart-wrecking experience. NO COURIER SERVICE IN GUA MUSANG WAS WILLING TO HELP ME COURIER TO SINGAPORE. NOT EVEN THE ONES WITH INTERNATIONAL BRANDS!!!! Reason being, they think its too much trouble and they are happy with only domestic orders!!! WTH!

Eventually (thanks to Nadia for her driving me everywhere and such a good confidante), I managed to persuade this chinese uncle who ran a courier service to process mine. He was very reluctant as he said its 'ma fan' and he had never done it before. Anyway, he couldn't read English so I had to read the manual for him @_@, got my things weighed, paid, and later was informed that my documents were held up in the Kota Bahru office because he 'UNDERCHARGED' me!!!

I had to go back to the shop to pay him the remainder money, made him promise me that it will be a smooth delivery this time, only to find out later I couldn't track my package!!!!!!!

They too couldn't track it and after many calls, found out they were stuck at the customs because the value of the package was not declared!!! I had to make the calls to them, get it cleared before they could send the package to the immigration office!!!!!!

I tell you, I lost soooooooooo much hair during that period of time.. Was worried dead that if my original stuff went missing, the pain of compiling everything over again. Not only that, the Ah Pek had the guts to tell me if my stuff went missing they can only pay me a maximum of 100 bucks! No thank you, you can take your 100 bucks and clean your butt if you want! Just get my documents safely delivered!

A simple courier delivery that I paid for which should take 1 day, ended up taking 4 days.. At least the documents were safe and intact.


Stage Six - The wait.

Probably the scariest part - because you have no control of the outcome. We prayed, we did what we could, and all we could do was.. wait.

And of course, as explained in Stage Four, our application failed. Not entirely. But it helped us to realise that we were doing too many things on our own, planning our own ways, and not really seeking God for directions. So as we came to acceptance of the failed application, we learned to submit entirely to God and just take a step at a time.


Stage Seven - New Beginnings in New Zealand

After taking a few days to settle down back in Auckland, we made a trip to the Internal Affairs Department to book our slot for our marriage registration. The earliest we could get was 7th January 2014. Paid for the marriage fees (NZD 173.70), Alex signed the Statutory Declaration that both him and I were never married before (the process is so much simpler here in NZ than in Malaysia, I don't even have to produce evidence of my 'single status'), and we were set to be married on the appointed date. Came that date, with two witnesses, we exchanged our vows, signed the papers, and went home with the Copy of Particulars of our Marriage.

10 working days later, went back to the office, paid NZD26.50 for our Marriage Certificate printout.

Stage Eight - Calling up Immigration

Here in NZ, one is not advised to go to the office to wait for your turn to speak to an immigration officer. In fact, only those with appointments for VISA processing are given priority. So we either check for the needed answers on their website, or call up the lines. I did the latter, and after waiting for my turn, got to speak to a rather friendly officer. However, this officer did not think it would be wise for me to apply for the working VISA when I have only lived with Alex for less than a month, explaining that working VISAs are hard to come by nowadays and my chances are higher if I apply in March or April, which would give me 'more sufficient' period of living together... A lil saddened by the news, Alex and I continued to pray everyday about what we should do. My unpaid leave ends late march so do I stay? do I leave? do I get an extension? do I just try applying?

So many questions. And we were not getting the answers we badly needed. There were also a lot of frustration because as I see my husband hard at work, I could not even work legally to contribute in this family. Cost of living is really high in New Zealand, we were digging into our savings, my mum had to help me transfer some of my savings over so we could pay some big bills... Our faith was never that tested before.. We came into the point of total surrender, having no control of our circumstances, praying for breakthroughs, deliverance and declaring His promises and provision...

And when we reached a month of being together, i just felt this burden in my heart - to apply. I decided to talk to Alex about it, we prayed over it, and he told me to go ahead.

Thankfully, for this second application, I need not redo my medical certificates or police check because they last for 36 months in the system!!! Praise God! I started to see why it was necessary for me to go through the first application because that actually helped us to save a whole lot of money. I can't even imagine what I would have to pay if I got them done here in NZ. For one I knew I be paying more than NZD 300 (RM821.45) just for the medical certificate application - without X-RAY and blood test!

And I would not want to think of the trouble of obtaining the certificate of good conduct from here...

