1. The first change is to extend all existing employer-assisted temporary work visas for people who are in New Zealand and whose visas are due to expire before the end of 2020 by 6 months.
That includes work visa holders whose visas are due to expire between 10 July and 31 December 2020 (inclusive), as well as those visas that were previously extended (in April under the Epidemic Management Notice) to 25 September.
We know this will come as a relief for many of you and will help provide you with certainty about your ability to retain existing staff in the short term.
This extension will be automatic for most for most visa holders and will benefit around 16,500 Essential Skills and Work to Residence visa holders who are in New Zealand.
All other conditions of the original visa remain the same, including the specific occupation, specific employer and location.
Anyone who believes their visa should have been extended as part of this change should contact INZ.
Employers who want to employ a migrant in a new role or employ a new migrant altogether will still need to apply for a new visa, and go through the labour market test. If it is for a lower-paid role, employers will also still need to engage with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD).
2. To align with the six month extension for temporary work visa holders in New Zealand, the second change is to delay the introduction of the 12 month stand-down period for lower-paid workers who have had their employer-assisted work visa extended.
The stand-down period means that people who have been in New Zealand on a lower-paid Essential Skills visa for three years are unable to be granted a new Essential Skills visas until they have spent 12 months outside New Zealand.
This time-limited extension will enable lower-paid migrants who are subject to the stand-down between August 2020 and the end of December 2020 to stay in New Zealand and work for the same employer in the same occupation and location for up to a further 6 months, in line with their visa extension.
However, the stand-down period will still apply if a migrant who is subject to the stand down wants to move to another lower-paid Essential Skills work visa.
There are around 600 workers who will be subject to the stand-down period between August 2020 and the end of December 2020.
Any migrants who are subject to the stand-down period from February 2021 will still be required to leave New Zealand for 12 months before they are able to be granted another lower-paid work visa.
3. The third change is to reduce the duration of all new low-skilled Essential Skills work visas from 12 months to six months to mitigate future labour market risks.
This will apply to all new lower-paid Essential Skills work visa applications lodged from 10 July.
Applications received prior to 10 July will still be granted a 12 months visa if approved.
Together, these three changes provide more certainty in the short-term while businesses look to recover from COVID-19 and enable employers to maintain their existing workforce and utilise the skills of work visa holders they already employ while protecting employment opportunities for New Zealanders.
These changes provide a pathway to the Government’s planned implementation of reforms to the employer-assisted temporary work visa system in mid-2021. When fully implemented, these changes will mean that a strengthened labour market test will be applied to lower-paid and lower-skilled roles, and a more streamlined process will be applied to higher-paid and higher-skilled roles. |