Auditor-General’s overview

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangarangatanga maha o te motu, tēnā koutou.

Immigration has played, and continues to play, a significant role in shaping New Zealand socially, culturally, and economically. Ensuring that the country has people with the skills needed to support communities to thrive is an important function of a modern immigration system.

Skilled residence visa applications make up a small proportion of the total number of visa applications processed each year, but these applicants are a strategically important group who are in demand internationally. It is important that these applicants' experiences of applying for visas are well-managed because skilled residence visa systems can give countries a competitive edge in the global skills market.

Effective visa systems are timely, clear, and fair. They give confidence to migrants, to the public, and to employers who need the skills that migrants bring. This means that alongside its role to process visa applications and manage immigration risks, Immigration New Zealand can influence skilled migrants' decisions about whether to live and work here.

Given the importance of skilled migrants and the number of recent changes to the skilled residence visa system, I wanted to see how well Immigration New Zealand, which is part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, manages how it makes decisions about whether to grant skilled residence visas. I particularly wanted to know how well the process works for applicants, who are likely to have many countries to choose from when deciding where to settle.

I also wanted to know how well Immigration New Zealand communicates its performance. Regular, relevant reporting promotes an understanding of how well the immigration system is working and can inform longer-term workforce planning and policy.

What we found

Immigration New Zealand has been taking steps to provide better information and support for applicants across the wide range of visas that it processes. This programme of work is in its early stages, but we saw a strong commitment by Immigration New Zealand to improving the experience of its applicants and to managing the quality of decision-making.

However, Immigration New Zealand does not have a specific focus on understanding how skilled residence applicants are moving through its decision-making process. This makes it hard for Immigration New Zealand to know whether its processes are working effectively for skilled residence applicants, and hard to report effectively on how well this part of the immigration process is working.

For example, Immigration New Zealand's ways of measuring applicant sentiment, such as complaints data and satisfaction surveys, do not separately identify applicants for skilled residence visas. This makes it difficult for Immigration New Zealand to know what improvements to processes it could make to strengthen the country's ability to attract and retain this sought-after group of migrants.

Information that is specifically focused on the skilled residence visa system would help Immigration New Zealand to understand and report on whether the skilled residence visa system is working as expected, including how well it is meeting the country's long-term skills needs.

What we recommend

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's customer promise, Te Kī Taurangi, commits to interactions with customers that are simple, safe, and certain. I have made five recommendations that will support Immigration New Zealand to meet this promise for applicants for skilled residence visas.

The recommendations require more focus on the needs of this specific group of applicants. Making these improvements will require shifts in the way that Immigration New Zealand thinks about applicants for skilled residence visas and their place in the wider immigration system, alongside its regulatory role.

In my view, these shifts are necessary if skilled residence visa processing is to work more effectively and its benefits to New Zealand are to be maximised.

I thank staff in Immigration New Zealand and the wider Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for their assistance with this audit. I am also grateful to the other people we heard from, who have interests in the skilled residence visa system, for their contribution to our work.

Nāku noa, nā

John Ryan
Controller and Auditor-General | Tumuaki o te Mana Arotake

7 November 2024