Lower-paid foreign workers will be able to bring their families to New Zealand again after it was restricted in 2017 by the former National-led Government. 

Former Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse announced the change in April 2017, part of measures "designed to strike the right balance" for immigration to New Zealand. 

"It's important that our immigration settings are attracting the right people, with the right skills, to help fill genuine skill shortages," Woodhouse said at the time. 

But that restriction on lower-paid workers bringing their families to New Zealand will now be removed, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway announced Monday. 

The minister also said a simplified system for both employers and foreign workers will be introduced, with only one 'Temporary Work Visa' replacing the current six listed below:

• Essential Skills
• Approval in Principle
• Work to Residence - Talent (Accredited Employer)
• Work to Residence - Long Term Skills Shortage List Occupations
• Silver Fern Job Search
• Silver Fern Practical Experience

"The new employer assisted temporary work visa process is more streamlined and less complex replacing six visa categories with one temporary work visa," the minister said.

A new employer-led visa application process will be introduced that will involve three stages: the employer check, the job check, and the worker check. 

The new process will require all employers to be accredited before they can recruit a temporary foreign worker. There will be three types of accreditation: 

• "standard" for employers recruiting between one and five foreign workers in a 12 month period
• "high volume" for employers recruiting more than five foreign workers in a 12 month period
• accreditation for labour hire companies
  
  

The existing skill band requirements for visas will be replaced with a remuneration threshold aligned to the median wage, which is currently $25 an hour or $52,000 per year based on 40 hours per week. 
The requirement to undertake a labour market test will also be removed entirely for employers in the regions looking to employ foreign workers who will be paid above the median wage. 

​That means there is no need for skill shortages lists in the regions and they will only exist for the five following cities: Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

For jobs with very high pay - 200 percent or twice the median wage - there will be no labour market test requirement. 

And for jobs paying below the median wage, the labour market test settings "will be strengthened" to "better ensure" New Zealanders have the opportunity to fill the roles first.

The Government will also introduce 'sector agreements' in which certain sectors will agree to a conditions that must be met for recruiting foreign workers for specified key occupations.

"Sector agreements will be targeted at sectors with high reliance on temporary foreign workers and will enable specific terms and conditions for recruiting foreign workers," Lees-Galloway said. 

The first agreements to be negotiated will likely be for the residential care and meat processing sectors. The process will formally begin before the end of 2019. 

The other visa system changes will be implemented in stages to "help manage a smooth transition". 
The new visa and application process will have a phased implementation in 2021. 

In the meantime, employers and temporary foreign workers are being advised to continue using existing processes for hiring foreign workers. 

The current immigration system has been criticised that it leaves employees vulnerable to exploitation. 

Lees-Galloway said the changes will allow help to reduce exploitation. 

The Minister of Immigration has announced the introduction of a new accreditation process for employer-assisted work visas. While specific details of the new policy are yet to be finalised, all the currently available information is on the Immigration New Zealand website. 
 
Current information on changes to work visas
 
This process will not be fully implemented until 2021. However, there are some other changes that will be implemented in October this year.
 
Immigration instruction changes to come into effect on 7 October 2019
 
These changes are:

• Increasing the Talent (Accredited Employer) Work Visa salary threshold from $55,000 to $79,560 (150% of the current median salary)
• Limiting the duration of accreditation granted to employers under the Talent (Accredited Employer) policy to 24 months
• Removing the ability to give a Permanent Resident Visa in place of a Resident Visa to Talent (Accredited Employer) work visa holders who earn above $90,000
• Permanently closing the Silver Fern Job Search Visa.

 
The immigration instructions that apply are those that are in place when the relevant application is received by INZ.

For example, any Talent (Accredited Employer) Work Visa application that is received by INZ on or after 7 October will need to meet the new salary threshold, regardless of when the applicant’s employer was granted accreditation.

​People currently holding Talent (Accredited Employer) Work Visas and people who apply before 7 October will still be able to apply for residence based on the salary threshold of $55,000.
 
Details regarding these upcoming changes can be found on INZ's website.
 
Changes to the Talent (Accredited Employer) policy
Permanent closure of the Silver Fern Job Search Visa

The government is sticking to its election promise of turning down the tap on immigration.  Prior to the last election, Labour indicated it would reduce immigration numbers by 20,000 to 30,000, while New Zealand First pledged to take it right down to 10,000 from 70,000.

New figures show the government has slashed resident visa numbers to the lowest seen in the last two decades.  In contrast, temporary work visas are at their highest point ever.

