Richard Small

A new Minister Prior to the October 2023 election National’s immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford was very proactive in pointing out failures of the Accredited Employer Work Visa especially around migrant exploitation. On 27 November Hon Erica Stanford became the Immigration Minister.  The immigration industry, advisors and lawyers have generally welcomed her as a minister who […]

Back in November 2022 we commented on the reopening of the Parent Category. We explained that this was a lottery with 2500 places of which 2000 were dedicated to the many thousands of Parent Category Expressions of Interest (“EOI”) that had been lodged since selections were put on hold in October 2016. Any EOIs that

Immigration New Zealand will accept registrations for the 2023 Samoan Quota (SQ) and Pacific Access Category (PAC) ballots from 1 August 2023 to 5pm 31 August 2023. These annual programs enable individuals from Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Fiji to go into a lottery for residence in New Zealand. They were closed for a number

Requesting Your Information from Immigration New Zealand. Pacific Legal is the recognized field leader.   Here at Pacific Legal we have a long-standing reputation for requesting our clients’ files even in routine cases under the Privacy and Official Information Acts. This is because time and again we have found information that clients, sponsors and employers were not

On 21 June 2023 outgoing Minister of Immigration Michael Wood announced the biggest change to the Skilled Migrant visa in many years. A review was signalled months earlier and we now have the details. In this update we: Summarize key changes Explain the timeframe Indicate some winners and losers Key Changes The aim is to

Median Wage Required for Most Partners From May 31, 2023 partners of accredited employer and essential skills work visa holders who apply for a Partner of a Worker Work Visa will have new conditions that they  paid at least the median wage currently NZD $29.66. The median wage is reviewed annually. You Can Only Work

Updated information – November 2023 On 12 October the Minister of Immigration Hon Michael Wood-announced the reopening of the Residence Parent Category which has been on hold for a number of years. Immigration New Zealand will resume selecting existing Expressions of Interest (EOIs) on 14 November 2022. A selection for new EOI’s will be made in

In attempt to help ease casual workforce shortages, the New Zealand Government recently announced[1] several changes to the Working Holiday Visa which will benefit the tourism industry over summer and beyond. Immigration Minister Michael Wood revealed a ‘revitalised and streamlined immigration system’ that would help relieve workforce shortages by temporarily increasing access to working holiday

On 20 July 2022, the Ministers of Immigration and Economic and Regional Development announced the biggest overhaul in New Zealand’s investment instructions for over a decade. The new category is called the Active Investor Plus Category (AI+).  The focus is on direct investment into New Zealand firms to assist them to become more internationally competitive.

Recent media reports suggest that as of 15 May, 97,179 applications including 194,632 people had been received and 21,364 applications had been approved – with residence visas for 48,327 people issued. The government has pledged that 80 percent of applications will be decided within 12 months. National immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford said Immigration New Zealand\’s