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Thread: Immigration Minister thoughts - work visa extensions getting tough

  1. #31
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    Eeeek - ok, I didn't mean to cause anxiety with my last post!!! Sorry guys, I don't want anyone to worry even more than they already are at these uncertain times.

    Yes, there are some scary-sounding things being said in the media these past couple of weeks but please try and keep a balanced view that nothing is confirmed until the Government announces it.

    I can sense a groundswell of people getting really and truly fed-up with this SMC backlog - not just applicants but employers and advisers too. INZ have been back at work for almost 2 weeks and that queue of what must be coming close to 20,000 applications has not moved one bit.

    There are a lot of political things going on behind the scenes, to be sure, with Labour acquiesing to NZ First in all things immigration. Keep in mind that we have an election in 3 short months and immigration is bound to be a hot potato in the campaigns

  2. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by mike13 View Post
    Today i have received email from CO they’re back in office and going to start accessing my file. My lodgement date was March 2018.
    Good luck! My lodgment date is May,2018. Got my second CO this Feb. and hope I can hear from her soon, rather than asking for same documents every 3 months....

  3. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by deverett View Post
    I thought it was a legal requirement that they had to. They can tweak the operations manual to do things like tighten up labour market testing but my understanding was legally we entered in to this process under agreed legislation and that is the legislation by which your application must be judged.
    I haven't found anything to say so. Here's the Administration section of the INZ operational manual. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/#35017.htm

    Although there's a long series of precedents for their using rules at time of application, I believe there has been one rule-change (during the period when I've been following NZ immigration) which didn't apply grandfathering.

  4. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by JandM View Post
    I haven't found anything to say so. Here's the Administration section of the INZ operational manual. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/#35017.htm

    Although there's a long series of precedents for their using rules at time of application, I believe there has been one rule-change (during the period when I've been following NZ immigration) which didn't apply grandfathering.
    I'm not about to dig through legislative documents but community law summarises it nicely:

    https://communitylaw.org.nz/communit...nce-decisions/

    Bound by policy – Immigration NZ has to follow their published residence policy as it was on the date you applied. The Minister of Immigration can grant you residence as an exception to policy but can’t reject your application if it meets the relevant policy.
    The merky bit that needs more reading is what is deemed policy and what is instructions. So my understanding is tightening up labour testing seems to be allowed as that's instruction/administration on how strict they can be, but the rules for the visa approval itself must remain the same as the policy was when you applied. So they can't move the points definitions or who qualifies and things like that.

  5. #35
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    Erin, you've been an absolute gem in all of this madness, and you obviously have much better insight into all of these matters than most of us, so I really appreciate that you share this information even if it's something that gives me major anxiety. I shared these concerns of mine with my boss and work colleagues today, and they're absolutely baffled that after having worked in my role for over 2 years and helping grow my small rural company to become an industry leader in our sector, I might be out of my job if a kiwi with even remotely similar skill set applies for it and can be trained while I'm waiting for my residence visa to be processed. To be honest I would just like to be put out of my misery, if the government would announce tomorrow that they've put a stop to all skilled migrant visas at least we'd all have an answer and could move on with our lives and not be stuck in this limbo where we have no power to plan for our futures whatever they might entail.
    Nothing has left me quite as voiceless and powerless than putting my future in the hands of INZ. It's just a really degrading feeling and most of all it feels unfair and unjust.

  6. #36
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    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.

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