Changes have been made to immigration instructions to implement sector agreements in Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV), Foreign Crew of Fishing Vessels, and Skilled Migrant Residence immigration instructions. Some of the change highlights are as follows: Acceptable employment Instructions have been amended to specify the wage threshold for five sectors – Care Workforce, Construction & Infrastructure, Meat Processing, Seafood and Seasonal Snow and Adventure Tourism. Annual caps apply to meat and seafood processing roles. Currency and conditions of Accredited Employer work visa The applicable stand-down periods for work as part of a sector agreement have been defined. An amendment has also been made to provide a limited exception to the rule that the remuneration approved as part of the Job Check must be the same as the remuneration offered to an AEWV applicant. Applications for work visas for foreign crew of fishing vessels The wage threshold for foreign fishing crew workers has been established in instructions, and an annual cap has been placed on foreign fishing crew workers. Immigration instructions have been created to establish a work to residence pathway for care workers. Exemptions to the median wage threshold The list of eligible occupations has been expanded to include more roles. All amendments take effect on and after 31 October 2022
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EOI, NZQA assessments and English language tests, and Wage thresholdINZ is changing the expression of interest (EOI) form for the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) Resident Visa to give people more time to meet the visa requirements. This updated form is scheduled to be available from 8pm Thursday 3 November 2022.
NZQA assessments and English language tests Selections of EOIs for the SMC will resume on 9 November 2022. However, there is a delay for NZQA international qualification assessments and English language tests, so some people may not be able to receive their assessments or sit their tests before this date. Currently, you cannot submit an EOI if you do not have the assessment and test results. On the updated EOI form, people will be able to tell INZ if they are waiting on an NZQA assessment, test results or a booked test. If invited to apply for an SMC residence visa, they will need to upload their assessment or test results. INZ is also changing our requirements to submit a residence application to allow English language test results that are more than 2 years old as evidence of an acceptable standard of English. Wage threshold The SMC median wage threshold was recently increased from $27 per hour to $27.76 per hour. Those who meet the new pay threshold should update the information in their EOI as soon as possible. INZ may send invitations to apply for an SMC residence visa to people who met the previous requirements at the time they submitted an EOI. However, if you are invited to apply for residence, you will need to meet the new threshold. AEWV or Fishing Crew Work Category updatesNew sector agreements from 31 October allow some exemptions from the median wage requirements for migrants hired on an Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) or a Fishing Crew Work Visa. The agreements cover the care workforce, construction and infrastructure, meat processing, seafood, and seasonal snow and adventure tourism sectors. They have been developed in consultation with sector bodies and unions, and tailored to each sector’s workforce needs and conditions. Each sector agreement includes various expectations for improvement, and progress on these will be taken into account in future decisions about their access to migrant workers below the median wage. To use sector agreements, employers just need to follow the normal Accredited Employer Work Visa or Fishing Crew Work Visa process. Hiring migrants on the AEWV Employers wishing to hire migrants on the AEWV can pay less than the median wage if the role they want to fill is on this list, noting that they must still meet the pay threshold in the relevant sector agreement. Stand-down periods Stand-down periods apply for some sectors. This means AEWV holders paid below the median wage must spend a set amount of time outside New Zealand before they can get another AEWV at below the median wage. When their visa expires, AEWV holders paid below the median wage can move onto another visa type or onto another AEWV paid at the median wage or higher. However, any further time spent in New Zealand will not count towards the stand-down period. Meat workers and seafood process workers will not be able to get another AEWV for work paid below the median wage until the following season. Median wage changes The median wage will change from February 2023. This will affect the wage threshold for construction and infrastructure, meat processing, onshore seafood processing and seasonal snow and adventure tourism sectors. Capped sectors Some sectors have a limit on the number of workers they can hire below the median wage each year. The cap for each sector is: Meat processing: 320 Foreign fishing crew: 940 (Approval in Principle applies) Seafood processing (onshore) 600 The Meat Industry Association (MIA) and Seafood New Zealand will allocate these caps. MIA and Seafood New Zealand will contact employers through industry channels with further information on getting a share of the cap. Migrants hired as foreign fishing crew will be covered by the Fishing Crew Work Visa, rather than the AEWV. |
AuthorImmigration Trust Team Archives
January 2025
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