Residency range unlikely to be fixed until election

[VedSaumya]

Here is some update on residency number friends.

Extract from article-
"Labour and New Zealand First are considering whether to abandon a 20-year-old practice of limiting total residency approvals at between 37,000 and 47,000 a year. Dileepa Fonseka reports this much-delayed and politically explosive decision is due before the election.

A hot potato for cabinet

A new planning range requires a cabinet vote, but Lees-Galloway said the government does not want to replace the NZRP planning range with another planning range of the same ilk. He wants separate planning ranges for skilled migrants, humanitarian and family categories instead. A cabinet paper from Immigration New Zealand even proposed options to leave certain categories uncapped.

Lees-Galloway said it would make the skilled migrant category less prone to bearing the brunt of any initiative to cut numbers.

“Often the first stream to get squeezed is business and skilled stream, which is exactly the people that we really wanted to encourage to come to New Zealand," the Minister said.

Lees-Galloway said “I’m not going to rush it,” but “I’ll be looking for a decision from cabinet before we go to the election."

“I want to make sure that we take the time to do the policy work rather than rush towards an arbitrary date knowing that in the meantime things just carry on, if there was some pressing negative impact on people then I’d want to push it,” he said.

Lees-Galloway said residency applications would be processed “at the same rate” and would not stop because a decision on planning ranges hadn’t been made.

He wanted a decision before the election. New Zealand First Immigration spokesman Clayton Mitchell was not available for comment on Thursday".

Further reading here:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/pro/2020/...on-to-carry-on

[robbo1234]

"if there was some pressing negative impact on people then I’d want to push it,” he said.

Lees-Galloway said residency applications would be processed “at the same rate” and would not stop because a decision on planning ranges hadn’t been made.

1 - it IS having a negative impact on people
2 - it has quite clearly stopped

[satty02]

tell something new as we all know these are lies

[ag]

Here is some update on residency number friends.

Extract from article-
"Labour and New Zealand First are considering whether to abandon a 20-year-old practice of limiting total residency approvals at between 37,000 and 47,000 a year. Dileepa Fonseka reports this much-delayed and politically explosive decision is due before the election.

A hot potato for cabinet

A new planning range requires a cabinet vote, but Lees-Galloway said the government does not want to replace the NZRP planning range with another planning range of the same ilk. He wants separate planning ranges for skilled migrants, humanitarian and family categories instead. A cabinet paper from Immigration New Zealand even proposed options to leave certain categories uncapped.

Lees-Galloway said it would make the skilled migrant category less prone to bearing the brunt of any initiative to cut numbers.

“Often the first stream to get squeezed is business and skilled stream, which is exactly the people that we really wanted to encourage to come to New Zealand," the Minister said.

Lees-Galloway said “I’m not going to rush it,” but “I’ll be looking for a decision from cabinet before we go to the election."

“I want to make sure that we take the time to do the policy work rather than rush towards an arbitrary date knowing that in the meantime things just carry on, if there was some pressing negative impact on people then I’d want to push it,” he said.

Lees-Galloway said residency applications would be processed “at the same rate” and would not stop because a decision on planning ranges hadn’t been made.

He wanted a decision before the election. New Zealand First Immigration spokesman Clayton Mitchell was not available for comment on Thursday".

Further reading here:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/pro/2020/...on-to-carry-on

Ah, well another bummer.

[satty02]

check this out please

https://fyi.org.nz/request/12068-nzr...incoming-45932

[Wingmaker]

They can reduce the influx of applications by raising the qualifying points from 160 to higher. Isn't this the easiest solution from their perspective?

[satty02]

They can reduce the influx of applications by raising the qualifying points from 160 to higher. Isn't this the easiest solution from their perspective?

90% of the applicants are onshore and for people working onshore, 160 is not a big deal, so 180-190+ should be something which will gauge a lot of applications and reduce the numbers.

[ag]

90% of the applicants are onshore and for people working onshore, 160 is not a big deal, so 180-190+ should be something which will gauge a lot of applications and reduce the numbers.

But that could also potentially block really skilled professionals applying for NZ jobs from outside the country. Reaching 160 from outside NZ is pretty tough.

[satty02]

But that could also potentially block really skilled professionals applying for NZ jobs from outside the country. Reaching 160 from outside NZ is pretty tough.

everything has its own merits and demerits and if NZ is really wanting to attract talented people, they could come up with some special fast track process/criteria for skills in demand like IT, Doctors and so on, but the way INZ is operating to just process application of people earning 104K/year, they are losing many talented people as their files are not moving and people would give up sooner or later.

[Kelerei]

90% of the applicants are onshore and for people working onshore, 160 is not a big deal, so 180-190+ should be something which will gauge a lot of applications and reduce the numbers.

It will also decimate the Auckland labour market.

Already, the 160 point threshold is high enough that a lot of migrants have to look for skilled employment outside of Auckland to meet the 160 point threshold. Push the threshold higher, and you're effectively excluding all migrants from Auckland. Being the country's economic centre, Auckland remains somewhat of a "jobs factory", but with the economy growing at the rate that it is and the unemployment rate as low as it is, there simply aren't enough New Zealanders available to fill those jobs -- and finding migrants to fill those jobs is exactly the point of the Skilled Migrant Category. Take them out of the equation, and the potential for Auckland's economy (and by extension, the country's) to be significantly harmed cannot be ignored.

No government is likely to do this, especially not in an election year -- the political parties need Auckland votes.