The following is a summary of current immigration settings:

6-month suspension of Skilled Migrant Category and Parent Category EOI selections

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) have further delayed the re-opening of the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) and parent category with the announcement of a further 6-month suspension of EOI selections.

A range of factors have contributed to this decision, foremost of which being that residence is now taking up to 2 years from an applications lodgement in many cases. Hopefully, this will mean good news to many onshore applicants, as their applications could possibly be allocated to a case officer faster; and this suspension should allow INZ to clear the backlog.

At present there is no indication of when the SMC will re-open, but this decision will be reviewed in March 2021. For those who are wishing to submit EOI applications, you can still do so. However, you will not be selected and invited to apply for residence under current settings.

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Temporary visa suspensions for offshore applicants

August 2020 saw INZ suspend assessment of most offshore visa applications – this suspension has been extended to February 2021.

For those that have already submitted applications, this means a wait of at least 4 months before your application will be looked at.

However, the following applications are not affected:

• Partnership based visa application, where the supporting partners are NZ citizens or residents;
• Dependent child visas, where the supporting parents are NZ citizens or residents;
• visas for diplomatic, consular and official staff and accompanying dependants;
• Antarctic Traveller Visitor visas and Antarctic Work visas;
• Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Limited visas.

Changes for offshore Resident visa holders

Applicants who have obtained their NZ Residence while offshore and have never entered NZ on that resident visa are subject to border restrictions.

This has meant many resident visa holders have been unable to enter New Zealand within the ‘first entry date’ timeframe noted on their visa. Clearly, this creates issues relating to the validity of these visas.

The government has taken measures to address this issue, with the Immigration minister announcing the following on 11 September 2020:

• Travel conditions are extended to 11 September 2021: for those visa holders with travel conditions expiring within one year of 11 September 2020;
• New resident visas are granted to the visa holders with travel conditions that expired between 2 Feb 2020 and 10 Sep 2020 (inclusive). All new resident visas granted will have their travel conditions valid until 11 September 2021.

This announcement will benefit many offshore Resident visa holders, allowing them more time to wait for border restrictions to be lifted.

Further changes on medium wage?

INZ has been consistently providing updates in recent months, and we believe the review of the median wage will be reviewed shortly – this is traditionally reviewed around November every year. Any change may affect those people who are wishing to apply for new work visas, or Skilled Migrant Resident Visas. It would be a good idea to get your application prepared if you or your employees are likely be affected by these changes.

If you wish to discuss your visa options or have any questions about visa changes, please feel free to contact our experienced immigration team.

The post COVID-19 Immigration Update appeared first on Turner Hopkins Immigration.

• relationship-based visas for partners and dependent children of New Zealand citizens and residents
• visas for diplomatic, consular and official staff and accompanying dependants
• Antarctic Traveller Visitor visas and Antarctic Work visas
• Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Limited visas.

This measure was initially proposed for 3 months, however, the NZ government has decided to extend this suspension until 8^th February 2021.

The New Zealand border is still closed to most other travellers, with the exception of returning New Zealand residents and citizens; and people with a critical purpose to travel.

Who may apply for a temporary visa?

As it stands, most people are unable to apply for a temporary entry class visa.  However, if you meet the criteria of a ‘critical purpose to travel’, you may be invited to apply for a visa.

The following are considered to have a critical purpose for travelling to New Zealand:

• Critical health workers and their partners and dependent children
• Other critical workers, and their partners and dependent children
• People belonging to a class exception agreed to by Cabinet
• Citizens of Samoa and Tonga making essential travel to New Zealand where this travel has been officially requested by the Government of Samoa or Tonga, and this request has been formally approved by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• People who have humanitarian reasons for travel to New Zealand
• The partner, dependent child or legal guardian of a New Zealand citizen or residence class visa holder
• People who hold a visitor, work or student visa who are ordinarily resident in NZ and are the partner or dependent child of a work or student visa holder who is in NZ
• Replacement cargo ship crew travelling to New Zealand by air
• Marine crew arriving by the maritime border
• Essential Skills, Entrepreneur and Work to Residence visa holders who normally live in New Zealand

If you think that you meet the criteria above, you must first submit an Expression of Interest to travel. If INZ approves your request, you will be invited to apply for either a Critical Purpose Visitor Visa or a Variation of Conditions to your existing visa; where you already hold a student or work visa.

If you have any questions relating to these changes, please feel free to contact our experienced immigration team.

The post Immigration Update: Temporary Visa Suspension for Overseas Applicants Extended appeared first on Turner Hopkins Immigration.

