New Government, new policies

In October the new New Zealand Government was announced and there is a lot of talk on how this change is going to affect immigration. The 2 main parties of this Government, Labour and NZ First have agreed to reduce information and this will make it difficult for some people to get a visa. Already we have seen that there will be restrictions on foreign buyers buying existing houses and farm land. This is a relatively token gesture that is popular with voters, but basically it means that unless you actually have residence you will need to build a new house if you want to own one in New Zealand. It is unlikely that this change will actually affect the majority of migrants in NZ.

Based on this, and from what we have seen in the past, the most likely changes to immigration will be to those who are not making any contribution to NZ or are not on a pathway to be able to do so. Making a contribution can be defined in many ways, such as studying on a long term course, or a course with a useful future pathway, working in NZ in a skilled job that there is a shortage of workers for and so on. The basic idea is that migrants who come here with a minimum effort attitude are more likely to be refused a visa. For example if a person decides to take the cheapest, shortest term course of study to gain working rights, to find a job to get a job offer for a low skilled job (because they don't have strong qualifications or work experience) as a pathway to working and then to residence, this may be more likely to fail. 

To strengthen and future-proof your chances at success, please keep the following points in mind.

People more likely to get a visa:

• Have verifiable work experience and qualifications in higher skilled jobs
• Have motivation and ability to study to gain NZ qualifications
• Have a skilled job offer
• be in a genuine and verifiably genuine relationship with a NZ citizen or resident
• Studying in higher level education institutions - public schools, polytech, universities, reputable language schools or PTEs
• be genuinely visiting
• be able to clearly meet the requirements for whatever visa you are applying for

People less likely to get a visa don't meet the criteria above, but also:

• Try to take short cuts and do the minimum possible
• are low skilled, have no verifiable employment history or qualifications
• Are studying courses with no strong outcome potential
• Cannot strongly provide evidence for meeting the visa criteria

My feeling is that overall, the visa and criteria won't change so much, but INZ's strictness in applying the criteria may. We will still have visitor, student, working, residence and partnership type visas, but they may be assessed more strictly from now on. This means that the applications need to be done much better if they are to succeed.

Summary of changes for Essential Skills work visas    28/8/2017

The Essential Skills work visa is the most common working visa for migrant workers, this visa allows a person to work in NZ and can allow family to also join you as well. The aim of this visa type is for NZ businesses to be able to fill vacancies where there are no NZers available to work. In many industries there are shortages of certain workers, so migrant workers with qualifications and experience in these industries should be able to get a work visa more easily.

recently changes have been made to encourage higher skilled workers to stay longer and discourage lower skilled workers from staying too long. The determining factor is the new classification of high - mid and low skill levels. The different skill levels have different privileges in the visa system. 

Determining skill level

High skilled: Any occupation paying more than $35.24 per hour

Mid skilled: ANZSCO level 1~3 occupation paying more than $19.97 per hour

Low Skilled: any occupation paying less than $19.97 per hour or any ANZSCO level 4,5 occupation paying less than $35.24 per hour

These skill levels determine how long a visa may be issued for and if you are able to bring your spouse of children to NZ with you. The low skill level occupations also have a stand down period where migrants must leave NZ for 12 months every 3 years. High skill band occupations may be granted a visa of up to 5 years, mid skill bands up to 3 years. There is no stand down and can support visas for spouse and children. Low skill band occupations may not support visas for spouse and children (they must get their own visas if they wish to join you in NZ) and after 3 years of working in NZ you must leave for 12 months before coming back.

Best pathway

The best pathway for migrant workers who wish to stay longer in NZ is to work hard and up-skill so that even if you start on a low paying low skilled job, you can at least get to mid skill before your 3 year limit. if you can get to mid skill criteria you will be able to stay longer and work towards getting residence. This is something that needs a lot of diligent work to achieve.

The new system encourages workers to up-skill and be better. This is better for NZ so if you can become higher skilled, NZ would like you to stay longer. If you are happy to stay in a low skill job, that is fine but you won't be able to stay in NZ for so long.

Getting New Zealand residence in 2017~2018

With all the changes proposed by the current Government and the Opposition, it is looking harder and harder for migrants to come to New Zealand to work and to live. It is still going to be possible, but there changes will make it harder if you are low skilled and not motivated to change this.

What type of people are going to be more successful for visas in the coming year?

People who are qualified, educated and skilled in their work will have the best chance of success. New Zealand needs workers who can contribute to society and to the economy, and these workers will get more points or have more privileges under the proposed visas systems. It may well be easier for some people who are in the mid 30's and have skilled jobs.

