Immigration changes slated

By ANGELA GREGORY

Critics of new immigration policies say the changes may dissuade sought-after immigrants from seeking New Zealand residency because they create uncertainty.

Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel on Tuesday announced sweeping changes which would advantage immigrants who could show they had skills in demand and job offers in their areas of expertise.

A new skilled migrant category was planned to come into effect by early next year, but Parliament yesterday also rushed through interim legislation to implement some changes immediately.

The move was intended to stop people swamping the Immigration Service with residency applications in anticipation of the tougher rules.

Under the interim changes to the existing general skills category, many residency applications which may have succeeded could now fail.

That has angered some immigration consultants who would also now find it more difficult to recruit customers overseas.

Under the previous system, people who got enough points under the general skills category had to be granted residency automatically.

The Government's intention, set out in a bill referred to a select committee yesterday, was to introduce a regime where immigrants would be able to apply for residency by "invitation only".

Bonus points would be given to those who had an offer for a skilled job anywhere outside Auckland, and applicants had to show they would be able to settle and contribute to society.

Of the backlog of 20,000 applications, about half were expected to fail the entry criteria.

Auckland immigration consultant Yatsek Andvick said the speed, extent and direction of the changes were shocking.

"I have a lot of concern for people who have already lodged their applications, quite a lot may be affected."

Mr Andvick said he was still trying to analyse the complex policies.

But David Cooper, an immigration consultant with Malcolm Pacific, said he doubted whether the 10,000 existing cases estimated to fail would have succeeded under the original criteria anyway.

Mr Cooper was more concerned at the planned "invitation only" policy which he said could put off the very people New Zealand wanted.

"That is the skilled migrants from the United Kingdom, the US and South Africa ... they want certainty of outcome. We're saying we don't want your application, post us your expression of interest."

That approach would turn off conservative markets, he said.

"It takes a lot of certainty out of the process and there is an element of transparency missing."

Mr Cooper said he saw no reason for major changes after the introduction last November of stricter English language tests and the fact New Zealand was already succeeding in attracting skilled migrants.

Immigration lawyer David Ryken said the changes were outrageous and unconstitutional.

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He said the Immigration Service was to blame for mismanaging its queue.

Ms Dalziel said yesterday that the legislation would allow for the ranking of the backlog of applications.

That allowed the Immigration Service to grade applications that were accompanied by job offers relevant to the principal applicants' qualifications or experience.

"In effect, this enables the transition to the skilled migrant category to be managed in an effective way for the benefit of New Zealand.

"From today, transitional provisions will require a relevant job offer under the interim general skills category."

The legislation also provided for the lapsing of applications from those who applied before November 20, 2002 unless they claimed 28 points or had a relevant job offer or a Job Search Visa, or had been approved in principle.

"If we did not lapse them, we would be inviting thousands of people to come to New Zealand knowing full well that they were destined to fail," she said.

"New Zealanders have had enough of seeing engineers, pharmacists, information technology specialists, and agricultural scientists driving our country's taxis."

Ms Dalziel said the legislation has been well-received by the vast majority of industry and business representatives as well as many immigration consultants who already operated on a settlement outcomes model with a recruitment focus.

"This will be good for business, good for migrants and good for New Zealand," Ms Dalziel said.

Bill Milnes, of the Association of Migration and Investment, said Ms Dalziel was trying to legislate over a High Court decision in favour of his organisation.

The High Court had in May found in favour of the association in its case against the minister over the changes she introduced last November concerning the points system and long-term business visa applications.

Mr Milnes said while it was agreed the general skills category needed changing Ms Dalziel's approach was not appropriate.

The association was also concerned that the changes seemed to allow junior visa officers to make subjective decisions outside policy.

National MP Murray McCully described the decision to overrule the court decision as "a sloppy way of doing business."

Mr McCully said it sent a signal to migrants that New Zealand was not a dependable and predictable country to deal with, but he did not rule out National supporting the "invitation-based" scheme.

New Zealand First MP Dail Jones echoed the criticism of many others that the invitation-based entry would give immigration officers more discretion which could open the way for corruption.