Part 3: Stronger focus is needed on the experiences of skilled residence visa applicants
3.1
In this Part, we discuss the work Immigration New Zealand is doing to improve applicants' experience of skilled residence visa processing. It includes how Immigration New Zealand manages the speed of visa processing and the quality of the information it provides to help applicants as they go through the process of applying for visas.
3.2
We expected the skilled residence visa system to be effective for applicants. This means that we expected that Immigration New Zealand's processing of applications would be:
- timely – things happen at the right time, with no unnecessary delays;
- clear – it is easy for applicants to find out how their application is progressing and to understand what they need to do to help it progress;
- smooth – Immigration New Zealand has set up its information and information technology (IT) systems to make it as easy as possible for applicants to understand what they need to do as they go through the application process, including as they move between different visa types that lead to residence; and
- fair and consistent – there is a clear framework for managing the quality of decision-making about applications.
3.3
Our expectations align with aspects of MBIE's Promise (see paragraph 2.15), particularly that interactions with it will be:
- Simple – Māmā: We listen to you and keep it simple; and
- Certain – Mārama: We help you to know what you need to do, how to do it, and why.
Summary of findings
3.4
Immigration New Zealand understands the importance of improving applicants' experience as they move through the application process.
3.5
Immigration New Zealand is working to improve the experience of applicants for all visa types. It has used customer feedback to identify priorities for action. These priorities are broadly consistent with what we heard from people about the need to improve:
- communications;
- access to information about the progress of applications; and
- processing times.
3.6
However, work to improve the experience of applicants lacks a focus on skilled residence visa applicants as a specific group with specific needs. In our view, there is scope for Immigration New Zealand to carry our more targeted work with this applicant group. Where this work has been done, staff have valued the insights it gave them.
3.7
New Zealand scores well on an international tool for measuring its attractiveness to migrants, which includes an assessment of speed of visa processing. In recent years, how long applicants wait for Immigration New Zealand to make a decision about their visa has been a significant issue, so minimising delays has been and remains an operational priority.18
3.8
It is important that Immigration New Zealand continues to manage this closely. It is also important for Immigration New Zealand to consider how effectively the system is working in other ways, because speed of processing is not the only factor that helps the system to work well for applicants. Systems that are easy to understand and use also play an important part in a country's ability to attract highly skilled migrants.
3.9
We saw several opportunities for Immigration New Zealand to improve the clarity and smoothness of the process of applying for skilled residence visas. These include providing better communication, more information about the progress of applications, and support to help applicants provide the right documents at the right time. It is also important that Immigration New Zealand consider where it could streamline its systems and processes to make the application process as simple as possible for skilled residence visa applicants, who often move to this type of visa from other visa types.
3.10
Immigration New Zealand could also better use feedback from frontline staff to improve how the skilled residence visa system works.
Immigration New Zealand is working to improve applicants' experience
A Customer Branch promotes applicant-focused work at Immigration New Zealand
3.11
Immigration New Zealand is working to better meet the needs of its applicants and to better use its information to improve its services.
3.12
In 2023, Immigration New Zealand proposed changes to its organisational structure and ways of working, including placing greater emphasis on customer service.
3.13
Since 2023, Immigration New Zealand's stakeholder engagement, customer experience, and customer communication staff work together in a Customer Branch. A key focus of this branch is to promote applicant-focused work, including work on service design, improving written communication, and improving the quality of information on Immigration New Zealand's website.
3.14
This work aligns with aspects of MBIE's Promise, particularly under Certain – Mārama. These include "explaining where people are in the process" and "providing accurate, relevant and clear information" (see paragraph 2.16).
3.15
The Service Design and Implementation Branch works alongside the Office of the Chief Operating Officer and the Customer Branch to manage operational change. When we carried out our audit, the Service Design and Implementation Branch was looking to introduce a continuous improvement framework to improve communication with applicants. We understand that the framework has now been created and is being rolled out for use across Immigration New Zealand.