What do I do if I am not qualified or skilled?

You need to become qualified or skilled, it is that simple. You often don’t need to have a qualification if you have several years’ work experience in your skilled job. For example if you are a car mechanic and are very good at the job, and have worked as a mechanic for more than 3 years, then INZ will recognise that you are qualified by experience. It also makes it easier to get a job if you are good at it. If you start planning your pathway early, it gives you time to study or re-skill for a more suitable job for residence in New Zealand. You may find that you just need to take a part time course, or to focus on a slightly different area of your current job. Whatever you need to do, it can often be easier to do it before you come to New Zealand.

A professionally planned pathway

This leads us to the idea of pathways. What if you are not qualified or experienced? You need time to study or train or work to get experienced, but by that time the system may have changed again… No person can definitely say what will happen in the future, but a professionally planned pathway for work and residence will give you the best chance possible. In the past many people have been able to get residence just by sticking to the same job for a few years, trying and application and luckily succeeding. I think we have seen the last of this type of success. For future applicants a well planned pathway from start to finish will be the most important asset to help with a successful residence attempt.

Do it yourself?

INZ will still accept applications prepared by the applicant, but unless you are extremely dedicated to the process, can understand the complex law around the applications and the general trends in the changing landscape around New Zealand immigration law, then things become less and less certain for a DIY application. A lawyer or licensed immigration adviser adds value to the pathway by giving professional advice based on knowledge and understanding of immigration law and the likely changes to the New Zealand immigration situation.

Because a pathway can be a journey through 3 or 4 visa applications, it is essential that all the applications succeed if the final residence application is to succeed. There are going to be less second chances if the proposed changes are true to the information we have seen so far, so if a work visa application fails for example there is going to be less time available to fix this.

Each visa is also going to have to be used to its maximum advantage. For example, until now people have been using their post study work visas on low skilled jobs, after the changes this is going to severely restrict future working options in New Zealand. People are going to have to work hard to make it to the next step.

South Island contribution visa - Work to residence update

While many of the aspects of this visa were as we expected, some things were quite different. As it is so new, even INZ are not sure about how things will go. Information from INZ Christchurch's Branch manager indicates that how INZ apply the instructions may change depending on how many people apply and so on. There is no cap on applicants, but the expectation that around 1600 people should be eligible. If the actual number of applicants is less than this then INZ may make kinder assessments of applications later on. Of course this also implies that if more people apply than expected, the assessments will be tougher. 

One of the big issues is around the discretion to make an exception to instructions for applicants who have less than 5 years experience working in the South island. Even though INZ are able to approve an application that doesn't quite meet the 5 year requirement, this was clarified to mean not meeting it by a could of weeks not a couple of years.

The SI contribution Visa's requirements state that you must have 5 years' experience of working in the South Island on an Essential Skills Visa between May 22 2012 and May 22 2017. 

South Island Contribution Visa

This visa is set to come out from May 22nd, and is intended as a pathway to residence for lower skilled workers who have been working in the South Island of New Zealand for at least 5 years. This visa will be open for 12 months. The details of the visa are yet to be released but we know that it will be along the same conditions as the current Work to residence visa with an approximately 4 year commitment to staying in the South island. The people who suit this visa most will be applicants who wouldn't qualify for other resident visa types but who still make a contribution to NZ.

Special, one-time opportunity

This won't be a visa type which you can build up to, you will need to meet the criteria within this 12 month period, meaning before the end of May 2018. However, if you need to wait that long it may well be too late. There is expected to be a lot of applicants for this visa. As no details have been released yet it is hard to say, but it seems likely that unless you get your application in quickly and can join the queue early, then some people will probably miss out.

This is what we mean by there being no second chances. If you make a mess of your first application, by the time it gets declined and you prepare your second attempt, you might be too late.

As this visa is especially kind to lower skilled workers, which is the opposite to the usual theme of NZ immigration instructions, we assume that this type of visa will not be repeated very often if at all. There will not likely be a second intake some time later, the chance to get residence if you are lower skilled is now.

Summary

The basic facts that we know so far are:

• This is a one-time opportunity
• You will need 5 years history of working in the south island at the time of application
• There will probably be no English requirement
• You will need a  good standard of heath and character
• The visa includes provision for partners and dependent children
• The visa is open for one year - May 22 2017 ~ May 21 2018 and probably won't be repeated
• The visa will be like a work to residence visa