Essential Skills Visa Online System Temporarily Suspended; Improvements to Visa Process
July 23, 2021
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At a Glance
Essential Skills Visa applicants will see several changes to the visa process due to recent amendments and process changes:
- Applicants must submit their applications by mail or in person until August 30, 2021 due to a temporary online system suspension;
- Visa renewal applicants no longer need to provide documents they submitted with past applications; and
- The visa validity period for those earning less than median wage has been increased.
The situation
The New Zealand government has announced several process changes to the Essential Skills visa, effective immediately.
A Closer Look
| NEW RULE | PREVIOUS RULE | IMPACT |
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Online system temporarily suspended. Until August 28, 2021, applications must be submitted on paper and applicants cannot use the government’s electronic filing system until August 30, 2021. |
An online system was functioning for several years. |
Essential Skills Visa applicants will need to submit their applications by mail or into the Immigration New Zealand in-person application collection box until August 30, 2021– this may cause delays in the visa application submission and issuance process since the online system made for a streamlined application process. |
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Less documentation for renewals. Applicants for an Essential Skills visa remaining in the same role do not need to provide their employment agreement, medical and police certificates if these were submitted with their previous visa application. |
Applicants who were provided an employment agreement with a previous application had to again provide their agreement with a new visa application. Similar rules existed for medical and police certificates if they were issued more than 36 and 24 months ago from the visa application lodgment date, respectively. |
Essential Skills Visa renewal applicants and their employers face fewer administrative hurdles since they no longer need to provide documents they submitted with past applications. |
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Visa validity for jobs paying below median wage. The maximum visa period that can be granted for a job paid below the median wage (currently NZD 27 per hour) has been increased from 12 months to 24 months. |
Employers needed to prove that there were no New Zealand local workers available for the role even if they were extending an Essential Skills Visa application. |
Employers should benefit since they no longer need to show there are no New Zealanders available for the role if they are retaining migrant workers for the same roles. Employers still need to show there are no New Zealanders available for any new vacant roles or when foreign workers change the geographical region in which they work. |
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Overall three-year visa validity period waived for jobs paying below median wage. The usual three-year visa validity limit for applications for jobs with salaries below the median wage has been eliminated temporarily. This applies to applications lodged until June 30, 2022. |
The overall validity period of such a visa, including renewals, could not exceed three years. Holders of such visas would need to stay outside of New Zealand at least 12 months to restart the three-year overall validity period. |
Holders of Essential Skills Visas for jobs paid below median wage benefit since they no longer need to stay outside of New Zealand for 12 months every three years – they can renew their visas as needed after the three-year period expires until June 30, 2022. |
Background
These changes were unexpected and appear to be the result of the government’s efforts to streamline the Essential Skills Visa process and increase the visa duration to help employers address the ongoing demand for labor faced by certain sectors in New Zealand due to COVID-19.
Looking ahead
The launch of the new Accredited Employer Work Visa (previously scheduled to be available on November 1, 2021) has been delayed until June 30, 2022 in response to COVID-19. We will report on related developments.
This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].
