22 January 2010

Grant update

From his email:

"don't have much time, getting ready to head out for SCOPE [going out on shift with local cops]. the PCT [obstacle course] went well. interview went well. if i am successful with everything then looks like they will give letter with conditional start date. they are being difficult about the driving course, saying i have to do it before i will get letter, have to do it here as the course work is NZ based. [he was previously told he wouldn't have to do it while out in NZ]

"have been phoning around trying to find a course but not looking good, even offered to pay loads but they weren't interested, the alternative is coming out here again just to do a 4 hour driving course. the only alternative is to come back out, which i can't believe they will make me do, if that's the case i might as well redo the maths while i'm out here. here's hoping they will be practical, she also said they have now stopped accepting international police, so i just applied in time! more to worry about hey?"

He has since arranged to do the course, hooray. He has also been out on shift and actually went with my cousin Kyle who is a cop in south Auckland! He had a great time. He said a lot of it is exactly what he's dealing with here (the type of crime, paperwork) but some of it is better (the way things are handled, discretion used).

He said the interview went well. Because the place is being refurbished it took place in a small storage office with workmen working in the hallway. It was quite casual but there was a formal set of questions. His interviewer was a very nice woman.

She didn't ask any of the questions he'd prepared for but luckily he was able to use his prepared examples to answer the questions that she did ask.

He also had to do a 200-question personality questionnaire.

The PCT test: he did really well and finished well under time. They expect you to finish within 2 minutes 40 seconds. The hard core special task force guys have to finish within 2 minutes 12 seconds. Grant did it in 2 minutes 9 seconds! I'm so proud of him. This is what he had to do:
Picture a massive shed with a track inside. He had to push a trailer containing a heavy tyre for a certain length, then pull the tyre out of the trailer and run and place it, run around the track (200m), jump up to a 1m balance beam, walk along in and navigate the 90 degree turn, jump down, run across two lines and do long jump, jump over hurdle platform, zig zag between cones, dive and crawl under two low hurdles, scale a 6 foot metal wall by jumping up and resting your stomach on it then flipping over, run pulling a 75kg "body" drag 10m, run and jump over a high fence.

He said it was extremely tiring!!

On Monday he has to meet with the interviewer again to go through the personality questions and do a typing test and a computer test.

So here's where we are now: he has to wait four months and resit the maths test. Once he's passed that then she'll check his references from his current and past job, and finish putting his file together. If everything is okay then she approves it and sends to her supervisor who approves it, then a job offer letter with a provisional start date will be sent to Grant (oh happy day that will be!)

After that we have to submit our Expression of Interest to Immigration online. It should take around 2 weeks to be selected from the pool and a case worker will be assigned and we will submit our proper application. Hopefully Permanent Residency will be granted within 3-9 months.

So at this stage, if everything goes well, we are looking to move there in around a year's time. Dang 4 month delay for the maths test!! That sets us back but it can't be helped - I am grateful that they are letting him resit it so I can be patient for the extra 4 months.

I have to say that I am so proud of Grant for all he's done. I know it's been immensely stressful over there as he's doing everything, getting to appointments on time and in a strange place, meeting people and now even working as well. He is a super star and we miss him madly and can't wait for him to be home next Thursday but I am so grateful for all he's doing to make our family's dreams a reality!!


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