Skill band and duration of Essential Skills work visa

The most important change is to the skill level and duration of an Essential Skills work visa. The ANZSCO (Australia and New Zealand standard classification of occupations) will no longer be used to assess whether a job is lower-skilled, mid-skilled or higher-skilled. Instead, there will simply be two categories of Essential Skills work visas:

1. Applicants earning less than the median wage (currently $25.50 per hour) will only be eligible for a six-month visa, and must provide a Skills Match Report
2. Applicants earning at or above the median wage will be eligible for a three-year visa, and do not need to provide a Skills Match Report

The policy has not been released yet, and we will provide further updates once this information is available. However, some important things to note are:

• The changes will come into effect on 27 July.
• They do not apply to Skilled Migrant residence, which will still include an assessment of the ANZSCO.
• For visa holders earning less than the median wage, a three-year stand-down period will apply. This means that the visa holder must leave the country for 12 months after three years of being on this type of visa.
• Applicants normally deemed ‘higher-skilled’ will no longer be eligible for a five-year work visa, as the maximum duration under Essential Skills will be three years.
• Visa holders earning less than the median wage will only be able to support their partners for visitor visas, not work visas.

New occupations deemed ‘skilled’ for residence

Immigration has added to the list of occupations that are deemed ‘skilled’ as an exception for the Skilled Migrant category from 27 July. The roles that will now be considered skilled employment are:

• Aged or Disabled Carer
• Nursing Support Worker
• Driller
• Bicycle Mechanic

If you submitted your application for residence before 27 July, you will still be assessed under the old rules. This means that you cannot ‘swap’ your ANZSCO occupation in an existing application to take advantage of the new exceptions.

However, these changes may benefit some applicants who are planning to apply for residence in the future.

Should I apply under the old rules or the new rules?

If your work visa application has already been submitted, you will be assessed under the current instructions.

If are planning to apply, the best course of action will depend on your individual circumstances. However, if you are:

• earning between $21.68 and $25.50 per hour and have a ‘mid-skilled’ job in terms of the ANZSCO;
• earning more than $38.25 per hour;

You should consider submitting your application before 27 July to get the maximum visa duration.

It is a good idea to speak with an immigration professional who can advise you on how the new policy changes will affect you.

The post Immigration Update: Work and residence visa changes July 2020 appeared first on Turner Hopkins Immigration.

There are a number of factors that INZ are prone to querying- which will slow down, or may ultimately jeopardise, the progress of a New Zealand partnership visa application. Here, we will briefly discuss three features of partnerships which sometimes cause issues.

Arranged marriage

To be granted a temporary partnership visa, you must normally be living with your partner. There is no specific duration in immigration instructions, but in our experience at least a few months of living together is necessary as a minimum.

With arranged marriages, it is sometimes difficult for the New Zealand-based partner to live with their new husband or wife for an extended period- particularly where they need to be back in New Zealand for work.  However, this creates a situation where the couple may only have lived together for a few weeks after the wedding and cannot satisfy partnership rules around living together.

In 2019, INZ created a special provision for these situations where the supporting partner is a New Zealand citizen or resident. However, for all other arranged marriages where the NZ-based partner is a temporary visa holder, the living together requirement can still cause major issues. INZ’s current approach is that they will refrain from granting visitor visas where the couple have not lived together unless there are ‘truly exceptional circumstances’.

If you are in this situation, there is no guarantee that you will be granted a visa. You will need to provide very strong evidence around the formation of your relationship and intention to maintain it in the long-term. INZ will also look closely at your ties to your home country, and whether you are likely to remain in New Zealand unlawfully if the relationship ends.

Living apart or ‘long-distance relationships’

As outlined above, it is difficult to avoid the requirement to be living together in partnership applications. In the case of a long-distance relationship, sometimes people will have initially lived together for several years, but because of work commitments they are living in different cities and spending time together during weekends or holidays.

This can make it hard for INZ to be satisfied that you are ‘committed to a shared life’- which in their books is a factor indicating a genuine and stable relationship. If there are periods where you haven’t been living together (even as little as a week), you can expect that INZ will query this.

Their instructions require them to seek an explanation from you as to why you have not been living together. This is where you need to provide compelling reasons that you have been living apart, whether that be for family, work or education reasons.

Generally, the longer the period of separation, the stronger the evidence that will be required. Extended periods of separation may be more difficult to satisfactorily explain, but this is very dependent on your particular circumstances at the time.