RNZ immigration reporter, Gill Bonnett, says net migration figures are still high.  “If you look at work visas, they’re still very buoyant, and a lot of people still want to come into the country as tourists and as students.”

Bonnett says the sharp dive in residence numbers started with changes made by the previous National government.

But she says the decrease in resident numbers in the last year is largely because of delays in processing.
“It’s not clear whether that is part of the way they’re bringing the numbers down because they have a target to reach in terms of a lower number of residents.”

Bonnett says an anti-immigration sentiment started brewing about 2015 and 2016 when immigrants were blamed for high house prices and pressures on infrastructure.  “People became very concerned with immigration when in fact some of the issues were not immigration-related at all.  “I think that the National government, as it was then, decided to take a step back … to try and ease off on the temporary work visa numbers.

“To try and make it harder for people to become residents, they increased the number of points that skilled immigrants had to get in order to become residents here.”

In the lead-up to the election, New Zealand First was also very vocal about how immigration numbers needed to drop.  Labour rhetoric echoed that sentiment, with talk of turning the tap down.  

Bonnett says the net migration numbers - the numbers of people arriving in New Zealand minus those leaving - are holding steady.  “Students are still trying to come into the country and international education is still a very big business.”

But a restructure at Immigration New Zealand, which coincided with visa volume rises, has thrown a spanner in the works.  In an attempt to streamline the process and cut costs, Immigration New Zealand wanted to reduce the number of global visa processing centres from 25 to 10.

Bonnett says, “They didn’t forecast visa volumes to increase so they laid people off.”  New people have been hired and trained in visa processing in Mumbai and Henderson, leading to significant delays and costs to businesses.

“[International] students couldn’t start courses, costing the international education sector $33 million within three to four months.”  Additionally, visitors couldn’t make their trips in time and some operators had to cancel tours.

Bonnett says a lot of temporary visa applications are time sensitive, such as holidays, course starts and recruiting foreign workers.

About 26,000 applications for residence are waiting to be processed, up by 10,000 on this time last year.

In partnership visas, where one person is working or a student and their partner wants to join them, sometimes with children, there have also been long delays.  “It’s been really tough on some of those the families where one part of the family is here and the other somewhere else”.
To read the actual article, visit here.

Families waiting for a government decision on whether overseas parents can join them say they feel like collateral damage as they wait for coalition parties to come to an agreement on immigration.

Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway denies there is a stalemate, but says he has been unable to reach consensus with coalition partners over the parent category, which was suspended in 2016.
​
The visa allowed parents to join an immigrant child who had become a resident or citizen, but came under fire over disputed claims about the burden on taxpayers.

Thousands of applicants are waiting for a policy announcement.

Suspicions over New Zealand First's involvement in the continued lack of an announcement were raised by the party's MP Mark Patterson, who said the category would not be re-opened while the party was in government.

He subsequently corrected himself. But New Zealand First leader Winston Peters made his position clear before the category was suspended, highlighting claims that children were not living up to their sponsorship commitments and abandoning them to the welfare system.

Mr Lees-Galloway said officials had carried out the reviews, but its political allies had raised questions over what he was proposing.

"Some of these things just take time," he said. "Sometimes you need to work through the details and keep the conversation going. I wouldn't say - it's not a stalemate. It's just that this is one of those things which is taking a bit of time, but we continue to work through the questions and the details and I'm very keen to get to a decision."

He said he understood people's frustrations, and it was unfortunate that the previous government stopped the decision-making process for parents while continuing to accept applications, which he says fuelled the frustration.

But he accepted his government had not changed that process and was also still taking expressions of interest, which carry a $490 fee.

He still hoped for a decision in the "very near future".

"It's been on the agenda for a while now," he said. "We have that information now before us that now, the job of the government as a whole now is to reach a consensus view across the various parties of government. I'm still working towards that and I'm very keen to get a decision so that people have certainty about the future of the parent category."

New Zealander Brian Bookman, whose mother-in-law turns 85 next week in England, said the government claims kindness and well-being, and should "unlock and unravel this constipated immigration category".

"The Winston factor has only been in the realm of speculation, and I've just been at a loss as to understand why there has been such delay," he said.

"So now we're getting, maybe we are getting some clarity that it is a Winston thing."

Simon Sebastian, who runs a business in Hamilton, said his widowed mother Mary Sebastian has to leave in two months' time after reaching the maximum 18-month period allowed under a grandparent visa, missing the birth of her second grandchild.

