One off Permanent Visa 2021

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Divhon88

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#289804 30-Sep-2021 09:07

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/immigration-minister-kris-faafoi-announces-residence-pathway-for-165000-migrant-workers/WBSWCXOOJT4TUEPG5NQBHMKVCY/

I can't imagine the processing power INZ would need to process the 165,000 who are now eligible for this. Did the Gov't just bite off more than it could chew?

I'm sure uncle Winston Peters is drooling to this for his own use as a way to come back to the Beehive.

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#2786799 30-Sep-2021 09:44

I can't imagine the processing power INZ would need to process the 165,000 who are now eligible for this. Did the Gov't just bite off more than it could chew?

Nah, Its pretty much a return to BAU for immigration NZ...

in 2017,18, and 19 they processed over 200K work visas in each of those years. as well as another 20-30,000 residence visas,

https://www.immigration.govt.nz/documents/statistics/statistics-residents-decisions-financial-year

https://www.immigration.govt.nz/documents/statistics/statistics-work-applications-decided

I've heard of no mass layoffs, so I assume the staff have been pretty much twiddling their thumbs for the last 24 months,

It's easy to forget how many people there used to be crossing the border pre COVID, and excluding tourists and Ozzies, they all needed visas...

alavaliant

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#2786801 30-Sep-2021 09:46

Mostly sounds like a promising step to me. I'm sure there will be people claiming doom from it like there tends to be with any immigration thing though...

Scott3

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#2786807 30-Sep-2021 09:54

Leaves those who have been waiting (in some cases 22+ months) for their SMC residency visa to be processed in a funny spot.

Assume they also apply (and pay) for this one (with it's indicative processing time being up to 1 year), and then see which one comes in first.

quickymart

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#2786811 30-Sep-2021 09:57

What about someone who wants to come here for a holiday (on a tourist visa), then decides to stay and wants to work (on a work visa)? That's still a no-go, right?

Scott3

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#2786814 30-Sep-2021 10:07

Press release here:

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/one-residence-pathway-provides-certainty-migrants-and-business

and

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/hard-working-migrants-farms-set-gain-certainty-one-residency-pathway

INZ webpage

https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/already-have-a-visa/one-off-residence-visa

quickymart:

What about someone who wants to come here for a holiday (on a tourist visa), then decides to stay and wants to work (on a work visa)? That's still a no-go, right?

This policy is about giving residency to people who are in have work visa's at the moment.

Borders are still shut to tourists, so your question is kinda a moot point at the moment, but should not impact any rules around other visa types. (I think you could always apply for a work visa while on a visitors visa?)

Zeon

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#2786816 30-Sep-2021 10:08

One of the things I hate the most about immigration policy in this country is how unpredictable it is. After nothing for so long all of a sudden this bombshell drops.

A number of colleagues are on work visas and in many cases have been seperated from wife and kids in their home countries for 2 years. They have had absolutely no certainty of the situation and have lived in some kind of pergatory for the last 1.5 years with the hope the government *may* open the borders which we still see no plan about and no clue whether they will even be able to stay in NZ long term. Every week I see them crying and completely depressed about the uncertainty around their visas and closed borders... there has been no excuse for the practical stoppage of processing residence visas since the pandemic started for on-shore migrants.

Faafoi really has no compassion for these people.... seems like immigrants are 2nd class in his eyes...

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quickymart

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#2786817 30-Sep-2021 10:08

Scott3:

Borders are still shut to tourists, so your question is kinda a moot point at the moment, but should not impact any rules around other visa types. (I think you could always apply for a work visa while on a visitors visa?)

Yes you're right, just this doesn't happen at the moment. But cheers for the clarification 👍

hhan

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#2786850 30-Sep-2021 11:32

Well. I am really disappointed that my situation is excluded from this new policy. I am a student been in NZ for 4 years. My wife holds a partner work visa and was working in NZ for 4 years. Then we are excluded from this policy, as INZ treats partner work visa as a short-term visa. However, post study work visa holders are included. And post study work visa can be at most 3 year long. Obviously, partner work visa is not considered as a common type of work visa.

