Keeping up with the Joneses

We knew this was coming. It was signalled in National's election campaign: Immigration NZ needed to become a user-pay system. Matthew Scott wrote about this in August 2023. The idea was to take us to 90% of what Australia charges.

After certain lobbying, the fees for Partners of New Zealanders, although significantly increased, have not gone up by as much as was feared. So that's a positive.

Employer applications i.e. Accreditation and Job Checks see only negligible increases.

However, just about all other categories including visitor visas will now increase and without any specific commitment by Immigration New Zealand to improve delivery. They like to talk up improvements, but at the coal face we have only seen dreadful processing times, trigger happy declines based on templated letters that have taken us backwards. For all that the last government professed to have simplified the system, it's never been more complicated and our flagship Skilled Migrant Category that will now cost $6450 to apply for has a 14% decline rate - far too high for a system that is supposed to be simplified and where the complex applications have not yet built up the points to apply.

Overall, migrant coming to New Zealand still get lots of positives:

• free healthcare for all workers on most work visas - no health levy as they have in Australia and other countries

• free schooling for dependent children of qualifying skilled workers including free ESOL lessons for those with English as a second language

• subsidised/free 20 hours Early Childhood care for children aged 3+ who are dependents of qualifying workers

So, overall, we do still have the edge over some countries. However, the stakes will get a lot higher for those submitting faulty applications. These increases come at a time when e.g. Immigration NZ has also upped the ante on declining applications for being incomplete. Just yesterday, we received a communication stating that 10 working days only will be given to provide missing documentation in a Skilled Residence application. The statistics show that currently 50% of such applications are submitted as incomplete.

We only recently had a school teacher contact us as they had submitted a Skilled Migrant application claiming points they were not entitled to. They missed a key ingredient in the instructions and had simply applied too soon. Rather than pay for a consultation, they spent $4290 on an application that was destined for a decline and with no ability to get a refund. That same teacher will now be facing a new fee of $6450 to lodge again.

We can only beat our drum about getting professional advice and doing things right. If we, as licensed advisers, mess up, we are liable. If you mess up on your own or rely on Immigration NZ for "advice" no-one is held to account.

You decide.

Katy Armstrong

Principal Consultant, License # 200800243