The 68-year-old will have to stay in India for another 18 months before she can return.

The terms of that visa meant that she had to leave New Zealand every six months, so he has had to take leave to accompany her on short breaks in Australia or Fiji, to stay eligible.

"I strongly believe I have the ability, I have the money to look after my Mum," he said. "I have a job. I have a business. And I'm really happy to look after my Mum.

"I don't want any single Panadol from the New Zealand government. What I'm feeling is they're not doing their job properly. If they were doing their job properly, people won't suffer like this."

Immigration lawyer Richard Howard said before the election Labour strongly suggested it would re-open the parent category, but he was not holding his breath after many false starts.

"Clearly, it's a consequence of coalition government and Labour is keen on reintroducing a parent policy of some type and its coalition partners are not. And at this stage there doesn't seem to be any way forward from it," he said.

"It's not a good situation when the government is continuing to take some $490 off prospective applicants who legitimately would hold an expectation that something will eventuate from that initial application."

To read the actual article, click here. 

In the wake of the deeply sad events in Christchurch, the Ministry of Health and 1737 have created resources to give advice for those who are affected by the events.  Please check below.

They are sold a dream, but instead some migrants to New Zealand are being exploited by scammers who sell them fake jobs and demand under-the-table payments for visas. In the first of a four-part investigation, 'The Big Scam', Dileepa Fonseka and Steve Kilgallon reveal the kingpin accused of orchestrating a sophisticated rort.

More than 80,000 people arrive in New Zealand on student visas every year. In 2014, Karamjeet Singh, from a family of Haryana Sikh farmers, was one of them. His Kiwi dream was to secure residency and own his own bistro.

Instead, he forked out $35,000 for a job that didn't exist – part of a scheme to dupe Immigration New Zealand into securing visas for migrants who wouldn't qualify for one legitimately.  

Karamjeet paid his money to Gurpreet Singh: a Punjabi Indian who owned a string of Auckland restaurants, several liquidated companies, and had a reputation as a man who could get things done.
Multiple former clients say Singh runs a variation on a visa fraud scheme that appears rife among migrants; Stuff has uncovered several other examples and industry figures say there are many more.

​Stuff's investigation has found three options taken by desperate migrants – all illegal:
* They can pay a flat upfront fee – paying up to $35,000 – to "buy" a job and so get a work visa attached to an employer.
* They can buy a fake job, paying purely for the paperwork, but receiving no income from their 'employer'.
* Or, they can secure a real job at the minimum salary required by Immigration NZ for a work visa – about $48,000 pa – but repay some or all of it back to their employer in cash, often leaving them with less than the minimum wage.

Recent law changes, giving students open visas at the end of their study, rather than only ones tied to employers, may have made the first scam much trickier – but migrant advocates say other scams will replace it.

A former immigration minister, Tuariki Delamere, says the schemes are "endemic" and Immigration New Zealand is doing little to stop them. An immigration lawyer of two decades' experience, Alistair McClymont, guesses "about a third" of his clients are paying their employers in some form for jobs. A workers' advocate, Sunny Seghal, likewise says the cases Stuff has uncovered are merely the "tip of the iceberg".

Immigration New Zealand don't argue with that analysis and say they are receiving an "ever-increasing" number of tip-offs about scams.

For those like Gurpreet, with a reputation in migrant communities as a fixer who can help when all legal avenues have failed, it certainly appears to be a lucrative business.

But those who turned to him in desperation lose out. Another former client, Harpreet Singh, who paid him $25,000, believes Gurpreet and his associates should be prosecuted: "They need to get punished, whatever they have done," he says. "They have ruined many people's lives."

Karamjeet Singh's path to becoming a new New Zealander is a familiar one: a one-year study course, hoping it would turn into a job and residency. Like many others, he instead found himself with a visa about to expire and no employment prospects.

So he called Gurpreet Singh (no relation). 'GP' is described as a laidback, warm character with an easy smile. He drives a black Chrysler and tells you he can make you a permanent resident of New Zealand for $35,000. One former employee – who, like Karamjeet, paid Gurpreet some $35,000 to secure visas – says: "We don't like him, but when he is in front of us, he is so nice and friendly, we don't say anything to him."
Karamjeet claims Gurpreet said he'd found him a full-time job in Wellington paying a salary of $42,000 a year – at that time, above the pay threshold to secure permanent residency.

