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Thread: Ombudsman complaint re: cherry-picking of SMC applications

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
    Location
    United Kingdom
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    60

    Default

    I think most of us are just stressed and anxious due to the lengthy waits and uncertainty about our future, especially with the new policy of all employers needing to become accredited (is it from 2020?). We do everything correctly & have spent months & thousands of dollars to get all of the information and paperwork together - then we submit our application and don't hear ANYTHING back at all - no information in terms of processing time, oh yes, the good old e-mail with "please refer to the website for current processing times", as if that would help. My main concern is my ESV will expire in about a years time, and if my SMC hasn't come through at that point I will not be able to work anymore as my company will not become accredited just to sponsor me. And then what? I do not fit any of the prioritisation criteria, I have a regular job, with regular income that's on the LTSSL, but that's it, so I'm sure my application will be on the bottom of all of the lists for a long time. To be honest, my employer sometimes holds this over my head - they're not investing in further training for me due to the fact I might not be here in a years time...which is so frustrating. Nor can I look for another job, as going through the ESV process now takes months too! This affects so many parts of my life, I can't settle down anywhere and invest in anything in NZ as I have no idea what's going to happen to me in 12 months time! All I need to rest my ever increasing heart palpitations is a bit more communication from their side - a quick e-mail here and there to keep people who are on-shore "regular" applicants in terms of processing expectations - I mean if they wold tell me tomorrow that my application is likely to come through in 13-15 months time I would start to prepare for the next steps I will need to take in a years time, instead of waiting till the very last moment hoping that the decision will come through, and then have the additional stress of trying to secure a new visa last minute to bridge the gap. Why can't they simply be more transparent about the process?

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    India
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    65

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    Welcome back Erin ! Hope you and baby are healthy !

  3. #13
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Location
    New Zealand
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    Welcome back Erin. Hope you and your baby are doing well

    I was assigned with a case officer almost 6 months back on 14th of June. The case officer asked for the the documents mid September and i sent all the requested documents on 20th of September. I called INZ many times after that and got the response that there are some documents requested from me. At the end of October, INZ call centre sent the "Heads up" email to my case officer and got the acknowledgement from her that she have received the documents and is processing the documents. Since then there is no update on my application.

    I believe that even if we get an case officer assigned they are not going to process the applications at normal pace. It seems that they are intentionally slowing down the pace of processing. Few of my friends got priority and once assigned with the case officer all of their applications were processed within one week by their case officer. I know all applications are different but six months after the allocation of CO seems too much and no communication by the case officer. Few known to me have case officer assigned but all they are doing is asking for more or repeated documents each time their LIA escalates it.

    I hope this complaint will make INZ accountable
    Last edited by Preet91; 2nd December 2019 at 11:03 PM.

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Jul 2019
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    new zealand
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    8

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    it's really nice to have you back, Erin!

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Nov 2019
    Location
    NZ
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    Thank Erin.

    I submitted my SMC application in Jan 2019 and is waiting CO allocation and I am pretty sure I will be waiting for 12+months before I get a CO as I am not in prioritized list.

    There have been lots of changes to my circumstance:

    My HR resigned in mid year and she was the company contact in my application. I emailed to immigration and got reply in 5 mins saying "your officer, once allocated, will contact you if he/she needs anything". So I think my message will not be passed onto CO once allocated, then CO probably just contact my old HR if he/she doesn't make first contact to me and that would be endless delays, which is what they probably want.

    My current work visa is going to expire in April 20. I thought 14 months should be enough for SMC application and I am wrong. DO they care people like me? NO, they are busy caring themselves.

    I am getting married in a couple of month and I was only applicant in my application - so if I do marry then things changed again.

    Immigration is smart and they should know the longer they sit applications aside, the longer the time they will need to process. See what they are doing at the moment - restructuring, cutting numbers, training (as they said) at this time with long queue and this is just before election. I think they use these operational (e.g. "efficiency" "unexpected large volume/difficult applications" ) issues that are intentionally created to cover they really want to achieve - budgets? political targets? commitments? whatever they are. They work for government and themselves, not applicants. this is more of top-down effect - if policy allows or ask them to fail, then any questions at operational level is not worth asking. The current situation is what the whole immigration polices are leading us. if this is direction, then let's see what happen next year.

