Work experience evidence for Essential Skills work visa

[EGoodhue]

Just wanted to post a bit of a "word of warning" or heads-up for those planning to lodge an application for an Essential Skills work visa, as I've noticed a bit of a disturbing trend in my work as a licensed adviser when dealing with certain branches and immigration officers regarding the evidence required to prove that an applicant is suitably qualified by training and experience to do the work offered (as per WK3.20a). It has long been the practice that, where an applicant has relevant work experience which demonstrates that they satisfy the ANZSCO requirements for a job they have been offered in NZ, a work experience reference letter has been sufficient to satisfy an immigration officer that they are suitably qualified by experience.

However, I am increasingly seeing immigration officers state that a work experience reference letter provided is "not sufficient" and more and more immigration officers are asking for tax records, bank statements and employment agreements as further evidence of work experience.

In my opinion, this is high-handed and does not align with instructions requirements. I had a 1-hour phone conversation with an immigration officer yesterday, after he stated that a work reference letter stating that an applicant had worked in a particular trade-based role for more than 4 years, and specifically listed the tasks and duties the applicant undertook in that role, was not enough to satisfy him that the applicant had the 3 years of relevant work experience as required by ANZSCO for the occupation he has been offered. When pressed as to what it was about the letter that did not satisfy him, his (arrogant) response was "how can I tell from that letter that he really does have that experience?". Suffice to say, I was dumbfounded. But unfortunately this is the level of arbitrary requests that is becoming the norm across most INZ offices.

So just a word to the wise that, if you are planning to apply for an Essential Skills work visa and meet the ANZSCO skill level requirements by way of your past work experience, perhaps be prepared with tax records, bank statements and employment agreement on-hand to give the immigration officer should you be unlucky enough to be allocated to one who is taking this approach to their assessments.

[ngedza]

Thanks for the heads up Egoodhue, I applied for my essential skills work visa and still waiting for an outcome. Let me take my time and just have those documents ready but i hope and pray they wont request for them..

Based on my time-frame below i have the following questions:
1. Can a decision be made after contacting only one out of the two references i provided?
2. How much longer before a decision can be made, as i feel/think this might be some of the final stages of the process.

Application Submitted- 19 December 2018
Case Officer Assigned- 14 January 2019
1 out of 2 Reference Contacted- 07 March 2019
Application on 87 days

[EGoodhue]

Yes, I think an immigration officer could make a fair decision after only contacting one out of two references provided. If one checked out, there wouldn't be much need to check the second (in my experience as an immigration officer in the past anyway - it depends how the immigration officer reasons things in their head!). More than 2 months with an immigration officer for an Essential Skills application seems like a long time! Surely you must be at the end of the process now - have you checked in with the immigration officer and asked? After such a long time processing (compared to what my experience is in terms of how long an Essential Skills application takes to process), the immigration officer should have a good explanation as to what they're up to with your application.

[ngedza]

Thank you for the quick response as always. Let me contact the immigration officer and hear from him, i will come back with the update.
Most importantly i would want to engage your services for my SMC as soon as my ESV has been approved, i have seen you helping a lot of people under that category.

Thanks