The catch was the job would cost Karamjeet $35,000 – but he could pay in instalments. A work visa would cost $10,000, the rest would get him permanent residency, the right to stay here. If his application failed, he'd get a refund.

In Wellington, Karamjeet met a man called Peter Ryan. Ryan ran immigration consultancy Capital Immigration. He was also director and majority shareholder of a second company, BC International, which traded as Bite Consulting Group. According to several people Stuff spoke to, Ryan was also the immigration advisor who handled most of the visa applications.

In June 2015, Karamjeet duly secured a visa to work for BC International as a customer service manager. But Karamjeet says he was told Bite wouldn't pay him, because the company itself didn't do anything.
Instead, each time he got paid, Karamjeet had to return the money. And because it had already been taxed on the way through, he also had to repay that as well.

His visa said his job was in Wellington. But as his job wasn't real, Karamjeet was living in Gurpreet's house in Auckland, and surviving off his savings, money from his parents, and a cash-in-hand job at a west Auckland factory.

Karamjeet claims bank statements showing transfers, cash withdrawals and money transfers at foreign currency exchanges are him returning his monthly Bite salary back to Ryan through third parties, including via his Dad back in India.

The flaw was all those transfers happened in Auckland. He was meant to be in Wellington. Karamjeet says the plan was for Gurpreet to take his bank cards, and arrange for a friend in the capital to make transactions on his behalf, but he forgot.

So in April 2016, came an email from a seemingly-flustered Ryan to Karamjeet and Gurpreet, exclaiming: "What's going on all the bank statements have Auckland on them along with all activities in Auckland !!!!!!!"

When Karamjeet called Ryan to check on his application for permanent residency he claims Ryan told him Immigration New Zealand had asked for 10 years worth of salary and financial records from Bite Consulting and asked Karamjeet to withdraw his application.

Karamjeet says Ryan told him "many people would be affected" if questions were raised about Bite. He says Ryan told him Gurpreet would find a different way of securing his residency.

The letter offering Karamjeet his Bite 'job' includes the web address www.biteconsulting.co.uk in the letterhead, but a source who knows Ryan says Bite Consulting and the UK one are actually two separate companies. But he defends Ryan, saying: "I find it hard to believe Peter would do anything like that, he's an immigration advisor."

When Ryan is called and told we want to ask about Singh, he says he doesn't want to comment, asks if the call is being recorded, and says: "I don't know all the facts, I've heard all sorts of rumours, and I understand someone is making quite serious and arguably false allegations; I can't comment any further than that."

When it's pointed out that no allegations have yet been put to him, he says: "I'd prefer not to comment as well." Asked specifically about his panicked email about Karamjeet's money transfers in Auckland, he says he "wasn't involved in that". Asked directly if he was involved in an immigration fraud scheme with Singh, he says: "That is a serious allegation and one I thoroughly refute."

Gurpreet's main business was restaurants. He owned two in South Auckland – Pepperboard in Papakura (since sold), and Hungry Hopes in Buckland's Beach (since liquidated, a fate common with several companies linked to Gurpreet).

His wife, Meha Singh, bought another in Whangarei, Killer Prawn, using a company called Workforce NZ.
So the solution was to get Karamjeet a new visa as the restaurant's manager.

In his new job, he was paid $3750 a month – again, above the threshold to secure residency.

But a string of WhatsApp messages he gave us show multiple requests from Gurpreet and Meha for him to make large cash payments into accounts they controlled, or back into the business as 'cash sale'. He was allowed to keep just $400 a week as his salary – well below the threshold, and if he'd worked the 50 hours a week he claims, well below minimum wage.

​Karamjeet says he was left to mostly run Killer Prawn on his own, where he says fellow employees would complain to him about Kiwisaver payments not being made.

It gave him the opportunity to take pictures of documents which appear to be a record of employees' payments and visa statuses – they show a series of names, with dollar amounts beside them along with references to specific immigration procedures and visas, such as 'IPT $1600' - a likely reference to the Immigration Protection Tribunal, 'Work Visa $1700' and 'Deportation Liability Notice $2800'.

Another former employee, Sonal (not her real name) worked in two of Gurpreet's restaurants and says he was rarely there and didn't seem concerned about their financial performance: "Sometimes it seems like they didn't worry about anything to do with the restaurant."