3.16
Immigration New Zealand knows that its letters can be hard to understand. It is working to improve its written communications, which includes considering a correspondence guide to help Immigration Officers with their communication.
3.17
We were told that other parts of MBIE (such as the Tenancy Tribunal) use plain language to communicate complex information.19 In our view, there is an opportunity for Immigration New Zealand to see whether a stronger focus on plain language could help it improve its written communications.
3.18
Working directly with applicants has also provided Immigration New Zealand with valuable insights. For example, when it consulted applicants about how it explains application processing times, Immigration New Zealand learned that applicants tend not to click on the hyperlinks in letters to take them to further information.
3.19
Immigration New Zealand is now looking at how it could customise the letters to include important information in the text of the letter.
3.20
Immigration New Zealand has received feedback that its website can be difficult for applicants to use. We understand that, in response to this feedback, MBIE has recently agreed to design and deliver a new website for immigration. MBIE expects this to be in place by the end of 2024.
Staff want more opportunities to work directly with applicants
3.21
During the design of the new Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa, Immigration New Zealand's Service Design and Implementation and Customer Branches worked together to consult a small applicant reference group. They tested the online application form for the new visa with this group before it was launched.
3.22
Staff told us that, when the system went live, they could see how this work benefited applicants. They also told us that they wished they had more time to do this type of work.
3.23
In our view, Immigration New Zealand needs to keep building on the applicant-focused work it has in progress. We consider that it now needs to:
- convert its increasing knowledge, on matters such as the information applicants want, into agreed plans for action;
- allocate enough staff time to the projects so that they can progress in a timely way; and
- appropriately target the design of improvements at the specific needs of applicants for different types of visa, including applicants for skilled residence visas.
Processing applications quickly is important to visa applicants and to Immigration New Zealand
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development measures countries' relative attractiveness to migrants and includes timeliness of visa processing in its scoring system
3.24
The importance of processing applications from skilled migrants quickly is recognised internationally. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) provides an online tool that considers the strengths and weaknesses of OECD countries in attracting and retaining different types of talented migrants.20 This tool is called the "Indicators of talent attractiveness" and results from it have been published twice, in 2019 and 2023.
3.25
The OECD assesses attractiveness by scoring a country against seven or eight dimensions.21 It then applies penalties to the score that relate to visa and admission policy, including how long it takes to process applications for visas.22
3.26
The OECD does not publish the percentage penalty it applies to each country's score, but it does show the effect of the penalty on attractiveness scores.23 In 2023, New Zealand ranked first for its attractiveness to workers with master/doctoral degrees, after any penalties were applied.
3.27
The OECD survey is a reminder that there are several factors that make a country an attractive destination for migrants, and that the systems used to make decisions about visas are also important for attracting highly skilled migrants. If New Zealand is to remain competitive in the global skills market, it is important for Immigration New Zealand to manage how quickly visas are processed. However, as we note in paragraph 3.2, a system that works well for applicants is also clear, smooth, fair, and consistent; an effective system will make sure all these factors are managed well.
Applicants for skilled residence visas value high-quality information about how long applications take to process
3.28
When an applicant considers making New Zealand their permanent home by applying for a skilled residence visa, this has significant consequences for their future. A timely process, where decisions are made at the most useful time for applicants, allows people to make plans to move themselves and their families and reduces uncertainty. It also meets the MBIE promise to "keep it simple", which MBIE explains means "valuing your time".
3.29
Immigration New Zealand's work with applicants found that, when applicants look for information, one of their most important considerations was high-quality information about how long an application for a visa takes to process.
Immigration New Zealand allocates applications to Immigration Officers with the aim to avoid queues
3.30
Immigration New Zealand has a strong focus on processing applications for visas quickly. Under the old Skilled Migrant Category visa, for which the last Expressions of Interest were drawn on 16 August 2023 (see Figure 1), queues of people waited for their applications to be drawn and allocated to an Immigration Officer.24 This queue occurred when Immigration New Zealand was required to operate within a planning range (a cap – see paragraph 2.30).
