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Thread: Work visa holder redundancy due to covid

  1. #21
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  2. #22
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    I don't really understand this girl's situation in the article. Seems like she's unaware that she is entitled to the wage subsidy. Definitely details missing in that story.

  3. #23
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    I just spied this comment by Iain Lees-Galloway on his Facebook page, in response to a question asked by someone around the immigration landscape post-lockdown - gives a tiny bit of insight into the likely direction of things once lockdown finishes:

    "There's quite a bit to unpack here. First, let me give you an idea how the Government will approach immigration in the recovery. I absolutely acknowledge that migrants will have an important role to play. There will be skills we need that are not available among the NZ workforce in the short term and we will need migrants to provide those skills to help build the economy again. We must also acknowledge that a lot of people will lose their jobs in the coming weeks and months. Many already have. We must ensure that domestic workers have the opportunity to get back to work. For many people, that will mean re-training, which takes time but we must make sure there are jobs for them once they have the necessary skills. So yes, we will need immigration but we need to be mindful about how it is used. The other factor is INZ's current capacity. All its offices are closed. For the offshore offices (Beijing, Mumbai, Manila etc) that means there is absolutely no visa processing capacity. For the New Zealand offices it means the capacity is significantly diminished. Some extremely high priority processing is occurring for people like health workers but that is all. There is simply no way around that right now. Even if processing could occur, it is unclear at this stage when people will be able to start coming to NZ again. Moving down from Level 4 to Level 3 for instance would not see the border re-open. Many visas have time limits on their use - ie we could issue them but if people can't travel promptly they expire. That would be a pointless exercise (as an aside this situation has exposed some aspects of the Immigration Act that are rather inflexible and I'll look to make changes once Parliament is sitting again). Finally I would say this. This will not simply be an exercise in going back to what existed before. Things will be different. The skills and the people we will need will be different. We need to do some thorough planing for the future, alongside industry, to make sure we do the recovery well. Immigration will be an important part of the transition so we shouldn't just assume we know who we will need at this stage. Cheers for your point. I hope this shows you that we are think deeply about these issues and making sure we have a plan in place to, as you say, get things going again".

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by EGoodhue View Post
    I just spied this comment by Iain Lees-Galloway on his Facebook page, in response to a question asked by someone around the immigration landscape post-lockdown - gives a tiny bit of insight into the likely direction of things once lockdown finishes:

    "There's quite a bit to unpack here. First, let me give you an idea how the Government will approach immigration in the recovery. I absolutely acknowledge that migrants will have an important role to play. There will be skills we need that are not available among the NZ workforce in the short term and we will need migrants to provide those skills to help build the economy again. We must also acknowledge that a lot of people will lose their jobs in the coming weeks and months. Many already have. We must ensure that domestic workers have the opportunity to get back to work. For many people, that will mean re-training, which takes time but we must make sure there are jobs for them once they have the necessary skills. So yes, we will need immigration but we need to be mindful about how it is used. The other factor is INZ's current capacity. All its offices are closed. For the offshore offices (Beijing, Mumbai, Manila etc) that means there is absolutely no visa processing capacity. For the New Zealand offices it means the capacity is significantly diminished. Some extremely high priority processing is occurring for people like health workers but that is all. There is simply no way around that right now. Even if processing could occur, it is unclear at this stage when people will be able to start coming to NZ again. Moving down from Level 4 to Level 3 for instance would not see the border re-open. Many visas have time limits on their use - ie we could issue them but if people can't travel promptly they expire. That would be a pointless exercise (as an aside this situation has exposed some aspects of the Immigration Act that are rather inflexible and I'll look to make changes once Parliament is sitting again). Finally I would say this. This will not simply be an exercise in going back to what existed before. Things will be different. The skills and the people we will need will be different. We need to do some thorough planing for the future, alongside industry, to make sure we do the recovery well. Immigration will be an important part of the transition so we shouldn't just assume we know who we will need at this stage. Cheers for your point. I hope this shows you that we are think deeply about these issues and making sure we have a plan in place to, as you say, get things going again".
    Logic would say that they would defer all non essential off shore applicants. He's right in saying that why waste resource processing those when they have entry time limits that while the borders are closed can't be met, it's actually in the applicants interests to not be issued those visas until such time that you can actually enter the country to activate them otherwise they'll end up having to apply for a replacement visa down the line. The real question I and most other will probably have is what does this mean for those in flight applications they've not been keeping up with. I've been extremely lucky to retain my job on full time and full pay with little impact to our industry as it's deemed an essential service so not breaking any visa terms, but even in that situation it's concerning that the goal posts may see a sizeable change of location to try and accommodate local workers back in to jobs and can they really apply that retrospectively to applicants up to 16 months old? I can see them going one of two ways, either being leniant on those on shore applications they've not been able to process or going hard to wipe that slate clean and remove the lower skilled ones from the pot leading to more jobs for Kiwis.

