Wednesday, September 18, 2019
New Zealand government yesterday announced a few Work Visa policy changes. Our immigration team has put together a simplified summary of these changes as below.
Please note that it is always a fundamental policy of INZ that no changes will ever
- effect any visa you currently hold
- effect your future rights if they are a condition of that visa.
Essential Skills Visa
- changes announced will not come into effect until some time in 2021
- more detail will be announced in March 2020
- if your visa expires before 2021 your renewal will use the same process as now
- employers will be more affected by changes than workers, but we will not know any detail of that until 2020
- In 2021 INZ will no longer use ANZSCO to determine the duration of a visa, but the salary level. (Levels not announced yet)
- Visas will still be 1 year or 3 years (possibly 5 years for very highly paid)
- Still ‘stand-down’ period after 3 x 1-year visas
- In future, holders of 1-year visa will be permitted to bring family. (salary conditions likely to apply for dependants)
Work to Residence Visas (Accredited Employer)
- The salary threshold for approval of that visa will rise from $55,000 to $79,560 from 7 October
- If you already hold a WTR visa, you are still eligible for residence with $55k salary.
- It looks like this type of visa will not be issued after 2021, but uncertain.
Residence visa (Skilled Migrant Category)
- No changes have been announced.
- It is very likely that INZ will still use ANZSCO to determine skill levels.
For more details of these policy changes please check INZ's website:
Please contact our immigration team if you have more questions or need any support for your visa application.