3.31
Under the new system, there is no limit on the numbers of people who can be approved for residence and Immigration New Zealand looks to avoid queues. Managers monitor the flow of applications and seek to allocate work so that applications are "in flow" rather than in a queue. Immigration New Zealand says that being in flow means that applications are quickly allocated to an Immigration Officer to process (within 48 hours of receiving them).
3.32
When we visited Immigration New Zealand in February 2024, we heard that the skilled residence visa system was broadly in flow. However, we also saw that this can change quickly.
3.33
Immigration New Zealand told us in early June 2024 that it had allocated staff away from processing applications for skilled residence visas to other priority work. This meant that it was no longer meeting its 48-hour allocation goal.
3.34
Success measures for staff and for the management of the system focus on processing speed. Staff measures for "being productive" include decision rates each day for types of skilled residence visas.
3.35
Senior managers also use red-amber-green dashboards of metrics to monitor application processing. These measure the percentage and number of unallocated applications (a way of checking whether a queue is forming) and the oldest unallocated applications (in days elapsed, to check waiting times).
3.36
Contingency plans set out actions that Immigration New Zealand can take to manage how long it takes to process applications if the metrics indicate that a problem is emerging. These actions include:
- updating public communications;
- changing workforce allocation to target processing staff to a particular visa type; or
- amending immigration instructions (the processing rules) to prioritise processing certain visa types over others.
Managing incomplete applications is challenging
3.37
Incomplete applications do not include all the necessary information that an Immigration Officer needs to decide whether to grant a visa. The Immigration Officer needs to go back to the applicant for more information, which takes time.
3.38
Submitting an incomplete application and the resulting delays in getting a decision about their visa can be frustrating for applicants. Incomplete applications also adversely affect Immigration New Zealand's performance measures.
3.39
In November 2023, Immigration New Zealand analysed a small sample of Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa applications and found that 81% were incomplete. In the same period, it found that about 65% of Green List Tier 1 Straight to Residence Visa applications were incomplete. Common problems included a lack of overseas police certificates (as evidence of good character) and not enough evidence of qualifications.
3.40
Some staff we talked to felt that supplying incomplete information might be influenced by an applicant's misconception that they would be joining a queue and would have time to get the documentation they needed while they waited. We also heard that applicants might not understand what Immigration New Zealand requires.
3.41
Immigration New Zealand made several improvements in response to these findings. It modified the online application form for the Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa and raised the issues with licensed immigration advisers so they could provide better guidance to applicants. It also revised the information it supplied to staff working in the immigration contact centre and updated its website.
3.42
After these changes were made, the percentage of incomplete applications in the Skilled Migrant Category reduced to 53% by January 2024. However, the percentage of incomplete applications for Green List Tier 1 Straight to Residence Visas rose to 75% in the same period.
3.43
Staff explained that the IT system that supports applications for Straight to Residence Visas makes it harder and more expensive to modify the application form for this visa than the platform used for Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visas. This might be a reason why the completeness of Straight to Residence applications did not improve.
3.44
In a system that has a strong focus on throughput and speed, incomplete applications are a barrier to processing efficiency.
3.45
Applicants are given a small number of opportunities to supply the right documents before Immigration New Zealand declines the application. If an application is declined, the applicant must decide whether to restart the process – and pay again.
3.46
This emphasis on processing efficiency assists with time management, but, in our view, it is not necessarily the best outcome for an applicant who has made a mistake or misunderstood what information Immigration New Zealand requires. It is also not necessarily a good outcome for the country if the applicant's skills are lost because they decide to go elsewhere.
3.47
Getting this balance right is critical. Focusing on how to make the visa application process work better for the applicant could give staff time and discretion to explore alternatives. This could include allowing applicants the choice to pause their applications to gather the right information.
Better guidance would help applicants make complete applications
3.48
Immigration New Zealand's staff cannot give advice to individuals about their applications.25 Only a licensed immigration adviser (or a specified person who is exempt from licensing) can legally give this advice.26
3.49
Immigration New Zealand explains that information becomes immigration advice if it is tailored to an individual's particular circumstances. This means that it is important for Immigration New Zealand to have good ways of translating what its frontline staff see and learn into general information that helps applicants to prepare their applications.
