Re: Hmmm
edog - yes you can get a work permit without getting residency. Same as you can get a work permit for the US, but getting residency or citizenship is a different thing.
The problem with getting a work permit is that it is damn hard to achieve.
I tried this about 2 years ago, went over on a 6 month holiday visa, put in about 5 months of job hunt, 1 month on the road and came home without any success. Won't go into the details, but basically at the time the supply of IT people was kind of made up of a lot of kiwis who had been laid off from their jobs in Europe, the US and elsewhere and had come home. A non-national like me had little chance in the interview stakes when faced with a glut of candidates.
The same situation would probably happen here - imagine you are hiring someone and you have an Irish person with no question regarding being allowed work here and someone from down-under who may or may not have all their paperwork complete and who may or may not actually be telling the truth when they say they are going to stay in Ireland for the next 10 years . . . 9 times out of 10 I think people would go for the national with no paperwork issues.
I met up with 2 (presumably)ex-AAMers while out there and they almost had to come home too - the holiday permit of one was about to expire when she managed to get a job, but it was looking hairy for a while.
I had a great time there and the mini-zags did too, I don't regret giving it a shot, but it is not something to be done lightly unless you have someone over there who will essentially sponsor you in with a job offer - if you have that then it is well worth the effort.
Alternatively you could marry a kiwi chick and get residency that way, but Mrs edog may have a view on that.
In terms of buying property as a non-resident - I am pretty sure you can do this, but then you will only be able to use it on a visitors visa. As far as I remember (check the website above for details) you can only get a visitors visa for a max of 9 months (and that takes some convincing from reports) and then you must be out of the country for the same period before entering. If you get a 6 month visa you must be out of the country for 6 months and so on. Also, actually getting into the country can be a bit hit and miss - what you get on your passport is a permit, and you get the visa at the booth in the airport. This means that the officer could turn you down on the spot if he forms a view that you don't intend leaving. All subject to appeal of course . . . What I am getting at is that buying a property there while non-resident probably isn't a good idea.
z
p.s. check out soc.culture.new-zealand on the newsgroups for ongoing discussion of getting there/being there/leaving there - [broken link removed]
You need to filter out a lot of the crossposting and rubbish, but there are a number of very helpful people on the newsgroup
However, I hear that Kerry are introducing one of those 'locals only' rules like some other county councils have but I think it's ok if you're employed full-time.