Cultural or language differences

Today, being in a cross-cultural relationship is extremely common and normally no cause for INZ to be concerned. However, if the cultural, religious or language differences between a couple are significant, a case officer may want to know how this affects the relationship. In some cases where a couple don’t share the same language, it may lead them to believe that the relationship is not genuine or likely to endure.

If there are cultural differences between you and your partner, it may be helpful to explain these to INZ in your cover letter. For example, if you have spent time with your partner’s family, are learning their language, or have attended their place of worship, this can be strong evidence that you are committed to a shared life.

Conclusion

Explaining the features of your relationship properly from the outset may mean that INZ is able to approve your visa without needing more information. However, if INZ raises a concern that your relationship is not genuine and stable, or that you do not meet the living together requirement, a careful and considered response will be required, and in many cases professional assistance.

If you have any questions about partnership visas, please feel free to contact our experienced immigration team.

The post Common Issues with Partnership Visas appeared first on Turner Hopkins Immigration.

On 12 June 2020, the Minister of Immigration announced a range of measures which will ease the current NZ border restrictions and provide some clarity to employers of essential workers.

Key changes

• Partners and dependents of NZ citizens and residents are no longer required to travel with their partner if they hold a partnership visa or are ordinarily resident in NZ
• Two new exemption categories created for long-term and short-term roles to allow key projects to continue and economic needs to be met
• New exemptions for some maritime vessels, and for diplomats

Officials are working on these new rules and expect these to come into effect by the end of next week. From then, some partners and dependents of New Zealanders previously stuck in limbo will be able to apply for an exemption to travel. However, it is important to note that people who do not currently hold a partnership visa, or who don’t usually live in New Zealand, will still need to be travelling with their partner in order to be granted an exemption.

Other Essential Workers category

In addition, the creation of a new ‘Other Essential Workers’ category will now provide certainty to employers around the criteria for bringing much-needed workers into the country. There is still a very high threshold, so for many employers this will not be the ‘cure-all’ they were hoping for.

The category is aimed at high value workers, for whom a substitute cannot be found in New Zealand within the required timeframe. Employers must also bear the cost of managed isolation for 14 days. There are different criteria depending on the length of the role, as follows:

For a short-term role (less than six months):

• The worker must have unique experience and technical or specialist skills that are not obtainable in New Zealand, or
• The work must be significant in terms of a major infrastructure project, or event of national or regional importance, or government approved programme, or in support of a government-to-government agreement, or have significant benefit to the national or regional economy, AND
• The role must be time critical (eg if the person does not come to New Zealand, the project, work or event will cease or be severely compromised, or significant costs will be incurred).

For a longer-term role (more than six months), the worker must:

• meet one of the short-term criteria AND
• earn twice the median salary (as an indicator of high skills), or
• have a role that is essential for the completion or continuation of science programmes under a government funded or partially government-funded contract, including research and development exchanges and partnerships.
• have a role that is essential for the delivery or execution of a government approved event, or programme that is of major significance to New Zealand.

While these changes are certainly welcome, many of the estimated 10,000 work visa holders stuck offshore will not be affected and must continue waiting for the government’s decision on their situation. We anticipate further changes to be announced over the coming weeks, as the government works on an immigration strategy for the long-term that achieves the right balance.

If you’d like to discuss whether you or an employee may be eligible under these new criteria, please contact our immigration team.

The post Covid-19 NZ Immigration Update – June 2020 appeared first on Turner Hopkins Immigration.

So what exactly is the ANZSCO? Officially the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, the ANZSCO is a statistical tool intended for the analysis of labour market data. In theory, it classifies every single legal occupation in New Zealand and Australia by specialisation and skill level. It was not designed for immigration purposes, but has been adopted by Immigration New Zealand (and Home Affairs in Australia) as a convenient tool to determine whether a migrant is ‘skilled’.

Essentially, there are eight major groups of occupations (e.g ‘Managers’ or ‘Technicians and Trades Workers’) which are then broken down into more specific categories, ending with individual occupations. Each occupation has a skill level assigned to it, ranging from Level 1- being the highest skilled- to Level 5. For an occupation to be skilled, it must involve either technical, management or specialist expertise of some form.

Substantial Match to the ANZSCO

The skill level is all-important to many immigration applications. To obtain residence under the Skilled Migrant category, in most cases you need to show that your job substantially matches an occupation which is deemed skilled i.e. at skill levels 1-3 on the ANZSCO. You also need to show that you are suitably qualified for that occupation, either by formal qualifications or experience.