3.50
Doing this well can help all applicants understand what information they need to provide, not just those who have access to immigration advice. Information from its frontline staff is a valuable resource for this work.
3.51
We encourage Immigration New Zealand to consider what additional guidance it can offer to applicants in these and other instances where it becomes aware of trends in incomplete information.
There is a need for guidance with a specific focus on skilled residence visas
3.52
As part of its Customer Satisfaction Improvement Plan, Immigration New Zealand is working to make it easier for applicants to provide the information it requires for all visa types at the earliest opportunity.
3.53
However, this work does not include a specific focus on skilled residence visas. In our view, this work should specifically consider visa type, so Immigration New Zealand can consider the particular issues that applicants for skilled residence visas face.
3.54
For example, in early 2024, not long after the new Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa was introduced, Immigration New Zealand staff told us that applicants were struggling to understand what information they needed to claim points for a PhD.
3.55
Applicants sometimes sent a letter from a university that showed that they were eligible to graduate with a PhD. However, because Immigration New Zealand required a degree certificate, it declined these applications. After it has declined an application, migrants need to pay a new fee for a new application.
3.56
In August 2024, immigration instructions were changed to allow applicants to submit a letter of their eligibility to graduate with a PhD rather than the certificate.27
3.57
However, it took some time for Immigration New Zealand to make this change. We encourage Immigration New Zealand to act as soon as practicable when it becomes aware of issues such as this to save time and costs for applicants and staff.
Applicants need greater clarity about the progress of applications
Applicants want to know how their applications are progressing
3.58
For applicants, the time it takes to receive a decision about their application is a key concern. It is also an important performance measure for Immigration New Zealand.
3.59
Making it easy for applicants to see how their application is progressing improves the transparency of the process, reduces applicants' anxiety, and saves them spending time on phone calls and emails to understand their application's progress.
3.60
Staff working in applicant-facing services told us that one of the main reasons that applicants call them is to seek updates about the status of their applications. We were told that the questions most often asked by callers were about the progress of their applications and questions about what documents to provide to support applications under the new Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa.
Immigration New Zealand has changed the ways it provides information about timeliness
3.61
Immigration New Zealand has taken steps to improve the general information it provides about how long it takes to process visa applications. In late 2023, Immigration New Zealand worked with applicants on a project to improve how it reports information on its website about application processing times. This included information about processing times for the new Skilled Migrant Category, Straight to Residence, and Work to Residence Visas.
3.62
Before the consultation, Immigration New Zealand expressed the measure of processing time as a median number of weekdays. It also gave the time it takes to process 90% of applications, which it also expressed in weekdays. It defined weekdays as Monday to Friday unless one of these was a public holiday. Feedback showed that applicants found the two measures confusing.
3.63
In response to the consultation, Immigration New Zealand included more information about what factors can delay processing and published a single measure – the time it takes to process 80% of all visas of a particular type, based on applications in a given month, which it expressed in months or weeks rather than weekdays.28 Although having one measure is simpler, we encourage Immigration New Zealand to continue to seek feedback on the usefulness of this measure.
Technology improvements would help applicants understand how their applications are progressing
3.64
In a competitive global market for skilled migrants, an overly cumbersome or confusing experience of applying for a skilled residence visa could negatively affect an applicant's impression of New Zealand. Therefore, it is important that applicants can easily access information about the progress of their application when they want to.
3.65
People are accustomed to receiving real-time information on their phones about the status of, for example, food they have ordered or deliveries they are expecting. They are likely to expect a similar experience from government organisations.
3.66
However, when an applicant for a skilled residence visa logs in to Immigration New Zealand's website to track the status of their application, they can access only limited information about their application's progress.
3.67
In our view, Immigration New Zealand needs to prioritise work to improve the accessibility of information about the status of applications for skilled residence visas. This will better align with MBIE's Promise about certainty, particularly "explaining where people are in the process" and "providing accurate, relevant and clear information".
