Immigration Minister Michael Wood said the changes were part of a wider immigration rebalance and would help businesses attract workers to fill skill shortages amid rising global competition.
“The new skilled migrant settings will help attract and retain skilled migrants to fill medium-to-long-term skills needs that would take time to fill by workers already in New Zealand,” Wood said.
The changes included no cap on skilled migrants, which Wood said placed an “artificial constraint in the old system that set an indicative number of residence places available each year and prevented skilled migrants settling in New Zealand even when there was a demonstrable need”.
The new system will start in October with applicants needing to accumulate six points guided by a skills threshold based on New Zealand occupational registration, recognised qualifications, income and work experience here.
For example, somebody with a PhD and/or New Zealand registration in a profession requiring six years’ training, or a job offer at three times the median wage, could immediately apply for a skilled migrant category resident visa.
A person with five years’ training could apply after one year working in New Zealand on any visa, while a person with a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent and/or a job offer paying 1.5 times the minimum wage could apply after working here for three years.
People would still need to meet general requirements around age, English proficiency, health, character, and a job offer paying at least the median wage ($29.66 an hour as of February).
“Highly skilled people will have a faster route to residence, and others will have a clear route to residence if they work for a period in New Zealand,” Wood said.
“The clear requirements will provide temporary workers with clarity about their status, addressing a long-standing issue where some people with no pathway to residence were given false hope.
“The Government has heard from businesses that giving certainty that skilled migrants and their families will be able to gain residence in New Zealand will be a big draw card for attracting skilled workers.”
The new category adds to other pathways to residence, such as the Green List, which is a narrower, occupation-specific pathway for those working in specified nationally significant and globally in-demand roles.
“This, along with simpler settings, means Immigration New Zealand will be able to process more applications faster,” Wood said.
There will also be an extension to the maximum duration of an accredited employer work visa - the main temporary visa - from three to five years from November, to align with the introduction of a five-year maximum continuous stay for people who are not on a pathway to residence.
The duration is longer than the three years initially indicated, in response to feedback from businesses.
“Providing a five-year maximum continuous stay means people who don’t qualify for a pathway to residence will have clarity about how long they can work and stay in New Zealand and provides longer-term certainty for business,” Wood said.
