[peterburkimsher]

That sounds similar to the Working Holiday programme, which offers 1 year work visas with few strings attached.

Most people blow their chance on irrelevant work experience (farm work, café). I got relevant jobs (summer job coding control systems at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare in NZ, network administration at Lululemon in Canada).

My mistake was only staying for a few months - I should've spent a whole year there, and then I could add immigration points for working in the country for 1 year.

Now I'm trying to move back, and it's hard. Any suggestions would be helpful.

[RowanH]

Maybe visa sponsorship ? Sometimes with niche enough roles NZ employers can sponsor Visas if no one is upto standard locally.

[peterburkimsher]

I think the word "sponsor" scares off the HR department. I'm able to pay all the fees, I just need the company's name (and a commitment to stay in the role for at least a year if I remember right).

[Negitivefrags]

You have to understand that it’s not as simple as that for the company.

In order to sponsor your visa they have to demonstrate that they attempted to hire New Zealanders for the role and there was nobody suitable for the role.

That means being able to supply proof that you made a reasonable effort to advertise for the role, and giving lists of NZ candidates who applied but where not suitable because they lacked the technical requirements for the role.