'English Requirement And Minimum Skills': New Zealand Tightens Visa Rules Amid Near-Record Migration

New Zealand on Sunday announced that it was making immediate changes to its employment visa program after a near-record migration last year which it said was “unsustainable”.

This move came a few months after neighbouring Australia, which has also seen a big jump in migrants, announced a similar move to halve its migrant intake over the next two years.

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Following are the changes made by the New Zealand government:

• Introducing an English language requirement for migrants applying for low skilled level 4 and 5 roles
• A minimum skills and work experience threshold for most Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) roles.
• For roles that fall into the level 4 and 5, employers will need to engage with Work and Income before approval to bring in migrants will be granted
• Reducing the maximum continuous stay for most level 4 and 5 roles from 5 years to three years
• The franchisee accreditation category will be disestablished and these businesses will be to apply to bring in workers from overseas through the standard, high-volume, or triangular employment accreditation

‘Reducing the vulnerability’

“Immediate changes to the Accredited Employer Worker Visa (AEWV) scheme will ensure New Zealand is attracting the skills it needs, and reducing the vulnerability of migrants to exploitation,” said Immigration Minister Erica Stanford in a statement. She said their government is focused on attracting and retaining highly skilled migrants such as secondary teachers, where there is a skill shortage.” “At the same time we need to ensure that New Zealanders are put to the front of the line for jobs where there are no skills shortages,” she said.

“These steps improve the scheme’s integrity and will help to prevent migrant exploitation, following recommendations from the recent Bestwick review, which found serious issues with the AEWV processes,” she added. By having an English language requirement migrants will be better able to understand their rights or raise concerns about an employer early, Stanford said.

Last year, a near-record 173,000 people migrated to New Zealand, the statement said. New Zealand, which has a population of about 5.1 million, has seen rapid growth in its migrant numbers since the end of the pandemic, raising concerns last year that it was fanning inflation.

(With agency inputs)