    It's actually a very good opportunity for INZ to look at their operation and capacity problems, while the EOI pool is closed and no off shore applicants can come in this is the best chance they will get to actually catch up with all those residency applications they have in the "managed queue" and still come in under the quota for the year, remember though, it's definitely not a back log.

  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by deverett View Post
    Logic would say that they would defer all non essential off shore applicants. He's right in saying that why waste resource processing those when they have entry time limits that while the borders are closed can't be met, it's actually in the applicants interests to not be issued those visas until such time that you can actually enter the country to activate them otherwise they'll end up having to apply for a replacement visa down the line. The real question I and most other will probably have is what does this mean for those in flight applications they've not been keeping up with. I've been extremely lucky to retain my job on full time and full pay with little impact to our industry as it's deemed an essential service so not breaking any visa terms, but even in that situation it's concerning that the goal posts may see a sizeable change of location to try and accommodate local workers back in to jobs and can they really apply that retrospectively to applicants up to 16 months old? I can see them going one of two ways, either being leniant on those on shore applications they've not been able to process or going hard to wipe that slate clean and remove the lower skilled ones from the pot leading to more jobs for Kiwis.

    It's actually a very good opportunity for INZ to look at their operation and capacity problems, while the EOI pool is closed and no off shore applicants can come in this is the best chance they will get to actually catch up with all those residency applications they have in the "managed queue" and still come in under the quota for the year, remember though, it's definitely not a back log.
    yes, this would make sense to defer the offshore applications (until it's highly skilled or healthcare-related and set some criteria around to accept offshore application) and make them travel with a condition of self-quarantine for 14 days (as it is for Citizen and Permanent Residents), and regarding the SMC application backlog, it will be really interesting to see how INZ would proceed with them as they would want to have kiwi taking as much as jobs as they can and at the same maintaining and settling down people with high skills (level-1,2) on work visas. If NZ had (level-1,2) skill people already available, INZ wouldn't have issued a 250K+ visa last year, and I am guessing out of this at least 50% will be highly skilled as per ANSCO definition (not as per INZ criteria of having double the median).

  6. #26
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    Statement made by INZ today in an email update to LIA's:

    "INZ understands that many migrants may have lost their job or had their hours of work and/or wages reduced as a result of COVID-19 and New Zealand’s Alert level system, which means they are not meeting their visa requirements. INZ will be taking a reasonable approach to individuals in this situation and we will not be focussing our compliance activity on these individuals in the first instance. INZ will also take into account any impacts on an individual’s employment history as a result of COIVD-19 during the assessment of any future applications and decisions will be made on a case by case basis based on their individual circumstances. INZ is unable to give any long term certainty to migrants on temporary visas at this time as there are a number of unknowns that we currently need to work through, including taking into account the wider economy and labour market."

  7. #27
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    Thanks for the update! What does it mean by compliance activity? I wonder how much the labour market testing will affect the construction industry I notice that my trade is only on the shortage list in Christchurch but there was still a severe lack of tradesman in Auckland in my trade before this happened.

    Im wondering if they’ll only allow you to change employer if you’re occupation is on the skill shortage list for that area just a thought but does anyone think that something like this would be a possibility?

  8. #28
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    Feb 2008
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    Compliance activity is officials of INZ making sure that employers and employees all keep to the terms of the visas held. The example of this that most people will have noticed, being the most extreme breach possible, is when a business is raided because it is suspected that illegal immigrants are working there - if they are, then they are taken away to be expelled from the country, and the employer is prosecuted.

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