Reducing application stress

There are a variety of things you can do to reduce the stress of a visa application or appeal. The obvious is of course using a professional to manage your application on your behalf, but even then some clients can be quite stressed. The biggest cause of stress for clients that we see comes from unrealistic expectations about INZ.

Time frames given by INZ for the processing of an application often mislead clients to believing that the application will be decided on that date or before. The time frames posted on the INZ website are an average, meaning some will be faster and some will be much slower. For example for a visa with a time frame for processing posted as 45 days, it is possible to get the visa in 4 days as much as it is posisble to take 4 months.

There are some techniques we use to increase the speed an application is processed, but this does not include asking INZ to move faster. INZ is not responsive to pressure to treat any particular application specially, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Exceptional circumstances does not include things like "I have booked my flights so I need the visa", for example.

The other main cause of stress we see is that some clients expect INZ to be efficient, fair, logical and service oriented. To be fair, INZ does promote itself as having or wanting to have these qualities, but overall it does not. INZ is a government department, so they tend to do what they like and at the same time be bogged down by bureaucracy. While some staff at INZ do have these qualities of fairness and so on, it is hugely variable and for every fair minded and logical immigration officer, there are 5 others who are not.

The other really common source of disappointment comes from expecting some kind of precedent or consistency. The phrase that makes us cringe the most is; "I have done this before, or my friend has done this before so it should work for me now too". This attitude is a certain path to disappointment because it just doesn't work like that. The same case officer will treat things differently, different case officers will certainly treat things differently, and external or internal policy changes will definitely make things different within very short spaces of time.

Understanding these points gives you a better experience with immigration in NZ. When we do applications we always start with the basis that it is going to take ages so what can we do to speed things up, and we expect that the case officer is going to be mean spirited, ego-centric, officious and unfair, so what can we do to prevent unfair treatment and bias. Then if we get a  good case officer and the application goes through faster than expected, it makes for a happier experience. 

Is the new Government going to make it easier or harder for immigration?

This is what everyone seems to be asking now that we have a substantially National led Government. I think the main thing that might not be obvious to people who haven't experienced a couple of changes in Government is that in New Zealand when the Government changes, overall policies don’t tend to change significantly. Small details change of course that might make life a little better or a little worse depending on your viewpoint, but overall things tend to remain much the same.

What we can predict to a certain extent is that Labour led Governments tend to be more focused on welfare and environmental issues, while National tends to be more focused on business. This is a general leaning rather than a complete swing to the extreme though, and does not mean that a National led Government would allow businesses to do what they liked at the expense of welfare for example. There will still be some kind of labour market test to prove that there are no Kiwis available for the job before issuing a work visa, and residence pathways will still be focussed on the migrants who bring the most benefit to New Zealand.

We have seen already that the median wage threshold has been paused and will not rise this time along with the actual median wage. This makes sense because to tie employers to pay all workers regardless at this pay rate is nonsensical and you end up with very highly paid, low skilled migrant workers, working alongside disgruntled low paid low skilled Kiwi workers.

We will still expect to see the usual range of competence / incompetence and prejudice within INZ for visa processing because a change in Government is not likely to change much there. Internal policies such as checking certain applications more strictly than others may change on the whim of the Minister though perhaps, but when Governments change, the staff operating government departments usually do not change.

What we may expect to see is perhaps good news for some. We would expect that given National’s leaning towards businesses, work visas may have eligibility criteria widened and more residence pathways for more occupations may also become available. In order to support business growth, we would like to see the AEWV pay rate set at the market rate for the job and the worker's ability rather than a blanket median wage across the board. There is already an indication that the median wage requirement will be dropped, but no news on what will replace it. We would also like to see SMC pathways open to any ANZSCO level 3 job being paid market rate wages, instead of only getting points if you have occupational registration.

What we are unlikely to see are things like making applications easier or kindness to certain nationalities. The core purpose of immigration is still to manage the influx of migrants into New Zealand in a manner that is beneficial to the country, so it is highly unlikely that a new Government will relax this aspect. Broader eligibility criteria may allow more people to apply, but the application itself is still going to be as strictly assessed as it ever was.

In the end we all need to wait and see.

Consequences of using (unlicensed) agents, friends or employers for visa applications.

The consequences of using unlicensed and non-professional assistance for visa applications is really becoming an issue with a much larger number of declines for mistakes on previous applications being seen already and government policy moving to actively prosecute agents and other parties involved in migrant exploitation. A recent Bill being introduced to Parliament is also reinforcing existing rules that visa applications made by unlicensed persons are not to be accepted by INZ and INZ fee increases meaning that declined visas are very expensive.

The Government changed the immigration instructions so that false information (including mistakes) on a temporary visa application will be reason for instant decline at the residence stage. Accordingly, INZ are pouncing on anything they can now so that they have as much scope as possible to decline future residence applications. By raising a PPI for everything possible now, a record is left on the applicant's INZ file for the next visa application which is used for an easy decline.

