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A few interesting NZ tech developments that HNers may not be aware of: * Microsoft announced an Azure datacenter back in May: https://news.microsoft.com/en-nz/

A few interesting NZ tech developments that HNers may not be aware of: * Microsoft announced an Azure datacenter back in May: https://news.microsoft.com/en-nz/2020/05/06/aotearoa-disclosure/ https://news.microsoft.com/en-nz/2020/05/06/aotearoa-disclos... * Larry Page was revealed to be permanent resident of NZ after his child was medievaced from Fiji to Auckland for treatment: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/448544/google-billionaire-met-requirements-to-enter-nz-immigration https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/448544/google-billionair... * Gabe Newell has been here since the initial lockdowns around March 2020 (he was on holiday at the time) and has since applied for residency: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/nzs-newest-billionaire-covid-stranded-american-gaming-ceo-gabe-newell-applies-nz-residency https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/nzs-newest-billi...

philliphaydon 5y ago
Isn’t gabe back in the US now?
timmit 5y ago
And don't forget. 11 years ago, Kim Dotcom came to New Zealand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Dotcom#Move_to_New_Zealand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Dotcom#Move_to_New_Zealand
nuclearnice1 5y ago
I did not know Page was in New Zealand. The article suggests Page is not a resident not a resident. > Immigration NZ said Page is a New Zealand resident. > It said Page does not have permanent residence and his visa will allow him to travel in and out of New Zealand only for a defined period of time.
- smnrchrds 5y ago
  New Zealand has two types of residence that resemble what other countries call permanent residence, one is called Resident, the other Permanent Resident. Resident is like permanent residence in most other countries (e.g. green card in US, PR in Canada, etc). A New Zealand Resident can live in the country indefinitely, but if they live outside of New Zealand for an extended period of time, they lose their Resident status. This is again like US, Australia, Canada, etc. After two years of living in New Zealand as a Resident, one can apply for Permanent Resident status, which does not expire regardless of the length of absence from the country. In other countries, you have to get citizenship before you can do this. In New Zealand, Permanent Resident is a status between Resident and New Zealand Citizen. What the article says is that he is a resident, he can enter New Zealand for now, but his status is of the expirable kind. New Zealand Resident ~ US/Canada/Australia/Germany/etc. Permanent Resident New Zealand Permanent Resident ~ Nothing that I know of, it's unique New Zealand Citizen = US/Canada/Australia/Germany/etc. Citizen
  - Negitivefrags 5y ago
    Curiously you can vote as a Permanent Resident. As far as I can tell, the only difference is that you don't get to have an NZ passport. My father has lived here for 50 years and hasn't bothered to get Citizenship.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - dkjaudyeqooe 5y ago
      A significant reason to have the NZ passport is that you can live and work in Australia freely.
      - LAC-Tech 5y ago
        Exactly. Student Visa -> Residence Visa -> Permanent Residence Visa -> Citizenship can be done in about the time it takes to get a post graduate degree. It's very commonly done.
        peterburkimsher 5y ago
        Sadly that hasn't happened for at least 2 of my friends from Global church (Krystal and Agnes). They were both here when I came on Working Holiday in summer 2011-12. They're both still here, still stuck in Student visa -> Work visa cycles. There is no path to residency that I can see unless you're 1. obscenely wealthy or 2. working for a large, rich company who work closely with MBIE. And because those companies work closely with MBIE, the Minister's advice gets passed down to HR. So it's extremely difficult to get jobs at such companies without already being a citizen or resident. I still think it's pretty miraculous that I was offered the job now, and barely in time for the case officer! The solution is for HR to push back, and specifically demand that we have more people from other countries. Right now we're working on translating some software, and it would be much more convenient to have native speakers of other languages working in the company. Instead, we contract it out to a third party, but they don't have the context (and we can't share everything with them due to intellectual property considerations). So we really need to be allowed to hire some more multicultural people, it will help the company and help the world.
- buryat 5y ago
  > The article suggests Page is not a resident not a resident. your sentence doesn't make sense.
sbarre 5y ago
Gabe Newell is definitely back in the US, he's been giving in-person interviews in Seattle (Bellevue but whatever) about Valve's upcoming hardware product.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
dustintrex 5y ago
Google also announced an engineering office in Auckland: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/125854506/joining-google-as-an-engineer-need-no-longer-mean-leaving-nz https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/125854506/joining-google-as... And tech SVP Urs is moving there: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/technology/2021/07/new-zealand-move-for-google-executive-angers-employees-denied-flexibility.html https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/technology/2021/07/new-zealan...
Jerry2 5y ago
After funding and pushing the changes that have destroyed their home country, they've now taken all the money they siphoned and have moved elsewhere. How typical.
paxys 5y ago
Didn't Peter Thiel buy an apocalypse bunker or something in New Zealand?
- muttantt 5y ago
  Him and dozens of billionaires
- vosper 5y ago
  He bought a multimillion-dollar house (the "plasma house") in Queenstown, which he's been trying to sell. Not sure what other property he might have, but a apocalypse bunker that place is not. https://archipro.co.nz/project/plasma-house-queenstown-marina-mathews-photography-2 https://archipro.co.nz/project/plasma-house-queenstown-marin...
- verve_rat 5y ago
  He also bought citizenship.
  - didntknowya 5y ago
    only had to spend 12 days in the country too. Just enough to visit all the LoTR sites I guess.
unfunco 5y ago
NZ was rated the best place to live in the event of societal collapse. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/28/new-zealand-rated-best-place-to-survive-global-societal-collapse https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/28/new-zealand-ra...
- philk10 5y ago
  Same paper today "New Zealand is no ‘off-grid’ safe haven from the apocalypse" - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/23/new-zealand-off-grid-safe-haven-colonists-super-wealthy https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/23/new-ze...
  - unfunco 5y ago
    The link I posted was news (red), the link you posted was opinion (orange).
cblconfederate 5y ago
Ah you ruined it. it will all be downhill from then on

philliphaydon 5y ago

Isn’t gabe back in the US now?

