If you are a parent, and have children that have reached the stage of being able to vocalise their opinions, you will know how terrifying that first “are we there yet” can be, when you are in the car and on the road. It is terrifying because the first one, is usually followed by an uncannily timed series of the same sentence, on repeat, with gaps just long enough to make you think they might have moved on.

This monotonous repetition of the same plea, is then occasionally broken up by a very cleverly dispersed “how much further”, just to make sure you are still listening.

With the work we do, it can sometimes feel as though we have a whole stack of impatient people in the back of the car, all trying to work out how far away they are from their final destination - which is actually fair enough. Unlike your children who usually know exactly how far away they are from their final destination, most migrants wouldn’t have a clue and while we always give general timelines, it is almost impossible to predict the precise day a visa will be issued.

It is easy to forget or overlook what is right in front of you and I think many New Zealanders do this on a daily basis. Occasionally however we are reminded of why we are quite lucky to live in a country like this. I was personally reminded of this yesterday, when I was lucky enough to join my youngest daughter (Miss 9) on a school outing to Okoromai Bay and Shakespear Regional Park, to plant some grasses along the dunes.

These two amazing locations happen to be about five minutes drive from my house, and the school is even closer, so myself, some other willing parent helpers and several teachers, along with 80 or so very excitable children trekked from the school to the park, to help save the planet.

English language and more specifically the testing of it as part of the visa process has surfaced once again, amongst the migrant grapevines and rumour mills, with renewed calls from various parts of the migrant community to lower the standard from where it currently sits. Logically most advisers tend to favour any petition for lowering anything as it potentially makes more people eligible and of course the migrant community would have it abandoned all together.

I might be in the minority with my views on this and potentially this article will be a little controversial, but as someone with plenty of experience dealing with migrants from all over the world, and with varying degrees of English fluency, I do have a few things to say on the subject. To rattle the cage right away, I am not at all in favour of lowering the current English testing standards and I think most of the arguments for doing this, tend to be based on a commercial or personal advantage as opposed to building a more robust immigration system. I also think there are some pretty radical (click-bait) type arguments circulating as to the current standard being discriminatory or somehow linked to our colonial history.

I have been asked more than once this week, by prospective clients, why paying for advice might be a good idea…of course, I can only offer a semi-biased answer, because I do what I do for a living, but you dont do what I do for this long, without actually being able to add some significant value. So whether you use me or someone else, getting advice to assist with the New Zealand visa process, is a good idea.

Yes, good advice will cost you money, but it might also stop you from spending a whole lot more on trying to fix a mistake or worse, missing out on a visa (and your chance at a new life) entirely. The process of moving from one country to another is very different to deciding on which vacuum cleaner to buy and arguably relocating with your family is more of an investment, than a purchase. We tend to see it this way, investing our skills in to securing a new life for a family or individual and we place a tremendous amount of value on the importance of that process.

The Green List has made a few headlines recently, largely because in August 2025, ten new trade-related occupations will be added to it, expanding the list substantially and opening up more opportunities for applicants to secure a pathway to residence. This potentially helps to fill a gap for trade related roles that don’t (currently) have a pathway to residence, yet there is a pretty consistent demand for them.

However, whilst the Green List has been around since 2022, and is essentially a reincarnation of the old Long-Term-Skill-Shortage-List (LTSSL), it still remains a bit of a mystery to plenty of applicants. This is largely because most hopeful migrants, jostling for a spot on this list, assume that having a job offer that matches one of the entries, is all you need.

The Green List is actually a bit more complex than that, with each occupation having very specific criteria attached, as well as serving a dual purpose for both the Straight-To-Residence (STR) and Work-To-Residence (WTR) categories. Depending on where your occupation sits on the list and the requirements for the role, that will determine whether you qualify and how long it might take you to secure residence.

This week’s article, takes a closer look at the Green List, why it exists and how it works - hopefully giving potential applicants a clearer view of whether they are on the list or not and how to follow a pathway to residence.

There are a number of things within the immigration process that can be confusing (in fact most of it is), but the one thing that seems to pop up the most is the difference between residence and permanent residence and it can be one of the hardest things to explain to a client, despite it being relatively simple.

I suspect its the word “permanent” which creates the confusion, because most applicants assume that it’s only when they achieve that visa, that they can live in New Zealand permanently. However it doesn’t quite work like that and in fact the word permanent only applies to one particular aspect of a resident visa.

Hopefully this week’s article, helps to clarify the difference between the two visas, how you get from the first one to the second one and also highlights that whilst residence does let you live here permanently there are some rare situations that can lead that visa to being taken away. Being mindful of these things, will ensure that once you achieve your end goal, and have that shiny new resident visa in hand, you can keep it.

In the world of New Zealand immigration, one of the most common points of confusion, and something we are asked about a lot more than we probably should be, is the difference between a work visa and residence. While it might appear obvious to some, for many applicants, the difference between these two visas and what they provide is not so clear and can lead to disappointment when one doesn’t necessarily turn in to the other. More importantly these two different visas are also interpreted very differently by applicants and employers alike. Employers tend to have a short-term view, focusing very closely on the ability for applicants to secure a work visa, so they can fill the vacancy, whereas applicants are usually always focused on the longer-term pathway to residence.

Understanding the difference between the two visas, is a key step for any potential applicant and also appreciating that a work visa doesn’t automatically lead to residence can be the difference between success and failure. However it is also important for employers to appreciate that for applicant’s there is often a much bigger plan in place than just the Work Visa, and there are many things that they can do to support that longer-term objective.

This weeks article is as much about the employer side of the equation as it is for applicants, however we will take a look at the key differences between these visas and then also how they are so closely linked together, and perhaps whether they need to be.