So this second application was a lot easier for me. Complete the forms, provide the timeline of our relationship, produce evidence stating my financial contribution, our joint back accounts and corresponding addresses, our marriage certs, my original passport, my husband's form of supporting my application... and off i went to the immigration office on Queen St...

and enjoyed a cup of flat white after that..


Stage Nine - The Second Wait

After 3 days of submission, I suddenly received a call from a Documentation Officer telling me that I had to submit a certified copy of my husband's passport, or better still, go to their office in Manukau Rd on that day with my husband and his passport. Alex was really sick that day but he accommodated me and we drove to that office. She took his passport, went in to certify it, not so sure what else she did and came back with his passport. She told me now my application is complete and that it would be processed within 25 working days, and I would just wait till I get contacted.

25 days????

(Looks at the calendar). Ain't look good.. Then again, let God arise..


Stage Ten - The Surprise.

I was suffering from severe menstrual cramp, and later an ear ache! It got to a point when I couldn't sleep, was having headache and the sharp pain from my swollen ear canal was too difficult for me...Of course I would love to see the doctor and get it checked, but without a residency status, I am not registered and it will cost a bomb...

I remembered I was showering, and thinking inside "I really need to see the doctor.. But I don't even have my passport with me! And if I have to return to Malaysia in March, how can I do so when I don't have my passport?".... Suddenly, Alex came asking me whether I missed out the postman the day before as a courier guy came with a package for me...

I was like.. "What is it?"

He checked and said, "Oh.. its your passport"

and I was already speechless. They returned me my passport after 7 days? And just when I was thinking about it????

I got dried up and quickly tore open the package... found our marriage cert FOLDED :'( , a receipt of the payment, and my passport.

When I opened up my passport....
I saw...
THIS.

I. Was. In. Disbelief.

I was jumping around. Squealing.

My heart was resounding with joy and praise. God is good! He is so so good!

It was impossible in our mind to even receive news about our application before March.

I was waiting to be contacted by an officer like my first attempt.

And if I listened to the first officer instead of the prompting in my heart, I would not even apply before March!

And instead of 25 days.. It took only SEVEN days... and this came right to our doorstep!

And they gave us a 90 dollar discount from our 360 dollars payment because this is a second application (the first officer i talked to in NZ told me I wasn't eligible because the first VISA was a holiday VISA)!

Isaiah 55:8-9

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Truly, His ways are better than ours, and beyond our understanding and expectations. And when we let God be God, we see real wonders.

Now that I am finally eligible to even apply for jobs here in New Zealand, I plan to do just so... and keeping God first in every single application.

I have seen so much of His provision, in His own time (which is always the best time) and in His remarkable ways.

Still, we have no idea what comes our way - whether I will even get a job in this competitive job market, but we will continue to TRUST in Him, PRAISE Him always, and DECLARE that God is GOOD.

My TOP 10 Most Memorable Moments of Our Wedding :)

Prior to this I actually composed an essay - yup, an essay of the real drama that happened behind the scenes of our wedding with my reflective thoughts. The last i checked, it was 6 pages long (on Word doc), 2467 words! lol. Then i realised unlike Wordpress where i could privatise some of my posts, i was unable to do so with blogger, so i ended up saving that essay in my draft folder, and emailed the pdf version to my parents and husband hahahahaha... Coz it was very very detailed, overflowing with my real thoughts, fear and gratitude okay.. and those 3 are my most important readers.

Once again i would like to apologise to many of our friends and even extended family for being unable to extend our invitations to all. We have our reasons, and it was a really small and intimate affair. We do hope that all of you will continue to watch over us, cheer us on when we fall, and give us your blessings~~

If I can put a description to my wedding day on 13.12.13, it will be - "His ways are always higher, a taste of God's faithfulness."

Forget about the normal bridezilla moments we see too often on chick flicks, what we went through, the amazing way God works, still made me gasped in disbelief and filled with joy.

At the end of the day, it was a beautiful ceremony, a wonderful celebration, with those who matter to us :)

So, here are my top TEN moments during the big day~

(in no particular order lol)


ONE
When my mum and grandma helped me with my wedding gown.

I actually gained weight from my Taiwan trip and was very worried about fitting into my wedding gown. Thank God for my mum and grandma who helped with the difficult dress, getting me sorted before freshening up themselves. I felt a 'moment', just having my mum carefully tying the strings for me. While I was also multi-tasking with other coordination, my heart was just filled with gratitude and emotions..

