A Southland migrant farmer has had a visa application denied as apparently he did not meet the five-year residency agreement. But Riverton farmer Arnulfo Nanat is confused as he has lived in New Zealand with his wife and two daughters for nine years and five months, arriving in 2008. The visa with a pathway to citizenship for immigrants is due to close in 2018. "According to the letter, it's just that I did not meet the five-year residency requirement," Nanat said. His employer changed its business name in "2012 or 2013" and Nanat said that might have caused a problem with his application. "I've been with the same employer on the same farm the whole time." Nanat said he had been getting advice on his application, and would be "filing for ministerial intervention". The South Island contribution work visa was introduced in April 2017, and was designed to provide a residency pathway for migrants on long-term working visas. Invercargill electorate MP Sarah Dowie said that she had received figures from Immigration NZ showing there had been only 1264 applications for the 4000 places available under the scheme. Of these, 681 applications had been approved, and 225 declined. "Eligible Southland migrants only have until May of next year to take up this residency offer," Dowie said. Dipton dairy farmer Ronald Carbonel has been successful in obtaining the new visa. "Before I tried the skilled migrant category and had no luck with that, with this pathway I had a better chance." Carbonel has been in New Zealand since 2008, and has worked on two different farms during his time here. His wife and daughter joined him in 2010, and his 19-month-old son was born "a New Zealand baby," he said. Any migrants eligible for the South Island contribution visa should not hesitate to apply, Carbonel said, because it "gives a big opportunity to stay in New Zealand." "The skilled migrant category at the moment is hard because there are so many requirements for it." Dowie said the pathway was implemented "in recognition that we have a strong economy throughout the South Island and a long-term shortage of people to do the available work in many regions, including Southland." "There are a whole lot of people in our province that have had their working visa roll over and roll over and ordinarily wouldn't meet the criteria for a skilled migrant visa." She said questions needed to be asked around why applications haven't been coming in, and why so many applicants had been denied. The previous government did "a lot of work" to determine how many potential applicants there would be, which was how the 4000 available places was determined. It was important to recognise the workers had been in New Zealand for a long time she said, and "the kids are in school and are Kiwi as." "They are New Zealanders at heart." Labour and NZ First campaign promises to cut immigration was "quite concerning considering our primary sector is reliant on immigrant workers," she said. The Southland Regional Development Strategy goal of 10,000 new residents in Southland would be impossible without a continued stream of immigrants, Dowie said. "We are going to have to look overseas and bring skilled people to our shores." Clutha-Southland New Zealand First MP Mark Patterson said the Government recognised the need for migrants, especially in the dairy sector, where it had been difficult to recruit New Zealanders. "We are always in support of bringing in people we need." However, "there needs to be more training of our own people". Patterson said more support was needed from the previous government for the Lincoln University Telford Division, that "nearly had to close its gate", which was recently taken over by the Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre. The immigration cutbacks NZ First proposed was "largely targeted" at students coming to New Zealand and doing "shoddy" courses in Auckland, he said. To read the actual article, visit here.
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A woman whose elderly mother is stranded in England because of a freeze on the parent immigration category says thousands of other families are stuck in limbo. The previous government decided to review the category in October 2016, and the new government is due to consider recommendations on that in the New Year. Norah Cheetham, 83, had been visiting annually on a three-month visa and had returned to England last year to avoid becoming an overstayer. Her only child, Carole Barker, who emigrated in 2005 and is now a citizen, said her mother's visa decision looked close to approval when the freeze was announced. "It was totally unexpected and we've effectively been stonewalled by Immigration now for 12 months," she said. "It's not getting any easier as the months go by. She's trying to keep positive but it's very physically and emotionally draining for her. "She's in complete limbo. The one thing we've been trying to push with the government departments on in this situation is that the people affected in this category are predominantly elderly and often living on their own, widowed. "They are stuck in limbo and being in limbo at the age group they're in is not a nice place to be." She said not knowing their fate for two or three years was "absolutely awful" and being apart from her only daughter and grand-daughter at Christmas was particularly tough for her. "She's stoical," she said. "She always has good faith in people and she's trying to get on with her life in the UK but obviously as the time goes by she gets a little bit more despairing, and saddened I suppose, frustrated." They wanted to draw attention to what she said was the thousands of people affected by the freeze. "If the answer is no, at least they know, they can plan for the years they have got left. Immigration New Zealand said the parent category was temporarily closed to new applications because of very high demand. It said as of August 2017, 2423 applications had NOT been allocated to an immigration officer for processing. Immigration New Zealand's recommendations from a review of the category were expected to be completed by the end of 2017. To read the actual article, visit here. The employment offered to people applying for an Essential Skills Work Visa is assigned a skill-band based on the pay-rate and the skill level of the most closely matching ANZSCO occupation. There are 3 skill-bands: lower-skilled, mid-skilled, and higher-skilled. The skill-band assigned to the employment offered helps to determine:
These are the threshold amounts for applications received prior to 15 January 2018: These are the threshold amounts for applications received on or after 15 January 2018: How the remuneration rates are calculated. We will look at a worker’s employment agreement to calculate how much they will be paid. To ensure the skill bands are applied consistently, remuneration is calculated on the basis of payment per hour. If an employment agreement details a number of different hourly payment rates, we will use the lowest rate to determine the employment skill-band. Where payment is by salary, and the number of hours worked each week can change, we may ask for evidence of the range of hours that will be worked. To be considered mid- or higher-skilled, every hour worked must be paid above the relevant threshold amount. A number of common payment scenarios are described below. |
AuthorImmigration Trust Team Archives
January 2025
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