3.68
The Advanced Digital Employer-led Processing and Targeting (ADEPT) system is an online IT system that Immigration New Zealand uses for some other types of visas, such as the Accredited Employer Work Visa. Applicants use the system to apply for these visas, and Immigration Officers use it to process those applications.
3.69
ADEPT allows applicants to easily see information about the status of their application, including whether their application is awaiting specific information, such as health or security checks.
3.70
Immigration New Zealand is planning to move more visa categories onto the ADEPT system. However, a recent independent review into the Accredited Employer Work Visa highlighted considerable challenges with ADEPT's implementation.29 When we wrote this report, Immigration New Zealand did not have a time frame for moving skilled residence visas to ADEPT.
Immigration New Zealand needs to consider streamlining the systems it uses for different visas
3.71
For many skilled migrants, the "pathway to residence" involves moving between different types of visas. Having different IT systems for different types of visas affects the experience of applying for a visa. It also creates processing inefficiencies for staff.
3.72
When an applicant makes more than one application, Immigration New Zealand cannot easily use information from previous applications for the subsequent one. Staff also have to work with different IT systems to find the information they need when they are making decisions. This takes additional processing time.
3.73
For example, when a member of staff wants to check the accreditation of an employer as part of assessing a visa application, they must check information held in ADEPT and on another system, the Applicant Management System.
3.74
Staff told us that they have access to useful tools and training to help them with their work (see paragraph 4.44). For processing staff, these include assessment templates, standard operating practice documents, and databases of information to help them check different parts of the application, such as qualifications or the health assessment.
3.75
However, we saw that staff have to switch in and out of different IT systems to carry out all the required checks on a single application because the different systems do not always share information. This adds time and complexity to the decision-making process.
3.76
In our view, Immigration New Zealand could do more to streamline its decision-making tools and help staff to more effectively navigate decision-making resources.
| Recommendation 1 |
|---|
| We recommend that the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment prioritise work to enable applicants for skilled residence visas to easily track application progress and to enable the smooth transfer of applicants between different types of visas. |
Immigration New Zealand should enhance monitoring and reporting to focus on skilled residence visas
3.77
Immigration New Zealand is currently carrying out several projects that focus on improving the experience of applicants for visas. However, these projects concentrate on general improvements to Immigration New Zealand's systems.
3.78
The projects target applicants for many types of visa. They are not specific enough to provide insights into the needs of particular groups of applicants, such as applicants for skilled residence visas.
3.79
Some of Immigration New Zealand's key tools for capturing applicant sentiment, such as its Customer Satisfaction Survey and its complaints and call centre information, do not specifically record data about specific types of skilled residence visas.
3.80
Figure 4 shows how Immigration New Zealand reports information about the performance of the skilled residence visa system.
Figure 4
How Immigration New Zealand reports information about the performance of the skilled residence visa system
| Information reported | Broken down by immigration office site | Broken down by general type as "residence visa" | Broken down by specific type of residence visa |
|---|---|---|---|
| Complaints | ✓ | ||
| Number of visas processed each week | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Contingency planning* | ✓ | ||
| Visa decision quality ratings (quarterly) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Online processing times | ✓ | ||
| Customer satisfaction survey results | ✓ | ||
| Call centre waiting times | ✓ | ||
| Visa approvals (in the annual report) | ✓ | ||
| Occupations of applicants | ✓ | ||
| Database (Migration Data Explorer)** | ✓ | ✓ |
* This refers to reporting against a set of performance measures about how quickly visas are being processed to assess whether any contingency plans need to be activated.
** This is an online tool that provides the public with information about current and historical skilled residence visa numbers, migrant outcomes, and the nationality and occupations of people receiving residence.
| Recommendation 2 |
|---|
| We recommend that the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment include a specific focus on skilled residence visas in all aspects of its monitoring of, and reporting on, the visa system. |
Immigration New Zealand should improve how it collects and reports information about complaints
3.81
The Central Feedback Team at Immigration New Zealand reports on complaints each month. This provides some insights to help Immigration New Zealand identify where to improve. However, the reporting breaks information about complaints down by the location of the relevant office and not by visa type.
