Work visa holder redundancy due to covid

[Scotfraser]

Hi everyone first time poster hope everyone’s well

Today I received a phone call from my employers regarding the possibility of being made redundant in the next week or two. (Pretty much a certainty)

I phoned immigration and asked what can I do being that my work visa ties me to this company on Auckland and the fact that I can’t really find another job to Change it to right now due to obvious reasons and that leaving the country is pretty much impossible.

There response from the advisor I spoke to was “I don’t know” and that I am eligible for the wage subsidy scheme as long as I’m employed (which won’t be for much longer) and that hopefully immigration will announce something soon because there are hundreds of people in the same boat as myself.

I’m wondering if anyone else is in the same boat as me and has managed to find any other information on this kind of situation or closely related situations?

I myself am praying that they open up work visas to regions once the pandemic ends but if anyone has any advice this would gone greatly appreciated 😀

Hope everyone’s well

[MagicPizza]

@egoodhue have you encountered this yet?

[Claire Russell]

I seen this online, don't know how true it is but may be something you want to look into. Good luck

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-...ll5zYxBv9NhmQU

[JandM]

I seen this online, don't know how true it is but may be something you want to look into. Good luck

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-...ll5zYxBv9NhmQU

Thanks for this link. Here https://www.immigration.govt.nz/abou...-notifications is the INZ media centre, where they put out official announcements, so I imagine there will be something there to give the details of the new initiative fairly shortly.

[JandM]

I've moved your thread to the sub-forum that has all our questions, and information as it comes in, about the Covid-19 virus. If you look around in this sub-forum https://www.enz.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=47, you'll see that there are other people in a similar situation to yours, and/but so far they haven't had any clear answer from officialdom.

[EGoodhue]

INZ are performing woefully slowly around all the immigration issues that this lockdown and pandemic have thrown up. They are drip-feeding poorly organised comms and the left hand doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing as there is a lot of hearsay and misreporting going on. All I can see on the INZ website is this:

"We are evaluating migrant employer issues associated with the current Covid-19 outbreak and appreciate feedback from affected sectors.

Your patience is appreciated while cabinet, Immigration New Zealand and other government agencies coordinate to manage this unprecedented situation."

[newarrival]

INZ are performing woefully slowly around all the immigration issues that this lockdown and pandemic have thrown up. They are drip-feeding poorly organised comms and the left hand doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing as there is a lot of hearsay and misreporting going on. All I can see on the INZ website is this:

"We are evaluating migrant employer issues associated with the current Covid-19 outbreak and appreciate feedback from affected sectors.

Your patience is appreciated while cabinet, Immigration New Zealand and other government agencies coordinate to manage this unprecedented situation."

Don't you think your critique is a little unfair, though? I am not saying that immigration has shone brightly over the last months, but this situation is something so unique, that everyone grapples to come to terms with. Nothing is perfect right now- those daily media conferences and updates at 1pm create more stress at times for the people working at the front, too. But giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, I'd imagine everyone is working as hard as they can to get information out and deal with all those matters arising.

They probably don't know anything, as of now, but if they keep quiet, it will be wrong, as well.

Just saying.....

[EGoodhue]

Don't you think your critique is a little unfair, though? I am not saying that immigration has shone brightly over the last months, but this situation is something so unique, that everyone grapples to come to terms with. Nothing is perfect right now- those daily media conferences and updates at 1pm create more stress at times for the people working at the front, too. But giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, I'd imagine everyone is working as hard as they can to get information out and deal with all those matters arising.

They probably don't know anything, as of now, but if they keep quiet, it will be wrong, as well.

Just saying.....

I'm giving my opinion from the point of view of dealing with INZ on a daily basis as it forms the basis of my job. I have several clients contacting me to ask questions every day and my source of the answers (INZ) are not forthcoming with them - and very basic things that should have been decided by them over a week ago when this lockdown was looming. I have been receiving proactive emails from a myriad of organisations on a daily basis, outlining what their response to the Covid-19 epidemic has been and several other organisations have well-organised updates on their websites. INZ's website is a mess of scrambled updates, written in no particular order and the same webpage is updated when there is a change with only some wording added or altered slightly so that one has to read through the entire page to try and spot the changes, rather than INZ having them set out clearly and separately. I am receiving Internal Administration Circulars on an almost daily basis this week, each with different messages and the messaging coming from the "crisis management team" that INZ set up last week are different again. Yes, this is an unusual situation, but there are some clear examples of organisations who are handling their comms around it well, and INZ is not one of those.

[newarrival]

I'm giving my opinion from the point of view of dealing with INZ on a daily basis as it forms the basis of my job. I have several clients contacting me to ask questions every day and my source of the answers (INZ) are not forthcoming with them - and very basic things that should have been decided by them over a week ago when this lockdown was looming. I have been receiving proactive emails from a myriad of organisations on a daily basis, outlining what their response to the Covid-19 epidemic has been and several other organisations have well-organised updates on their websites. INZ's website is a mess of scrambled updates, written in no particular order and the same webpage is updated when there is a change with only some wording added or altered slightly so that one has to read through the entire page to try and spot the changes, rather than INZ having them set out clearly and separately. I am receiving Internal Administration Circulars on an almost daily basis this week, each with different messages and the messaging coming from the "crisis management team" that INZ set up last week are different again. Yes, this is an unusual situation, but there are some clear examples of organisations who are handling their comms around it well, and INZ is not one of those.

Sorry if my impression was wrong. That does sound very frustrating, I have to admit. But rest assured (which doesn't help, I know), it is not just INZ that sends out mixed messages and unsatisfying replies.

[EGoodhue]

During this radio interview this morning, the Minister of Immigration mentioned that a benefit for migrants who lose their jobs may potentially be triggered by the Epidemic Management notice, but this hasn't happened yet (not sure what else needs to change or happen for that to be triggered - perhaps Cabinet are discussing it at the moment, amongst the hundreds of other issues this situation has given rise to): https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/...9KKOwZ3PST3hNQ