An immigration officer will compare your position to the tasks that are listed for the occupation you have selected. They must be satisfied that your job is a ‘substantial match’, a concept which is notoriously difficult to define.

In practice, it means that they must take a broad view of your job in the context of the organization and industry you are working in, rather than focusing on ticking off each of the tasks against your job description.

If you are not completing every single one of the tasks listed in a particular ANZSCO occupation, that is not necessarily fatal to your application. In some cases, you may not be doing a certain task because it is assigned to another specialist within your company, or because it is simply not necessary in your particular role.

Consistent guidance from the Immigration and Protection Tribunal has emphasised that the overall skill level is more important than the completion of individual tasks. In our experience, this often needs to be spelt out to immigration officers, many of whom fail to carry out the skill assessment correctly.

However, it is important that your position genuinely requires management, technical or specialist expertise- otherwise, you will have trouble finding a skilled occupation which makes you eligible for residence.

Tips for preparing your application

To maximise your chance of obtaining residence, or a ‘mid-skilled’ work visa, the first step is to carefully research the ANZSCO to ensure you have selected the right occupation.

It is not necessary for the ANZSCO occupation to have the same name as your job title- what matters is that the job you actually perform is a good fit to the overall description.

Before you submit your application, it is a good idea to check that your job description is sufficiently detailed to capture all of the skilled activities you perform, and speak with an immigration adviser or lawyer if you have any doubts. You may also want to speak to your employer about revising or updating your job description, as it may be too brief or vague to support your visa.

That said, many people also forget that your job description is not the ‘be all and end all’ when it comes to the ANZSCO. There are many other relevant factors which Immigration New Zealand consider, including the size of your organization, your position in the organizational hierarchy, the company’s structure, and the particular industry you work in.

By explaining these aspects from the start of the application, you avoid Immigration New Zealand forming the wrong impression of your job, and incorrectly deeming it to be ‘lower-skilled’.

Conclusion

It is evident that the ANZSCO is a complex creature, often difficult to interpret for Immigration New Zealand, immigration practitioners and migrants themselves. Preparation and research are key to ensuring you select the correct ANZSCO occupation for your job.

If you have doubts about your skill level or have received a letter from Immigration New Zealand which disputes your ANZSCO claim, you should engage an immigration adviser or lawyer to undertake a thorough assessment of your particular job and circumstances.

Our experienced immigration team is able to help with ANZSCO queries, as well as any other immigration queries you may have.

The post Understanding the ANZSCO skills list and levels appeared first on Turner Hopkins Immigration.

This comes as no surprise considering the recent influx of unemployed Kiwis in the job market. However, Essential Skills visa applicants need to be aware of these developments and how they might affect their short and long-term plans. We have highlighted below the key implications, along with some suggestions as to how they can be best navigated.

Increased Scrutiny of Recruitment Process

Under Essential Skills policy, an employer must show that they have made a genuine attempt to recruit a New Zealand citizen or resident prior to offering a job to a migrant, normally through listing an online job vacancy. Evidence which was sufficient pre Covid-19 may not be enough now. Immigration officers will want to see detailed and compelling evidence that any New Zealand applicants could not do the job. This could include interview notes, applicant summaries, and screenshots from the job website to demonstrate the volume and type of applicants.

It is important that the labour market test documentation is prepared carefully to ensure the best outcome. For example, the wording of the job advertisement must reflect all the criteria necessary for the job, as Immigration will refer back to this when they assess an employer’s reasons for declining a citizen or resident candidate.

It may also be a good time for you to speak to your employer about updating your job description to ensure it accurately reflects your role and responsibilities. Immigration have indicated that applications for ‘lower-skilled’ positions, particularly Level 5, will be extremely difficult to get through.

Re-testing the Labour Market

Prior to these guidelines, Immigration’s standard approach was to accept evidence of advertising where it was less than 3 months old. This may not be the case now, as the job market has changed significantly and will continue changing over the coming months.

If you already have an application in the system with evidence of advertising, Immigration may now request updated information to show that as of the time of assessment, suitable or trainable New Zealanders are still unavailable.  In many cases, a job may need to be re-advertised to satisfy this requirement. However, if an employer has recruited for a similar role recently (i.e. during or after the lockdown), this may be accepted as satisfactory evidence.

Financial Position Checks

As almost all businesses have been financially impacted by Covid-19, you can expect that Immigration will make enquiries about the ‘sustainability’ of your employment, i.e. job security.