TWO

This girl flew in from Singapore, had to wait in the mall for a bit before i could get back to the hotel and arranged for her to freshen up in my parents' room.

Suddenly she came running into our bridal room, hugged me tight and started crying. Made me all mushy mushy and teary.. Love ya babe!

THREE

When the girls came all dolled up and i saw real genuine happiness that they had for me :')
The photographer asked us to act like we were talking and laughing, so we started shouting or yelling or talk random stuff in very loud noise hahahaha..

dang. I was the one laughing too hard. lol
Back to control 'ayu'.

FOUR
The walk in.

Dad and I were talking in great depth and praying that we forgot to cover my face with the veil! lol.. Everything still felt pretty surreal to me at that point.

FIVE
The exchange of vows and the rings covenant.

I was choking when i said mine. So overwhelmed with emotions.
Witnessed by men and God, we became one.

 

SIX
The very rowdy and loud tea ceremony - noises made by my very excited uncles and aunts lol

SEVEN

I prepared a special dedication for my parents, aimed to make them cry coz they said they wouldn't earlier. It was a song performance of 'You Raise Me Up' with a video slideshow to go with... Ended up I was sobbing, and found it difficult to sing some parts, and they of course were a bunch of mess lol

 

 

and daddy came out to hug me :')

EIGHT

Our father-daughter dance.

You know there will always be technical difficulties in important events? Ours did not escape the curse. But still, we had fun (despite several awkward pauses due to the broken music lol)

later joined by our family members

 
NINE
The HORLIAO speech from my dad

I think all of us were highly entertained and impressed by his impromptu speech!

TEN
the YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM-seng

At the end of the day,
No one really cares about the invitations, the colour of the napkins, the flowers etc. The people is what makes a real celebration of worth. The people who came with hearts of joy, to celebrate with us. And to all these people, we love you, and we thank you.

To our God,
once again we tasted your faithfulness and we want to glorify your name.

To my parents,
you guys are my heroes. Nuff said.

To my brothers (Joel, Joshua and Ivan),
you guys are the best. Thanks for all the behind the scenes support!

To my extended family and in laws,
your presence was very very much appreciated and thanks so much for your blessing and love gifts.

To all my friends,
i can never thank you guys enough for making my day a special one.

To my husband,
thanks for enduring everything with me, for protecting me, for encouraging me, for teaching me, for saying your vows with clarity and without any hesitation, for looking at me lovingly, for taking this great journey with me...

ps. <message for my 'facebook friends'>  for more pictures, go to my facebook :)

the pregnancy scare lol

It has only been 51 days or 1 month 20 days or 7 weeks since i became Mrs Liao, and it has been eventful, heaps of joy and lots of laughter. Now, we have something new to add on to it - the scare, that made us cry-laugh-cannot hahahahaha...

You see, Alex and I decided that we will not try to conceive, at least for the first year of marriage because there are just too many uncertain possibilities that could happen, and mainly we both know that we are not ready to be parents yet. However, I couldn't take the PILL because my doctor advised me against it since several family members of mine had cancer... So, we ended up not really doing birth control, just not trying hard to conceive hahahahaha

Then,

my period was one day late. I took no heed of it because it's just one day.

And it was late for 3 days... Nah, its okay...i think...

And the period calendar showed - LATE 5 DAYS.
This was when we started making jokes about me being pregnant and Alex is going to be a dad. And he would lament about how are we going to raise a child... or that he is too young... and said his old study desk will be the baby's crib etc @_@'''


I started feeling a lot of discomfort too... And every time I announced (see my chosen verb lol) to him how I was feeling, he would go like.. "Ohhhh.. Another sign..."

Yup, we both googled on early signs of pregnancy separately and found out that the other person did that and laughed really hard about it.

So, what are the signs of early pregnancy?

1. Shortness of Breath
Dang... I was breathing really heavily and sometimes my chest feels very tense...

2. Sore Breasts
Errrrr... There have been some discomfort....oops..

3. Fatigue
YES I FEEL TIRED ALL THE TIME!!!! BUT IT COULD BE THE WEATHER RIGHT OR IM CATCHING A COLD AHHHH I DON'T KNOWWWWWW

4. Nausea 
I felt dizzy in the car, in the house, and even felt like puking after that Thai dinner!!!!!

5. Frequent Urination 
I have always have a weak bladder but I was going to the toilet so damn frequent especially at night that Alex got a lil annoyed!!!!