To immigrate here, I think my family will be looking at another 2 years' wait.

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elpenguino

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#2787039 30-Sep-2021 13:55

Zeon:

Faafoi really has no compassion for these people.... seems like immigrants are 2nd class in his eyes...

Really? You might be too frustrated to consider that someone with PI heritage (the Minister), likely with some relatives here for generations as well as others recently arrived, understands exactly what it's like to be an immigrant.

You might have also forgotten that his job is not to rubber stamp every single application but to consider migration with a wider view of what is best for NZ inc.

Unfettered migration during a pandemic is not going to happen.

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Scott3

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#2787087 30-Sep-2021 15:07

Scott3:

Leaves those who have been waiting (in some cases 22+ months) for their SMC residency visa to be processed in a funny spot.

Assume they also apply (and pay) for this one (with it's indicative processing time being up to 1 year), and then see which one comes in first.

Listened to the press conference.

Seems one of the key points of this visa is to clear the SMC queue. Seems anticipated that everybody in the SMC queue will be asked to submit an application for this, and given the criteria is much less staff intensive to evaluate so should result in faster processing times. Also the applications for this will will be online, so can be sent to any INZ office for assessment. Sounds like they won't double up on fees, and will prioritize the likes of people currently with SMC or work to residence visa's lodged.

Zeon

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#2787181 30-Sep-2021 16:55

elpenguino:

Zeon:

Faafoi really has no compassion for these people.... seems like immigrants are 2nd class in his eyes...

Really? You might be too frustrated to consider that someone with PI heritage (the Minister), likely with some relatives here for generations as well as others recently arrived, understands exactly what it's like to be an immigrant.

You might have also forgotten that his job is not to rubber stamp every single application but to consider migration with a wider view of what is best for NZ inc.

Unfettered migration during a pandemic is not going to happen.

All he had to do in his job was to ensure INZ kept processing ON-SHORE resident applications the same as had been done before the start of the pandemic. Those people were here regardless of the pandemic closing borders. The rules and requirement had already been set for their applications and for what reason (apart from a political one) should INZ stop processing those? Convenient excuse for an anti-immigrant policy?

The collateral damage has been NZ inc.. Skilled workers leaving including in healthcare, literally in the midst of a pandemic.

There is no unfettered migration during a pandemic. The border is closed, there is practically no non-citizen/resident migration!

He alongside everyone else in this country has immigrant history so I don't see that having really any relevance here. Is he here on a temporary visa seperated from his children? No. Can he go home when he wants and see them. Yes. Direct migrants themselves who have struggled against INZ would probably make properly empathetic ministers of immigration.....

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everettpsycho

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#2787255 30-Sep-2021 18:26

This is the news a lot of people were waiting on. The pandemic has caused problems but has completely been a scapegoat when it comes to immigration policy. Yes the borders have been shut but there was no excuse for not allowing those on shore working through the pandemic a chance to be seen and apply to stay as they were promised was an option when they renovated, had this been offered they might not have had to just grant it to this many people in this manner.

The SMC queue is laughable how it has been handled and this is very welcome news for the 30000 applicants stuck in that hell. For those who don't know just what a screw up that's been recently:

the nz residence program dictates how many residents should be approved a year
When the schemes went above this number they continued to invite people and allow unrestricted application numbers far above the program targets
When more applications were on hand they secretly implemented a priority criteria for registered occupations and high earners and put the rest on hold
When it eventually came out they had put thousands on hold they denied it and blamed the non renewal of the nzrp by the minister
Eventually they confirmed the existence of the priority queue, and then promptly changed the rules to start that queue moving and merged processing of talent residency visas in to the back of the SMC queue
They then blamed all of this on covid despite it running since 2018

