I have Rotorua Spa Museum, Hell's Gate Spa, Maketu and Kaiate Falls trips to update (yea i know i slack a lot!), but i have to skip all these to update a latest news first, a very informative entry indeed, and i just worry i will forgot about the detail.
Alright, as you might know my Holiday Working Visa only last for 6 months, and my visa should be expired by 28 of September, which is another 2 months plus from now. I'm not tryin to hints that i will be back in another 2 months plus, NEVAAAAAAAAA!
So i choose to extend my visa. Yea of course, you can extend your Holiday Working Visa for another 3 months, with term and condition, which is you have to prove you have been working as a seasonal worker in horticulture and viticulture industries to grant yourself another 3 months stay in NZ.
You can either post all the documents to immigration branch in NZ, or choose to go to their office, but they're not much branches in both south and north islands, the nearest to where i stay is Hamilton, around 2 hours driving distance.
Oh yea, even if you choose to post your documents, you have to get the form from the office, or else, you could download the form from the office website. The form can be photostated as well, just as long as you must have a complete physical form and post to the office, and that couldn't be done through online.
Alright you might be wonder what kind of documents you need to do the extension.
1. Holiday working visa extension form
2. Passport (original copy)
3. Two passport size photos
4. Evidence of working as a seasonal worker in horticulture and viticulture industries, eg: 12 copy of pay slips, letter from your employer.
5. Fees of $120 (Cash preference, alternative can be cheque or bank draft. If you go to the office, they don't accept EFTPOS but credit card only)
6. Evidence of you have an outward ticket, or sufficient funds to buy return ticket, eg: bank statement (you've to request to your bank at least a day before, they won't give you instantly and it take a day to print out your statement)
This will take 2 to 3 weeks working days, depend on how many application in the process at that moment, you can choose either collect the visa in person, or let them deliver to your doorstep.
But i have a friend that extend her visa by post, and SHE LOST HER PASSPORT! She called to immigration to ask if her application done, and they said yes, the document including her passport already sent out 2 weeks ago, yet she got nothing and eventually she called to post office and check, been pushed to contact this department and that department, at the end her passport lost, and she had to report the lost and apply for new passport in the embassy here.
Of course, i don't mean to scare away those who are trying to do this by post, but yea if you have a car and you're stayin nearby, why not spend sometime to not taking this risk? For me i went to apply the visa by myself, and i choose to collect all my document by myself too, so when all these has done, i will got a call and collect 'em.
Oh yea, the immigration office operation time is from 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday, so make your time to fit them.
And hmmm.. Oh yea, some people say you need a X-ray or medicine check-up document for the visa extension application, this is true in 2 years ago, but not now, as long as you're already in NZ region, you don't need to spend money to got the check up document stuff like that, just get all the document i mention as above and that will be fine.
The form is kind of thick, but no difficult question, remember to bring the company name, address and number, you'll need that to fill in the form.
After fill in all the form and ready with all your document, you will be given an visible plastic bag to put all the document inside, then put into the box outside of the office (If you just want to submit the form, you could come after office hour, just drop your full set of application document into the box).
So there, i have no passport with me for at least 2 weeks! And the worst is, i forgot to keep a copy of my passport! Hahaha wish me not to get block by police in this few weeks then :D.
Well after all the application, 3 of us and another friend of us Tom just walk around the town, got myself a Hamilton postcard as i forgotten to have one last time i been here, and went to ASB bank for clarify the question of international money transfer, then we went back home.
In the middle we saw a very cute hot food stall, which the rest of them had come across last time when i was dealing the motel in i-site, and finally this time i saw this, yet i'm not tasting the famous baked potatoes (diet-ing =(..).
Sitting on the bench in the center park while friends were having the yummy cheesy baked potatoes, i saw a suspected-raspberry tree kind of thing, well i'm not sure if raspberry grow on tree, but it doesn't look like raspberry!
On the other hand, MeiYee said, it look like plum, not raspberry, and i was like =.=...
And we go back home after that, the next thing is change my air ticket time. I haven't decide yet when to got back, before or after Christmas, well too soon to think bout it yet.
For those who know or may not know me, if you wanna know more about NZ working holiday visa extension for Malaysian question, send me comment and i hope i could help =).
For my readers, sorry for the dry entry, you guys must be thinkin this is not interesting, well let me tell you what, the next one is not interesting either XD. Should be posting the museum and spa tour, but very less photos i shall say.
But anyway, stay tuned!
Tauranga, NZ
20100725, 0315pm
Rach in still thinkin of farm life mood.
