New Zealand has a rather interesting relationship with immigration. We need migrants to fill skill shortages, support businesses, contribute to our economy and, increasingly, help fund our international education sector. We spend considerable time and money promoting New Zealand as an attractive destination to work, study and potentially settle long-term, competing with other countries in the process.

I owe the inspiration for this article to an industry colleague, who discussed this same topic on LinkedIn recently and it really did get me thinking. There is something wonderfully predictable about immigration becoming a political talking point in an election year and there is enormous entertainment value in watching all of our political leaders suddenly realising they have the “secrete sauce” that will make our immigration system better, faster, and more valuable.

The Rolling Stones famously complained about their inability to get satisfaction and having read that line, you now probably have that song in your head. For many New Zealand visa applicants, that frustration will sound remarkably familiar to the tune, although the source of their dissatisfaction is very different.

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Dear Future Minister of Immigration

I do not know who you are yet. You may be the current Minister, still occupying the office after November election or you may be her replacement. You may come from National, Labour, ACT, New Zealand First, the Greens, or whoever else might end up in the political mix.

Whoever you are, this letter is intended for you.

If you are currently looking for a job in New Zealand, you probably do not need an economist or a subscription to the New Zealand Herald, to tell you that the labour market has been difficult. You already know how challenging it is. You know because you have probably applied for jobs and heard nothing back.

Moving countries, lock, stock and barrel is a fairly ridiculous way to find out whether you like somewhere. People sell houses, resign from jobs, pull children out of schools, say goodbye to family and ship the contents of their homes halfway around the world, often on the strength of social media commentary or the fact they enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies.

With the Skilled Migrant Category changing repeatedly, and with further adjustments still likely, understanding whether you qualify today is only part of the picture. The more important question is whether the decisions you are making now are actually moving you towards residence.

Election years are not especially relaxing, especially if your future depends on immigration policy and whether a change in Government might influence that. A politician gives a speech about immigration being too high, another warns that the country needs to protect its social cohesion, someone else promises a tougher system.

Earlier this week, the ACT party announced that it wants to fundamentally reshape New Zealand’s residence system by removing the Permanent Resident Visa and replacing it with an ongoing requirement for residents to keep proving their connection to New Zealand. At first glance, there is a certain neatness to the idea.

This week the world farewelled a music legend - Dolly Parton, who died on 25 August at the age of 80. Much has rightly been said about her extraordinary career, her philanthropy, her humour and her ability to remain unmistakably herself through decades in an industry that is not always especially forgiving of that sort of thing.

Trust is a fairly important ingredient in an immigration system. Applicants trust that the rules published by Immigration New Zealand mean what they appear to mean (assuming they can interpret them). Employers trust that if they follow the process, pay the fees and provide the evidence requested, somebody at the other end will deal with it properly. Migrants hand over passports, medical information, police certificates, employment histories, financial records and increasingly biometric information, on the assumption that the government agency receiving all of this is competent, secure and properly managed.

Most of the time, we simply assume that it is, however revelations concerning Immigration New Zealand’s failed Biometric Capability Upgrade (BCU) project make that assumption worth looking at a little more closely. The BCU project began eight years ago, in 2018 and was intended to modernise the technology INZ uses to manage and match biometric information. After seven years of development, delays and mounting concerns, it was discontinued in December 2025 without delivering the intended new system or anything even remotely close to one.

Most days, preparing and filing a visa application looks and feels reasonably modern. We can lodge work visas online. We can lodge student and visitor visas online. Skilled residence applications are online. Even Active Investor Plus applications, involving significant investments and often substantial financial evidence, can be prepared, uploaded and submitted entirely electronically.

The documents are gathered digitally, reviewed digitally and filed through an online portal. The fee is paid online and the application arrives at Immigration New Zealand immediately. No anxious wait for a courier or relentless track and trace.

Then a Parent Resident or Parent Retirement Resident Visa application lands on our desk and we head back to the 1980’s. The online portal is replaced by a paper form, signatures need to be collected and originals or certified copies have to be bundled up before the application can be submitted.

I was almost going to change the title of this article, because I had published one previously (back in 2025) with the same name. However it felt right to keep it, and the content is vastly different. The last one was about decision timeframes, but this one is a little more of a walk down memory lane with the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) as the backdrop.

Considering we have another round of changes to the SMC coming up in just under a month’s time, it felt about right to take stock and think about how far this category has come, where it stands now (or will stand in a few weeks) and where we might be headed. The SMC is the backbone of our immigration system, generating the long-term skills and contributions our future needs, and it has had an interesting history (even if you don’t follow immigration trends).

For many migrants, securing New Zealand residence is not quite the end of the journey and often it is part of a much bigger plan to reunite the whole family in New Zealand. Parents are often part of plan for the overall move, and obviously the options that exist for them are a key part of the decision making process. I regularly consult with hopeful skilled migrant, where the end of the discussion naturally turns to what options might exist for mum and dad - which makes a lot of sense, particularly if the family has operated as close-knit unit in the run up to the big move.

Parents (grandparents) can provide childcare, emotional support, cultural connection and the sort of unsolicited practical advice that apparently remains compulsory regardless of how old their children become. For many families, having parents nearby is an important part of genuinely being able to settle in New Zealand.

We are a little less enthusiastic when those same people need somewhere to live, drive on the motorway, enrol their children at school or appear in the latest migration statistics. We tend to like what migrants do. We are sometimes less certain about the migrants themselves. We see this regularly in online commentary, particularly around election time.

New Zealanders have a slightly complicated relationship with immigration. We want all the benefits that migrants bring - skills, investment, family connection and yet we aren’t that keen on the actual concept of migration itself. We want the doctor to help speed up appointment times, the nurse looking after us in hospital, the builder constructing the houses we are short of, and the engineer repairing the infrastructure we failed to maintain.

We are a little less enthusiastic when those same people need somewhere to live, drive on the motorway, enrol their children at school or appear in the latest migration statistics. We tend to like what migrants do. We are sometimes less certain about the migrants themselves. We see this regularly in online commentary, particularly around election time.