Migrant visa and Accredited Employer Work Visa are ‘ridiculous’, Rotorua businesses say

Restaurant owner Deepak Kundal (left) and sous chef Bikram Singh. Photo / Andrew Warner

The owner of six Rotorua hospitality businesses relying on overseas workers to fill job vacancies says the skilled migrant visa changes are “unjustifiable” and “ridiculous”.

And a Rotorua bistro owner who has worked in hospitality for 40 years says he has had no job applications from Kiwi chefs and the process to hire migrant workers has been “slower than slow”.

However, the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment says the Government wants to ensure employers are offering “attractive” wages, conditions and training opportunities to New Zealanders before looking to hire migrants.

The comments come as changes to the skilled migrant visa scheme were announced in June to make it easier for businesses to attract much-needed staff amid a global labour shortage.

Changes to the Skilled Migrant Category, which come into force in October, would remove the cap on highly-skilled workers, and introduce a new six-point system aimed at giving certainty to migrants on their eligibility, clearer criteria, and a faster pathway to residence for highly-skilled people.

The Accredited Employer Work Visa would also be extended to five years and a five-year maximum continuous stay would be introduced.

Under the new points system, one of the ways a migrant could be eligible for a skilled migrant visa was if they had at least a Bachelor’s degree and a job or job offer of at least one and a half times the current median wage – or $44.59 an hour.

A migrant could also gain all six points from having a doctoral degree or having a job or job offer at least three times the median wage - $88.98 an hour.

But Deepak Kundal, who owns six businesses including, Leonardo’s, the Beer Garden and CBK, said he was concerned that for an industry relying on overseas workers, the changed criteria for migrant chefs to qualify for residency was “unjustifiable” and “ridiculous”.

“I’ve seen hardly any Kiwi chefs applying for jobs, so we are looking overseas and hiring staff from Fiji, Dubai.”

The changes meant migrant chefs with a two-year cooking diploma would not be eligible for residency because they did not have a degree, he said.

“So why would those people want to come and work for us if there is no pathway for them?”

Kundal said he believed the criteria for migrant chefs could have a negative impact on the hospitality sector.

A staff member “can’t see his future here at all” after the changes meant he would no longer be eligible to apply for residency or even extend his work visa, he said.

“He didn’t come to work for one or two days because he was in shock. He has come over here, studied hard and learned properly, and is a fabulous chef - but after he has done his three years, he can’t extend even his work visa and can’t apply for residency.

“And even if he were to apply for residency and be eligible for that, under the new rules, he would have to earn one and a half times the median wage, $44.59 an hour. How can that be justified?”

The new median wage of $29.66 an hour came into effect in February this year – an increase from $27.76 in 2022 and $25.50 in 2021.

The Accredited Employer Work Visa cost $740 for a standard accreditation and $610 for a job check, with the Skilled Migrant application costing between $2700 and $3480 if successful.

Kundal said the process for employers to hire skilled migrants was “expensive” and the process for migrants was “unappealing”.

“It’s stopping people from wanting to even come over here and work. Everyone’s moving to Australia because the application is so much simpler.”

Urbano Bistro owner Richard Sewell, who has worked in hospitality for 40 years, said the process to get migrant workers with the Accredited Employer Work Visa was “slower than slow”.

Sewell said he struggled to fill vacancies of three chefs who left to find work overseas last year because not enough Kiwi chefs were applying for jobs.

He has since hired three chefs from the Philippines by applying through the Accredited Employer Work Visa but the process was “so slow”.

Sewell said businesses were told last July the process for hiring overseas workers amid a labour shortage would be fast-tracked but he felt it had not been.

It was a “bad time” for the industry in general, and waiting for long periods for migrant workers has added to this struggle, he said.

“Forty years in this industry, I’ve never had to worry about people knocking on our door and asking for employment with us until early last year when things changed dramatically in New Zealand ... and it hasn’t gone away this year, I don’t think.

“We need to go back to the drawing board and establish New Zealand as a prime destination again.”

MBIE policy manager Lee Gerrard said the new “simplified” points system was part of the Government’s “immigration rebalance” to support New Zealand’s economic growth and give more certainty to migrant workers on pathways to residence.

Gerrard said the points system aimed to attract and retain people with medium- to long-term skills that were “hard or take time” to fill by Kiwi workers. It also set a “clear and transparent” skills threshold.

Gerrard said the changes, including introducing the median wage threshold for the Accredited Employer Work Visa, were made to help shift New Zealand to a higher-wage economy, increase the skill level of migrant workers and encourage employers to offer competitive wages and improve career pathways for New Zealanders.

“The Government wants to ensure employers are offering attractive wages, conditions and training opportunities to New Zealanders, before they look to bring in migrants.”

Gerrard said it aimed to process straightforward and “complete” Accredited Employer Work Visa applications within 20 working days and it had received more than 77,500 since July 4 last year - of those, more than 68,200 had been approved.

Rotorua Business Chamber chief executive Bryce Heard said the changes were “welcome” and “overdue” after concerns many Kiwis had been looking overseas for work.

“The timing seems a bit out of sync with the economy, which has slowed. Many employers are reporting an easing of the acute widespread staff shortages that followed Covid.

“However, skills shortages are still apparent and the risk of a brain drain out of New Zealand is real.”

Shania Callender is an Auckland University of Technology journalism student.