In some cases, they may wish to see your employer’s financial statements, business bank accounts, tax returns or wage records. While an employer is not obliged to comply with such a request, it is sensible to do so given the potentially significant adverse effects of not doing so.

Decision Ready Applications

Applications that are ‘decision-ready’ go into a faster processing queue. By providing complete and detailed evidence of your eligibility, you may be able to secure your place in the ‘decision-ready’ queue and thus have your application allocated to an immigration officer sooner. This is likely to be particularly important now, given that lengthy delays could result in the labour market shifting by the time the application is picked up by an immigration officer.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that all Essential Skills applications, whether higher or lower-skilled, will face increased scrutiny from Immigration New Zealand in respect of the labour market test. Employees and employers alike need to be prepared to deal with these changes by ensuring that strong support documentation is submitted to Immigration New Zealand from the outset.

The post New Essential Skills Guidelines appeared first on Turner Hopkins Immigration.

Subjecting our population to a strict lockdown over the last month to achieve this, has however come at significant cost; placing huge pressure on local business and incurring significant levels of public debt. The coming months will see much discussion on how we alleviate this, how we can promote business both domestically and abroad; and ways to draw much needed foreign investment to this country.

This week the media has covered a range of ideas from various commentators suggesting how we might do this, with several suggesting offering residence, or citizenship to wealthy foreigners, in return for these High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI’s) investing in NZ:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12326124

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12324752&ref=art_readmore

Of course, tying investment to residence is not new; NZ already has options for HNWI’s seeking residence where specific requirements need to be met on making either a $10M or $3M investment over 3 or 4 years respectively. The Turner Hopkins immigration team has significant experience in this area, advising many of NZ’s most notable new migrants over the years on the migrant investor categories; and more recently of their options under new rules relating to foreign buyers of residential property.

It is our experience that those coming into NZ under the investor pathway offer far more than the initial investment that is generally placed into NZ equities or bonds. The HNWI’s we assist often become involved in local business and bring valuable skills, contacts and entrepreneurial flair that can only be considered an asset to this country.

With the above in mind, we believe the idea of leveraging NZ’s desirability at this time to attract foreign investors has considerable merit. This could be achieved by loosening foreign investment rules to allow HNWI’s to purchase plots of land in key areas such as the Hawke’s Bay, Queenstown and Northland, or fast-tracking residence (or even citizenship) for those willing to invest $50M into the NZ economy. We have a lot to gain from stimulating the local economy in this way, and given the robust assessment a potential applicant will be subjected to, there is also little down side.

If you would like to discuss the pathways to residence of NZ that currently exist, please contact our immigration team who will be happy to do so.

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The Bill introduces 8 limited powers, allowing the government to:

• Impose, vary or cancel conditions for classes of temporary-entry visa holders
• Vary or cancel conditions for classes of resident-class visa holders
• Extend the expiry dates of visas for classes of people
• Grant visas to individuals and classes of people in the absence of an application
• Waive any regulatory requirements for certain classes of application
• Waive the requirement to obtain a transit visa
• Suspend the ability to make applications for visas or submit expressions of interest in applying for visas by classes of people
• Revoke the entry permission of people who arrive either on private aircraft or marine vessels (to align them with people who arrive on commercial flights, who can already be refused entry)

With significant processing issues existing prior to Covid-19, it’s fair to say recent weeks have left Immigration New Zealand (INZ) over-stretched; and with very few staff being able to work from home, most processing has ground to a halt.

The practical elements of this Bill will hopefully address much of the uncertainty now experienced by many migrants either in NZ, or wanting to come here.

However, we are also concerned that the powers given to the Minister under this Bill are far reaching and provide a platform to implement significant change within a system that has been struggling for some time.

Whilst we are hopeful the directions of the Minister under these new powers will resolve the plight of those migrants left essentially in limbo by current events-  e.g. people offshore who were issued visas to come to NZ but now can’t travel – we are concerned that those with existing rights under the current legislation may be adversely affected.

These additional powers are only to be exercised in response to Covid-19, according to the wording of the Bill. However, exactly what this entails is open to interpretation.

Certainly, we expect to see some significant actions taken by the Minister, some of which may be directed at protecting employment and other opportunities for New Zealanders over migrants – as is the Government’s prerogative. To this end, submitting a visa application before any policy changes are introduced may put potential migrants in a slightly more secure position than those who do not have any application before INZ.

We understand this Bill will be enacted on the 14^th May, after which directions made under the new amendments will be made. We will post updates on our website, but should you have any questions on this or any other immigration matter, please don’t hesitate to call.

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