Nearly 165,000 migrants eligible for fast-tracked residency
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Thousands of migrants on temporary work visas will be fast-tracked for residency after a major immigration policy shift from Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi.
Faafoi said the Government would provide a one-off simplified residency pathway through its “2021 resident visa”, and an estimated 165,000 migrants will be eligible for it.
Applications for the new fast-tracked residency process will be opened up to migrants on most temporary work visas between December and July. Critical workers who cross the border before the end of July will also be eligible.
“We acknowledge the uncertainty and difficulties Covid-19 and our closed borders have caused our migrant community,” Faafoi said.
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“We have been carefully working through this residence option to offer certainty they need to truly make New Zealand their home.”
Faafoi said more than 5000 health and aged care workers, around 9000 primary industry workers, and more than 800 teachers would be eligible.
“This is something employers have asked for and we are delivering. Employers will now have the opportunity to retain their settled and skilled migrant workers, reflecting the critical part they play in our economy, essential workforce and communities.”
Faafoi said a portion of the 15,000 construction and 12,000 manufacturing workers on temporary visas could be eligible, too.
“These people have all played an important role in keeping our country moving over the last 18 months.”
The 2021 resident visa will be available to most work-related visa holders and their family members, as long as they were in New Zealand on September 29.
They will also need to meet one of six criteria: have lived in New Zealand for three or more years, earn above the median wage ($27 per hour or more), work in a role on the long-term skill shortage list, hold occupational registration and work in health or education, work in personal care or other critical health worker roles, or have jobs within the primary industries.
Faafoi said the majority of applicants would be granted residency by the end of December 2022. Applicants will only need to meet a simplified set of requirements including health requirements and police checks.
National’s spokeswoman for immigration, Erica Stanford, claimed the policy change was a victory for the opposition.
She campaigned for a similar policy, along with other changes to re-unite split migrant families.
“It’s a decision they should have made a year ago, because these things were staring them in the face, but they got trapped in their anti-migrant sentiment and their immigration reset.”
Immigration lawyer Alastair McClymont said simplifying residency processes could take delays out of the system, because Immigration NZ (INZ) officers were just not equipped to handle the complicated criteria involved with various immigration policies.
“Forty per cent of the applications which are declined end up coming back to INZ for re-assessment anyway.
“So because they’re making so many mistakes on their decisions, they just bounce back again, and they just come back into the queue.”
The Government has come under increasing pressure this year over the issue of immigration. Temporary migrant workers have left, frustrated at major delays and backlogs within the immigration system that have left some applicants waiting for decisions on their applications since 2019.
Problems were building before Covid-19. Governments of both stripes increased the number of temporary workers coming into the country, while cutting the number of residency places available.
These problems worsened after Labour and NZ First failed to come to an agreement on how many residency applications should be processed.
That has meant has been an ever-increasing number of temporary migrants competing for a steadily declining number of residency places.
Residency has been touted as a key benefit for temporary migrants moving to New Zealand, and migrant eligibility for residency remained unchanged while these cutbacks in targets took place.
The result has been the longest queues in history of people waiting to be granted residency, with INZ only resourced to process the number of applications earlier agreed on by Cabinet.
Faafoi’s announcement was accidentally leaked on Wednesday afternoon, by his own department. He looked visibly surprised when National MP Nicola Willis held up a piece of paper during Question Time with a printout of the INZ website carrying a reference to a new “one-off 2021 resident visa”.
“I believe someone might have got a little trigger-happy at Immigration New Zealand,” Faafoi said.
“But when the Government is ready to announce that, we will, and as I said yesterday it will be comprehensive and give certainty to both employers and migrants.”
Green Party immigration spokesman Ricardo Menéndez March commented on the earlier leak, and said he would be concerned at any income requirement attached to such a residency pathway.
This is the second time in less than two months immigration policy details have been accidentally published on INZ’s website. Last month, an immigration calculator went up, it implied points required for residency would go up from 160 points to 180 points. That too, was later taken down.
Migrant Workers Association President Anu Kaloti said the real test for the new visa would come in whether the processing of applications turned out to be as fast as promised.
“It’s all very well making promises, but if it’s going to take another three to five years to deliver it I don’t think people are going to have the patience for it.”