3.82
We were told that not many complaints are made about skilled residence visas. However, it was not possible for us to verify this through the monthly reporting.
3.83
Complaints data can indicate how well a system is working but, in our view, it does not follow that a low number of complaints means that the system is working well. For example, applicants might not wish to complain if they worry that doing so might hinder their chances of obtaining a visa.
3.84
There might be other factors affecting the number of complaints. For example, when we carried out our audit, we were told that Immigration New Zealand wanted all complaints to be made in writing. If someone called the immigration contact centre to raise an issue, they would be asked to follow up in writing for it to be categorised as a complaint.
3.85
MBIE has subsequently said that the Immigration New Zealand website makes provision for people who cannot use an online or paper form. A person wishing to make a complaint can phone the Customer Service Centre and make a verbal complaint to a staff member, who will submit it on their behalf.
3.86
This is positive. We encourage Immigration New Zealand to consider whether it could do more to help people who might find it difficult to complain in writing or verbally, including people with a first language other than English.
3.87
We consider that, because people might be unwilling to put their visa in jeopardy by complaining, and because Immigration New Zealand does not specifically collect data about complaints from skilled residence visa applicants, it needs to use caution when interpreting who and what its complaints information represents. Ideally, complaints data is one part of a wider system to gather feedback from applicants.
3.88
Staff noted that some applicant groups seem under-represented in the complaints process. In our view, Immigration New Zealand should follow up on these observations.
Immigration New Zealand needs to get feedback from a wider range of stakeholders
3.89
It is important for Immigration New Zealand to get a wide range of feedback from stakeholders with experience of, and interests in, the skilled residence visa system, including applicants, staff, advisers, and employers.
3.90
Immigration New Zealand uses a group of licensed immigration advisers and lawyers to provide advice and guidance from the perspective of practitioners and their clients. Licensed immigration advisers are authorised to give immigration advice and charge fees for their services.
3.91
However, it is harder for Immigration New Zealand to get the perspective of skilled residence visa applicants who do not use immigration advisers.30 Those who choose not to use professional services might have different communication and information needs than those who do.
Immigration New Zealand needs to work more closely with applicants and employers when it recommends changes to immigration instructions
3.92
Immigration New Zealand does not routinely consult applicants for skilled residence visas when it develops operational policy.
3.93
We heard that a lack of consultation and a change to immigration instructions, made at short notice before the new Skilled Migrant Category visa opened, caused problems for visa applicants and their employers in the tertiary education sector in 2023.
3.94
The change was to the list of qualifications exempt from the requirement to have a formal recognition assessment during the visa application process.31 This affected applicants from countries that New Zealand universities were accustomed to recruiting from.
3.95
Immigration New Zealand announced the changes to the list on its website on 19 September 2023 and by official Amendment Circular on 21 September, before the new Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa opened on 9 October. The changes were significant and they took effect from 29 September, only 10 days after the first announcement.
3.96
The updated list reduced the number of countries and territories whose qualifications are exempt from assessment from 35 to seven.32 It also removed the exemption for specified qualifications from institutions in those seven countries and territories.
3.97
We were told that potential applicants were "incredulous" that New Zealand did not recognise their degrees and that they faced more cost and longer waiting times because they now needed to apply for recognition. The list was changed again in March 2024 to add exemptions for qualifications from five further countries.33
3.98
Immigration New Zealand does not control which qualifications are exempt from assessment, but it has agreements with the New Zealand Qualifications Authority to provide assessment services. It has also made commitments under MBIE's Promise to "help you to know what you need to do, how to do it, and why".
3.99
In this instance, it would have been more consistent with MBIE's Promise for Immigration New Zealand to consult with stakeholders and to give more notice of the changes.
Systematic use of staff feedback could help to improve operational policies
Frontline staff are not consistently involved in policy development
3.100
We heard that Immigration New Zealand is involving frontline staff in the development of operational policy more than it used to. However, we were told that this is not yet systematic.