A good example is for recovery visas (special work visas for the North Island recovery work), where a very large number of subsequent AEWVs are being declined or PPI’d because the recovery visas were done by offshore agents or employers, and have a lot of mistakes in them. These issues were not always raised at the time of the recovery visa application, but the previous application was re-examined at the time of the AEWV application and then raised as a problem on the current work visa.

People are starting to pick up on this already it seems, and understand that the risks of using unlicensed persons to do visa applications are rather high if you have any aspirations of staying in New Zealand long term. An employer or friend may have good intentions to “help” you with your application, but in the end the risks are just not worth it. Encouraging migrants to use professional assistance rather than taking a DIY approach is the Government’s intention of course because professionally represented migrants, equals protected migrants and this reduces the risks of migrant exploitation.

When agents or other non-licensed persons have done the application, but have not been declared on it, migrants have been stopped from boarding their flights and their visas have been cancelled. An agent is not licensed to do visa applications, so would not be declared, but when an agent has illegally done an application on behalf of the applicant, INZ can still cancel the visa later. INZ has not cared much about this in the past, but recently they have identifed unlicensed visa work as a potential indicator of exploitation.

It is natural for non-professionals to make quite simple mistakes in the application and that it is non-professionals who are most likely to be involved in exploitation. Until recently mistakes were not much a problem usually because there was the defence of having no mens rea (intention) for mistakes or imperfect docuements, which would mean that it could not be deemed to be an offense. However, this defence was recently removed for residence visa assessments so even an innocent mistake will be treated as if it were intentional.

While this applies to everyone equally, the purpose of this change was to remove any possibility of using the excuse that "my employer or offshore agent did my application and I didn't know about it". This is your responsibility regardless of who did the application on your behalf. It also means that the visa pathway cannot include a dodgy start but needs to be done right from the beginning. The only way that an applicant can have some chance of redress is to use a licensed professional.

INZ do not ask for extra information to be helpful

While it is true that sometimes INZ ask for extra information on a visa application, they generally only ask for information when the are ready to decline and are giving the applicant a chance to respond first. It is very unusual for them to ask for more infromation when they think you don't meet the criteria, but want to prompt you to provide certain documents which would show that you actually meet the criteria.

In our experience helpful suggestions from a case officer on what tpe of docuements could be useful are less than 1 in 80 to 1 in 100 cases. It does happen, but INZ are not obligated to ask for more information so it doesn't happen often. Every application must be assessed by the documents that are included in the application. This means that when an application is submitted, it should include all the documents required to prove that the specfic criteria are met.

In certain situations (onshore applications usually) INZ are obligated to give applicants a chance to explain information that may lead to the decline of the application. This is called potentially prejudicial information (PPI). This is a legal requirement, but if in the application the applicant hasn't included evidence of something they should have done, or even normally would have done, then there is no legal requirement for INZ to ask for it.

Even if it is a really simple thing that would have really helped the application, INZ can happily ignore this and decline the application with the feeling of a job well done. Even if INZ actually have the information or document from a previous application they still do not have to include it in the assessment.

Information or documents previously provided in other applications will be looked at by the assessing officer, but to assess whether these previous documents give thme a reason to decline the current one. These documents will not be used for the current application's benefit, and it is mistaken to believe that since INZ already have this information then you don't need to provide it again..

We have also heard clients state that INZ can try to prove me wrong then, when they don't have or don't want to provide information. A visa application is not a fair trial type process, and INZ do not need to prove you wrong, they just assume that you are and if you cannot prove that you are right, then they decide that you are wrong. 

The message is that if you want an application to succeed, all necessary information must be included from the very start and you cannot rely on kind immigration officers asking you to provide things that you have forgotten or not understood were necessary for the application.,

Taking the long term view in visa preparation

Many people overlook the importance of preparation and just start their visa application when they feel they meet all the criteria, and just go. While some visa applications can be done like this, and certainly the NZeTA does not require much planning or forethought, the more complex the visa, the more planning it will need.

Some visas are inherently more complex than others, for example residence visas, partnership based visas, visitor visas from certain countries, and so on. With partnership visas for example we like to start planning these as early as possible because by far the majority of clients do not have enough evidence to submit a solid application when they feel they are ready to apply.  Taking a long term view with a managed approach allows partners to take their time and gather and generate specific evidence without as much stress as there would be if they have to search though all their things for sufficient evidence.

Residence visas as well may need more preparation for some applicants than for others. The application may require some preparation in terms of changing jobs, getting a qualification or changing employer. By maneuvering early and adjusting your situation so you will meet the criteria in the future, residence then becomes possible. But just aiming for a future situation is not always enough, because New Zealand’s immigration policies change very often so managing the process fluidly is most important.

By managing the process we keep an eye on changes and even predicted changes to start any adjustments as early as possible. For example if a change in policy means suddenly that an English test becomes necessary, having time to study and prepare for it can make the difference between success and failure.