0 Comments
Some amendments have been made for 1) People who may be granted entry permission: COVID-19,
2) Special temporary visas. For more details, please check the below flip pdf book. Announced by INZ, 08 April 2021 New Zealand has Working Holiday Scheme agreements with many countries. Visas granted under these schemes allow visa holders to work in and explore our country. In April 2020, the Government deferred the opening of capped Working Holiday Schemes, as part of New Zealand’s response to COVID-19. On 6 April 2021, the Government decided to continue deferring the opening of all capped WHS until the New Zealand border settings are such that applications can be accepted and processed, visas can be granted, and visa holders can travel to New Zealand for the full entitlement of their WHS visa. Uncapped Working Holiday Schemes remain open to people already in New Zealand. However, when New Zealand enters a Quarantine-Free Travel Zone with Australia, eligible applicants in Australia will also be able to apply for a visa under the uncapped schemes. This would apply if New Zealand enters Quarantine-Free Travel Zones with other countries as well. INZ continues to work with temporary migrants and sectors affected by the COVID-19 border restrictions.
Announced by INZ - 17th March 2021.
The amended immigration instructions exempt from the border restrictions a person who has:
Announced by INZ - 15 March 2021
Entry to New Zealand from all countries remains strictly controlled to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Government continues to enable the health sector's access to highly skilled health personnel required for the COVID-19 response with adjustments to visa settings. Specified health and disability workers may be granted exceptions to New Zealand's strict border controls. Start date criteria removed The start date required for new approved employees was previously on or before 31 March 2021. There is now no start date criteria for new employees. Start dates are still dependent on the availability of places in Managed Isolation and Quarantine facilities. Other entry criteria still apply. All criteria are now formalised in immigration instructions (see below). Announced by INZ 03 March 2021 The Minister of Immigration is extending visas expiring before 31 March 2021 held by visitors in New Zealand, due to COVID-19. There is no fee for this automatic two-month extension. Visitors help sustain our tourism and hospitality industries, and the Government recognises the need for ongoing flexibility as we respond to the pandemic. The extension does NOT apply to visitors on the special Covid-19 Short-term Visitor Visa, introduced in September 2020. INZ will shortly be contacting the holders of visitor visas who have been given this extension to confirm their new visa expiry date. A mother and two sons' visas were expired. She organised a paid consultation with us as soon as she found out that they became unlawful, then we engaged in preparing and submitting their section 61 requests (3). The requests were approved last Friday. Now they are lawful again. Last December, The Minister of Immigration has extended a number of temporary visas by Special Direction in order to retain the onshore migrant workforce given the limited number of migrants able to enter New Zealand due to the border closure.
Then late January 2021, media wrote an article that the partner and children will not get the automatic extension and the email was an error. Check the article here. Therefore there would have been some confusion about the extension. Simon Park, the CEO of Immigration Trust, communicated with INZ to clarify the issues below. 1. If you received the your visa expiry email from INZ, even though you received an email that your visa will be extended. According to INZ, "the email’s that are going out to clients that their visa is due to expire cannot be turned off. It is automated from the system". 2. Confusion about the partner and children's visas extension. According to INZ, "If the main applicants work visa is extended and the partner and children were in New Zealand on 01/01/2021 and hold visas dependent on the main work visa holder, then their visas will also be extended for 6 months." 3. When will I get the visa extension letter? According to INZ, "The confirmation letters that the visa’s have been extended will not be sent out until March 2021." Statistics New Zealand has engaged with the dairy sector and developed new task descriptions for three dairy roles that sit under the occupation of Dairy Cattle Farmer (121313) in the Australia and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). The three new sub category roles are:
Immigration Instructions have been updated (Amendment Circular 2021-02) so that Immigration Officers must make an assessment based on the immigration-specific view of ANZSCO provided by Statistics New Zealand for all Dairy Cattle Farmer roles under occupation code 121313, with effect from 15 February 2021. The updated task descriptions will be used when undertaking a substantial match assessment and assessing whether an applicant is suitably qualified for these roles under both Essential Skills work visa and the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) resident instructions. Given that the above dairy roles are all skill level 1-3, applicants for the SMC may be eligible for points for skilled employment, subject to meeting remuneration and other requirements. These changes apply to applications made from 15 February 2021 onwards. With the exception of the three dairy occupations noted above, INZ will continue to refer to ANZSCO version 1.2 when assessing residence and temporary entry applications. The pay rate will continue to be used when determining the duration of Essential Skill work visas. Apply for this visa if you have a critical purpose for coming to New Zealand and we have invited you to apply for a visa. With this visa you can travel to New Zealand even though the border is currently closed.
Immigration Trust engaged with a client overseas and managed to get the Critical Purpose Visitor Visa (6 months) recently. |