Immigration New Zealand seemed to be aware of all this. They sent Karamjeet a 10-page letter on May 25 last year explaining why they were declining his application for permanent residency (though he still had a valid work visa) – they were concerned about the restaurant's wage bill and records, and that if it was liquidated, it couldn't cover half of its debts. A lot of its cash flow also seemed to come from deposits from Meha Singh's company Mehar Hospitality, and it wasn't convinced these would continue.

Sure enough, Workforce NZ was liquidated in June this year, owing the IRD nearly $350,000. But it remains open – under new ownership.

It took the liquidators "several phone conversations" before Meha explained she had sold the business. It took them even longer to discover it had been sold to her husband, Gurpreet, and there had been no actual exchange of money. When they visited the restaurant, he demanded they leave.

​Karamjeet, meanwhile, fears he'll have to leave New Zealand, and soon.

On August 14, he received an email from his lawyer, Ammar Ayoub of Legal Associates, a south Auckland law practice recommended to him by Gurpreet.

Ayoub wrote that a final attempt to renew Karamjeet's work visa (after his residency was rejected) had been declined last year. It meant Karamjeet had unwittingly been in the country illegally for months.

Ayoub said he'd not been able to contact Karamjeet at the time, and assumed he'd left the country because his bill was unpaid. Karamjeet says he owed only $200 of a $1750 bill and hadn't realised, because Ayoub hadn't invoiced him.

Now he lives with the constant threat of deportation and knows his family in India is deep in debt.

He's tried to get a refund from Gurpreet and Meha without success. In one conversation which he covertly taped, Meha promises to pay him back at $500 a week, saying: "I tried my best to help you, but it's just not your destiny, so I can't help you." She says his visa must have been rejected because they were tipped off but says "no one here would have because we have the best set-up".

Karamjeet likes New Zealand, loves the people and wouldn't turn down an opportunity to come back one day. But he no longer wants permanent residency. Instead, he'd like MBIE to use his evidence and that of the others Stuff spoke with to get people their money back and stop these scams: "It's in Immigration New Zealand's hands now."

​Karamjeet is far from alone in having a story to tell about Gurpreet Singh.

For example, restaurant manager Sonal claims she paid Gurpreet $35,000 for visas for herself and her husband (as a dependent partner). Twice she was successful in securing work visas at Gurpreet's restaurants, Pepperboard and Hungry Hopes.

The third time, she was rejected because Immigration NZ felt the restaurants couldn't financially sustain all the visas lodged against it. She says Gurpreet apologised and promised her a partial refund – but didn't pay up.

During her three years working for Gurpreet, she says she repaid about $200 a week from her declared wages.

Sometimes, Gurpreet would apologise to staff for their visa issues – she thinks most were involved in the scheme in some way. "He would say 'Because you guys are suffering, I know that you don't like me' … We don't like him, but when he is in front of us, he is so nice and friendly, we don't say anything to him." And so despite everything, she admits a grudging affection for Gurpreet. "He's very friendly, very polite, always smiling, always talking to you as a friend. You never feel like he's [taking advantage of you]."

Harpreet Singh is less forgiving. He's since left New Zealand, disillusioned, and says he paid Gurpreet $25,000 for his job at Pepperboard to secure residency. Officially, he was employed as a duty manager there for two years - but he says he only worked there for about two months, and as a kitchen hand.

He's got 30 messages from Meha Singh requesting his wages be deposited back into Meha's companies, or that they be recorded as "cash sales" on the company books. He says she told him to get a job driving an Uber because Pepperboard couldn't pay him. Plagued by the fear of being caught by Immigration NZ, he became depressed. On the phone, he struggles to suppress tears. "They need to get punished, whatever they have done," he says. "They have ruined many people's lives."

What does Gurpreet Singh say to all this? Not much. When we visited him at his rented home in the Whangarei suburb of Kensington, he refused to address any of the allegations against him, except to say they were "unsubstantiated".

Speaking through a locked flyscreen, he repeatedly said he was "not keen to speak" to us, and demanded that we left the property or he would call police.

We told Immigration New Zealand about Gurpreet's schemes.

INZ's assistant general manager Peter Devoy said: "These are corrupt practices and New Zealand prides itself on not being a corrupt society and I don't want my New Zealand to be corrupt."

To read the actual article, visit here.

On 1 May 2019 Service Fees payable to VACs in the following locations will increase:
India, Papua New Guinea, Australia, United Kingdom, New Caledonia, Nauru, United States of America, Kiribati, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Vanuatu, China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, Russia,
Vietnam, South Africa, United Arab Emirates.
 
Please find below the fee table which is effective from 1 May 2019.