Throughout all of this me and thousands of others have had to go through freedom of information requests that regularly contradict each other and had to get the ombudsman involved which took a year and the outcome was "naughty immigration don't do that again and say sorry". Ironically covid was the best thing to happen to us with this debacle, the closure of the borders meant that priority queue ran dry and they finally looked at the rest of the applications they'd been ignoring for 2 years. We never once minded the likes of health care worked getting visas faster, what annoyed us was things like real estate agents getting rushed through despite there being more of them than there is houses for sale at the moment. The entire system was broken and fixable had they just revised the nzrp or turned the tap off each year once they reached the nzrp number.

neb

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#2787267 30-Sep-2021 19:18

Divhon88:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/immigration-minister-kris-faafoi-announces-residence-pathway-for-165000-migrant-workers/WBSWCXOOJT4TUEPG5NQBHMKVCY/

I can't imagine the processing power INZ would need to process the 165,000 who are now eligible for this. Did the Gov't just bite off more than it could chew?

Maybe they can hire the first lot of people they're giving work visas to to process the applications for the rest of the people they want to give work visas to.

In other words yeah, I'm wondering how they'll process it all as well.

everettpsycho

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#2787338 30-Sep-2021 20:29

neb:
Divhon88:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/immigration-minister-kris-faafoi-announces-residence-pathway-for-165000-migrant-workers/WBSWCXOOJT4TUEPG5NQBHMKVCY/

I can't imagine the processing power INZ would need to process the 165,000 who are now eligible for this. Did the Gov't just bite off more than it could chew?

Maybe they can hire the first lot of people they're giving work visas to to process the applications for the rest of the people they want to give work visas to.

In other words yeah, I'm wondering how they'll process it all as well.

Processing wise the bulk of the time for residents visas is seemingly checking employment history and suitability to do the job you are applying for. Checking English language, police checks and medicals is practically a tick box exercise of sighting the paperwork, and the majority of these applications will all have already been checked for this when they got their work visas so won't even be supplying new ones. With this new visa all the hard bit of checking in with employers, sifting through references and conducting interviews won't be needed so they will probably be able to churn through them very rapidly.

They've already proven this to be true with their prioritisation criteria for residency applications. If you hold occupational registration or earn over $106k you are deemed skilled and they are able to approve those visas in days of getting a case officer as there is no following up to do to delay it, whereas the others take at least a month to work through the system. Similarly talent visas used to get processed really quickly as it was just checking you had done your two years and qualified to upgrade to residency. Considering their consistent excuse for going slow was "we are staffed to meet the nzrp target" and they routinely stop and start processing to meet that number I'm very interested to see what they are actually capable of now that shackle has been removed.

Scott3

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#2787415 30-Sep-2021 22:08

neb:

Maybe they can hire the first lot of people they're giving work visas to to process the applications for the rest of the people they want to give work visas to. In other words yeah, I'm wondering how they'll process it all as well.

A lot of questions on that in the press conference today.

The answer in short is that this visa category has been custom designed to be fast and easy to process. Criteria is basically:

Health check
Police check
In NZ on 29sept on an elegiable work visa (or be in the application process for one which is subsequently granted
Any one of the following:
- lived in New Zealand for three or more years, or
- earn above the median wage ($27 per hour or more), or
- work in a role on the Long Term Skill Shortage List, or
- hold occupational registration and work in the health or education sector, or
- work in personal care or other critical health worker roles, or
- work in a specified role in the primary industries.

For most applicants reviewing the health check and over seas police clearances will be the only bit that can't be automated. INZ has its own process for NZ Polices clearances that could be automated, Check for if the person is in NZ on 29sept could be automated. Most applicants will have been in NZ over 3 years so for most automated approval can be applied to that can criteria.

It sounds most of the SMC queue will be asked to apply for this, and then INZ will rip through those applications (they come in on the first date) -Meaning that most of the hard to process (and paper based so hard to share around offices) SMC applications don't need processing, freeing up all the resources going that way, and there will be a bunch less regular work visa applications as people start getting granted residency (could even bump the priory to residency applications where a work visa has also been applied for, so INZ doesn't need to process the work visa).

Pity that it came down to INZ needing major goverment policy change to bail it out of it's mess, but great that it has happened.

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