6. Headaches
What??? Even headaches too???? I have that all too often!!!

7. Backaches
T______T Yes, my back ache was sore from time to time...

8. Cramping 
Of course I felt that... I kept thinking it was my period... all those false alarm and wasted pads!

9. Cravings or Food Aversions 
Hmmmm.. Not entirely sure about this.. I still eat... But I did prefer ginger which is just a lil weird for me..

10. Constipation and Bloating 
I HAVE A BALLOON STUCK IN MY STOMACH!!!

11. Mood Swings 
While I insisted that I did not have this, the husband disagreed lol.

12. Elevated Basal Body Temperature
No freaking idea what is this lmao.

13. Super Smell 
This is a more controversial one. Alex was down with cold so he couldn't smell much while I felt like my smell was heightened to the extent I told him that our tap water in the kitchen smelt like garlic and he rolled his eye at me hhahahahahaha

14. Dizziness or Fainting
Both of us were really dizzy those days coz he was sick and we think he gave me the cold too

15. Spotting 
I'm sure I have that. I have proof. @_@.. Ok.. moving on..

16. Late Period 
Like duh... that's why I even googled this information...

As you can see, we had all the reasons to be paranoid.... Even though we both knew that if I do get pregnant, it's a gift from God and that it should be a good piece of news, we were also worried whether we would be able to cope with all the changes and afford the bills..

And I came to appreciate my husband even more. Though he made some mean jokes earlier, he apologised and told me not to worry, and that we would go through everything together...

So yesterday marked the 6th day of no period. We were 55% sure that we are going to be parents lol and he would suddenly touch my tummy and call me 'THE MOTHER OF MY CHILD' in a funny tone hahahahaha..

Next thing I knew, I caught him browsing.. not his usual websites of cars... but MATERNITY CLOTHES!!!  hahahahaha

He would also annoyingly tell me, "YOU GOTTA EAT MORE DARLING. YOU ARE EATING FOR TWO!'

The highlight came when we were in bed...

"I have decided what to name our kids! If he is a boy, he will be called Israel. If a girl, she will be Israeli"

"Noh. The kid is not a country nor its people! hahahahaha"

"Fine. Our kid will be called Potato then."

"You are never naming our child! You are going to ruin his life hahahahaha"

"The teacher will ask 'Potato, what is the answer to this question?' And he will reply, 'Potatoes!!!"

Hahahahahahahaha

Yea... he went on and on about possible names that include all the angels from Supernatural, and random words that he made up hahahahaha .. (He used to want to name his son Zeus. Go figure. lol)

Came the 7th day (today). Went to toilet. Still none.. That's fine, we planned to get a pregnancy tester later today anyway - Let the guessing game come to an end once and for all..           

Went back to the kitchen to fix Alex his sandwich... felt a sudden sharp pain... rushed to the toilet and...............

I walked to the living room, Alex was by his computer...

I gave him a hug from the back and said, "老公，你不是爸爸了。"

And he went all melodramatic okay... saying "But I got the names figured out!"  hahahaha...


But what happened later was no longer funny.. I had the worst cramps ever.
Still, we went to church and listened to a wonderful message on marriage.


The cramps got worse when we got back. So painful that I googled 'LATE PERIOD VERY PAINFUL' and came out with results on 'cysts' and 'early miscarriages' which freaked me out a lil.. God bless my good husband who comforted me before he had to go out for work (yes, he had to work on Sundays too) while I wallowed in pain in the bed...

and the man of the day, year and lifetime brought back...

 ahhhhhh... yums beyond words....


Ok. Gonna stop here and watched a movie with the hubs!


New update:

OKAY PEOPLE, the husband just read the post and his first response was, "HOW CAN YOU NOT DESCRIBE THE PIZZA???? YOU CAN'T JUST PUT A PICTURE AND NOT TELL PEOPLE WHAT IS IT!!!!" lol..

So,

My wonderful husband customised the Lust Deluxe from Hell's Pizza, which is actually a pizza with Marinated Steak, Venison Pepperoni, Salami, Ham, Bacon & Smoked Cabanossi, Lashed With Béarnaise Sauce. And he asked to replace the tomato paste with smoky BBQ sauce.... super nice and satisfying yo!