3.101
Staff in non-managerial roles talked about opportunities to provide feedback about a process after it had been introduced, but they were not always able to influence the design or development of those changes. One person described this as feeling that they had not been "taken along the journey". Staff told us that working with policy-makers afterwards to find solutions can sometimes be time consuming and frustrating.
3.102
Some people told us that it was welcome, but unusual, to have adequate notice to prepare for changes or to have time to reflect on operational matters and provide meaningful input into the policy process. One senior staff member told us that they were working in a system where it was "very hard to do anything but run".
Staff have a wealth of knowledge that could help improve application processing
3.103
Including operational staff with experience of processing applications in policy development could lead to better outcomes for applicants and staff.
3.104
Managers in applicant-facing roles said that, in recent years, their team had been more involved in discussions about change than previously. They and their team felt listened to and "able to change as Immigration New Zealand changes".
3.105
However, delays in implementing changes after staff had provided feedback sometimes caused frustration. For example, when staff identified inconsistencies between operating instructions for different visa types, Immigration New Zealand was slow to resolve those inconsistencies. We heard that senior managers in Immigration New Zealand had acknowledged this and were working to improve responsiveness.
3.106
Senior managers told us that Immigration New Zealand is looking at ways to better connect frontline staff to operational policy processes. We encourage Immigration New Zealand to draw on good practice, such as seconding people in particular roles to work on immigration policy, so that their involvement becomes a regular part of policy development.
18: For example, in 2019, Immigration New Zealand processed and approved only about 40% of all eligible applications for a Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa. See the Future of the Skilled Migrant Category consultation document, page 11, at mbie.govt.nz.
19: Plain language is defined as clear, concise, well-organised and appropriate to the intended audience. See section 5 of the Plain Language Act 2022.
20: Workers with master and doctoral degrees, entrepreneurs, university students, and for 2023, start-up founders.
21: The dimensions are quality of opportunity, income and tax, future prospects, family environment, skills environment, inclusiveness, quality of life, and health (users of the online tool can decide whether to include the health dimension).
22: The OECD survey says that it uses temporary visa programmes for its assessment. See Tuccio, M (2019), Measuring and assessing talent attractiveness in OECD countries, page 20 and Table A.2, at oecd-ilibrary.org. However, the programme used for New Zealand in the category of workers is the Skilled Migrant Category, which is a "residence" not a "temporary" visa.
23: The policy dimension uses restricted-access proprietary data from Fragomen, an international law firm specialising in immigration law. See Tuccio, M (2019), Measuring and assessing talent attractiveness in OECD countries, at oecd-ilibrary.org.
24: For example, in 2019, Immigration New Zealand processed and approved only about 40% of all eligible applications for a Skilled Migrant Category Resident Visa. See the Future of the Skilled Migrant Category consultation document, page 11, at mbie.govt.nz.
25: See section 15 of the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007.
26: Section 11 of the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act 2007 sets out the groups of people exempt from the requirement to be licensed to give immigration advice. This includes people giving advice in an informal or family context, members of Parliament, and lawyers and employers or volunteers for citizens advice bureaux.
27: Immigration New Zealand, Amendment Circular No. 2024-19, change effective from 1 August 2024.
28: After we completed our fieldwork, Immigration New Zealand made further changes to how it expresses wait times. For applications decided in September 2024, the Immigration New Zealand website showed the time taken to process "most" visas of a type rather than 80%.
29: Bestwick, J (2024), Assurance review of the operation of the Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme, at publicservice.govt.nz.
30: For 2023/24, Immigration New Zealand told us that advisers were used for about 26% of skilled residence applications, and lawyers for an additional 6%.
31: Applicants seeking a visa under the Skilled Migrant Category may be required to have an International Qualifications Recognition Statement from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority to proceed. A recognition statement is not required for qualifications exempt from assessment.
32: These are Hong Kong, Ireland, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
33: These are Australia, Canada, China, Fiji, and Japan.