So
instructions are what are in the Operational Manual. But alongside the Ops Manual, immigration officers also refer to
Visa Paks (
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/abou...=&q=&s=dd&l=10) which are like memos sent out to all INZ staff from Wellington, which outline how immigration officers should be
interpreting and
applying the instructions in the Ops Manual.
A new Visa Pak gets released every week or so and each deals with a different topical issue - usually something that Operations Support have been getting a lot of questions from branches about and decide to put out a Visa Pak on that issue so that everyone is on the same page. Immigration officers are obliged to follow the directives given in Visa Paks, and this will influence how they interpret the instructions for a particular type of application. For example, the instructions say that for an Essential Skills work visa, an immigration officer can consider an employer's case in support of the applicant, evidence of advertising or engagement with WINZ and advice from relevant industry stakeholders. But the latest Visa Pak says that immigration officers are to push for updated evidence from post-lockdown dates to prove that employers have tested the labour market more recently. So while an applicant may have met
instructions when they lodged pre-lockdown, the Visa Pak is now telling immigration officers to
interpret the labour market test requirement in the context of the post-lockdown labour market.