timmit 5y ago

And don't forget. 11 years ago, Kim Dotcom came to New Zealand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Dotcom#Move_to_New_Zealand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Dotcom#Move_to_New_Zealand

nuclearnice1 5y ago

I did not know Page was in New Zealand. The article suggests Page is not a resident not a resident. > Immigration NZ said Page is a New Zealand resident. > It said Page does not have permanent residence and his visa will allow him to travel in and out of New Zealand only for a defined period of time.

smnrchrds 5y ago
New Zealand has two types of residence that resemble what other countries call permanent residence, one is called Resident, the other Permanent Resident. Resident is like permanent residence in most other countries (e.g. green card in US, PR in Canada, etc). A New Zealand Resident can live in the country indefinitely, but if they live outside of New Zealand for an extended period of time, they lose their Resident status. This is again like US, Australia, Canada, etc. After two years of living in New Zealand as a Resident, one can apply for Permanent Resident status, which does not expire regardless of the length of absence from the country. In other countries, you have to get citizenship before you can do this. In New Zealand, Permanent Resident is a status between Resident and New Zealand Citizen. What the article says is that he is a resident, he can enter New Zealand for now, but his status is of the expirable kind. New Zealand Resident ~ US/Canada/Australia/Germany/etc. Permanent Resident New Zealand Permanent Resident ~ Nothing that I know of, it's unique New Zealand Citizen = US/Canada/Australia/Germany/etc. Citizen
- Negitivefrags 5y ago
  Curiously you can vote as a Permanent Resident. As far as I can tell, the only difference is that you don't get to have an NZ passport. My father has lived here for 50 years and hasn't bothered to get Citizenship.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - dkjaudyeqooe 5y ago
    A significant reason to have the NZ passport is that you can live and work in Australia freely.
    - LAC-Tech 5y ago
      Exactly. Student Visa -> Residence Visa -> Permanent Residence Visa -> Citizenship can be done in about the time it takes to get a post graduate degree. It's very commonly done.
      - peterburkimsher 5y ago
        Sadly that hasn't happened for at least 2 of my friends from Global church (Krystal and Agnes). They were both here when I came on Working Holiday in summer 2011-12. They're both still here, still stuck in Student visa -> Work visa cycles. There is no path to residency that I can see unless you're 1. obscenely wealthy or 2. working for a large, rich company who work closely with MBIE. And because those companies work closely with MBIE, the Minister's advice gets passed down to HR. So it's extremely difficult to get jobs at such companies without already being a citizen or resident. I still think it's pretty miraculous that I was offered the job now, and barely in time for the case officer! The solution is for HR to push back, and specifically demand that we have more people from other countries. Right now we're working on translating some software, and it would be much more convenient to have native speakers of other languages working in the company. Instead, we contract it out to a third party, but they don't have the context (and we can't share everything with them due to intellectual property considerations). So we really need to be allowed to hire some more multicultural people, it will help the company and help the world.
buryat 5y ago
> The article suggests Page is not a resident not a resident. your sentence doesn't make sense.

sbarre 5y ago

Gabe Newell is definitely back in the US, he's been giving in-person interviews in Seattle (Bellevue but whatever) about Valve's upcoming hardware product.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

dustintrex 5y ago

Google also announced an engineering office in Auckland: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/125854506/joining-google-as-an-engineer-need-no-longer-mean-leaving-nz https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/125854506/joining-google-as... And tech SVP Urs is moving there: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/technology/2021/07/new-zealand-move-for-google-executive-angers-employees-denied-flexibility.html https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/technology/2021/07/new-zealan...

Jerry2 5y ago

After funding and pushing the changes that have destroyed their home country, they've now taken all the money they siphoned and have moved elsewhere. How typical.

paxys 5y ago

Didn't Peter Thiel buy an apocalypse bunker or something in New Zealand?

muttantt 5y ago
Him and dozens of billionaires
vosper 5y ago
He bought a multimillion-dollar house (the "plasma house") in Queenstown, which he's been trying to sell. Not sure what other property he might have, but a apocalypse bunker that place is not. https://archipro.co.nz/project/plasma-house-queenstown-marina-mathews-photography-2 https://archipro.co.nz/project/plasma-house-queenstown-marin...
verve_rat 5y ago
He also bought citizenship.
- didntknowya 5y ago
  only had to spend 12 days in the country too. Just enough to visit all the LoTR sites I guess.

unfunco 5y ago

NZ was rated the best place to live in the event of societal collapse. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/28/new-zealand-rated-best-place-to-survive-global-societal-collapse https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/28/new-zealand-ra...

philk10 5y ago
Same paper today "New Zealand is no ‘off-grid’ safe haven from the apocalypse" - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/23/new-zealand-off-grid-safe-haven-colonists-super-wealthy https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/23/new-ze...
- unfunco 5y ago
  The link I posted was news (red), the link you posted was opinion (orange).

cblconfederate 5y ago

Ah you ruined it. it will all be downhill from then on