Skill Based Policies

This article is about Immigration Policy but it is not a description of policy. In our opinion simplified descriptions of policy are dangerous. If you want to know why we think that, read “Why things go wrong ".

The purpose of skills based policy is to assist New Zealand’s economic development by enabling the entry of persons who have skills New Zealand wants. The most common path is the “Skilled Migrant Category” (or SMC”) also commonly known as the “Points System” (because success will depend on “points” scored on a scale designed to give some applicants priority over others). There are other, less well known categories that apply to people with particular talent (such as sports people) and for those who are employed by “accredited employers”.

Skilled Migrant Category: Opinions will always vary over what skills are needed. Applicants naturally say; “I will work hard and be an asset to New Zealand”; employers always want good people and would prefer there to be an oversupply, to drive wages down; Trade Unions would prefer an undersupply, to drive wages up; every body says they are putting the country’s interests ahead of their own; and there is an economist to support every point of view. To try to make sense out of this debate, the Department of Labour researches vacancies, skill shortages, likely future training outputs, and economic trends to create data such as the “Long Term Skill Shortage” list. In spite of good intentions, such lists often involve arbitrary inclusions, exclusions or judgements but in the absence of agreement about any better method for determining the “need” for skilled migrants, the results of that research becomes factored into immigration decision-making.

New Zealand is one of the world’s most popular migration destinations so the number of applicants always exceeds the number the government is prepared to accept.. Rather than determining whether each applicant meets a set minimum standard (which was the policy until the mid 1980’s), modern governments want to make decisions based on “merit”, so the system attempts to rank applicants so that the “best” are approved and the “weakest” declined during each two week period. Any system that tries to determine relative “strength” and “weakness” between individuals is arbitrary by nature, so to be sure of success you need to present the strongest winnable case.

To minimise the number of active applications in the system at any one time, applicants are required to start by “Lodging an Expression of Interest”. In spite of fees being paid and personal information being provided these “Expressions of Interest” are not regarded as “Applications”. They can be lost, or ignored, or not replied to, or decided wrongly, and there will be no refund, no right of appeal; not even the right to expect a reply to correspondence.

Once the “Expression of Interest” has been considered and an “Invitation to Apply” has been issued; more fees paid and an application finally lodged, the applicant will be ranked, based on assumptions about the value to New Zealand of various personal characteristics. For each characteristic there will typically be a minimum and a maximum cut-off and then a scale within those extremes. For example, the assumption may be that a person under 20 years is too young and a person over 55 years is too old, (in which case the applicant will probably not have received an “Invitation to Apply”) but the policy may then ascribe “points” for varying ages between those limits. The same might happen in regard qualifications, work experience, whether a job offer is held, if so where that job is located, and so on.

There will then sometimes be “points” awarded for “Settlement” factors, based on assumptions like; “people with money settle more readily than people without”; or “the presence of family members in NZ assists in settlement”. As with the assessments in the previous paragraph these are quite arbitrary judgements.

Finally there will be absolute criteria such as the need for all members of the family included in the application to have clear criminal records and good health (although even those apparently straight forward issues can be complex; do driving offenses need to be recorded, how much sugar in urine is acceptable?).

After approval in principle, the skilled migrant’s case will move forward as described in the “Residence Policy, all categories” section.

Work to Residence: Persons who do not meet normal skill based criteria may be eligible under three “Work to Residence” possibilities.
Talent Visa. Applicants may be considered on the basis of their natural talent in the fields of Art, Culture or Sport. High thresholds of talent or excellence are applied and the policy is not often used.
Accredited Workers. Employers may go through a process of becoming “accredited” by Immigration New Zealand; giving them certain privileges in the recruitment of skilled temporary workers from overseas. After some years, these workers may become eligible for residence, but read the following caution.
Long Term Skill Shortage Workers. Some people may not meet SMC criteria but nevertheless have skills in such short supply that they are eligible for temporary work permits and may be able to apply for residence after they have worked in New Zealand for some years, but read the following caution.
Caution. These policies are mentioned here because residence can result; but they start with temporary work permits, which are discussed elsewhere on this web site. We recommend that intending applicants should approach these policies cautiously because changes in demand for skills can leave temporary workers unemployed, unable to get an extension to their work visa and unable to qualify for residence, even though they have spent years pursuing that objective.

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