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Mar 2019
    Location
    new zealand
    Posts
    183

    Unhappy

    My application was lodged January 2019 - I have received no news whatsoever and do not have a case officer.

    This has caused me huge stress, anxiety and pressure in all aspects of my life. It's the first thing I think about in a morning, all throughout the day and last thing at night (which I'm sure is the same for everyone in my position)

    I do not think it's fair to cherry-pick applicants, we all paid the same amount for the application. NZ immigration invited us to apply for residency because WE met the requirements and now we are not good enough because we do meet their internally-set rules, which HEAPS of people do not. We are made to feel like second class citizens because of this.

    I believe my employer holds it against me that I am essentially 'trapped' in my job and cannot leave. I can not get up-skilled or go on training programmes as I am not a resident and my status here is uncertain.

    I am extremely grateful to have been given the chance to apply to be an NZ resident, however I have worked hard & paid my way to be allowed this right. It's only fair they can keep us updated and not feed us lie after lie.

    On another note, I notice that the ANZSCO list is changing mid next year and also that employers must be accredited. I can't help but think that they are not dealing with applications on purpose so people like us reach mid next year and are not allowed to apply for another Essential Skills Work Visa as our ANZSCO has changed and/or our employer is not accredited and never will be. Thus meaning we have to leave NZ and they keep our money we paid for our applications!

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    new zealand
    Posts
    170

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    Erin, is partnership residency in as dire straits as SMC? or is the SMC category exclusively being treated with cruel and unusual vetting? It blows my mind as to how unfair people are being treated by INZ.

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    902

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    I haven't seen any evidence of Partnership Residency applications being treated this way, but then again, I'm not representing any Partnership Residence applicants at the moment. But I haven't heard any of my LIA colleagues (who I discuss these things with regularly on a FB forum) making a fuss about Partnership Residence so it must be ticking along ok.

    Yes, I'm astounded at what INZ think they can get away with lately - I've never seen it so bad in all my years both working within INZ and since becoming an LIA. Transparency and honesty are important parts of being a Kiwi and I hate to see government departments tarnishing our reputation as being fair, upstanding people.

  9. #19
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Location
    New Zealand
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    293

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    Quote Originally Posted by MagicPizza View Post
    Erin, is partnership residency in as dire straits as SMC? or is the SMC category exclusively being treated with cruel and unusual vetting? It blows my mind as to how unfair people are being treated by INZ.
    By the seems of things it appears the Indian community has been the main focus of partnership visa issues. There's been a lot of news articles citing delays with them and then subsequently rejecting a lot of cultural marriages, so much so that INZ had to backtrack and review a lot of decisions they made as it was deemed culturally insensitive and went all the way up to Jacinda Ardern to fix. There was delays with those visas but most that got reported on were again seemingly Indian couples that had married and lived apart. I'm not sure if they are the only target or the only ones being reported on as it's not common in western cultures to marry and live in separate countries, it's much more of an issue if your spouse is on another continent rather than already in the country.

  10. #20
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    new zealand
    Posts
    170

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    Quote Originally Posted by deverett View Post
    By the seems of things it appears the Indian community has been the main focus of partnership visa issues. There's been a lot of news articles citing delays with them and then subsequently rejecting a lot of cultural marriages, so much so that INZ had to backtrack and review a lot of decisions they made as it was deemed culturally insensitive and went all the way up to Jacinda Ardern to fix. There was delays with those visas but most that got reported on were again seemingly Indian couples that had married and lived apart. I'm not sure if they are the only target or the only ones being reported on as it's not common in western cultures to marry and live in separate countries, it's much more of an issue if your spouse is on another continent rather than already in the country.
    I think the majority of those cases applied more to partnership visitor visas and partnership work visas. There will have been some cases with partnership residency too, but I was wondering if they were quashing residency visas across the board or just shifting laser-focused, deliberate ineptitude towards SMC. I do feel like this is Winnie Peter's twisting the knife on migrants before he is possibly kicked out of deputy PM position next year.

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