As the dust settles from the Government’s sweeping immigration announcement, more migrants previously eligible for residency find they’ve been left out
Migrants who are eligible to apply for residency feel betrayed by Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi’s newly announced 2021 Resident Visa, which leaves them out.
The visa will be available to migrants on more than a dozen work related visa categories including skilled migrant category visas and residence from work who have lived in the country for at least three years. However, the visa categories eligible for residency is narrower.
Faafoi’s announcement last month to fast-track thousands of skilled migrant category applications came as welcome news to many of the 165,000 people affected by this change.
But for migrants like Hesong Zhang, the news has offered little comfort.
“When Mr Faafoi made the announcement we were quite happy until we contacted our immigration advisor and found out we’re not eligible for this ... my future in New Zealand went dark,” Zhang says.
Zhang, currently on a student visa, will graduate from his postgraduate engineering degree in two months and be eligible to transfer to a work to residence visa.
He could then apply for a mechanical engineering job, a role currently on Immigration NZ's (INZ) skills shortage list. Zhang and his partner, who is on a partnership visa, have been living in New Zealand for five years.
The couple qualified for residency and submitted their expression of interest in April last year, meeting all the relevant criteria.
But they’ve now been left out of the new resident pathway.
“Abandoning all migrants who are stuck overseas without considering the amount of time they have lived in NZ or their contributions to their community or even if they are still working for their NZ organisation implicitly indicates the discrimination against migrants." – Layeequlla Baig, offshore migrant
He hopes INZ will broaden the criteria to allow those previously eligible for residency a fair shot at applying for the 2021 Resident Visa.
“We have loved and contributed to New Zealand. I’ve worked three part-time jobs and we’ve spent thousands of dollars on immigration advice and international fees to settle in this beautiful country.
“To be fair, everyone in the expression of interest pool should be included in this residence pathway.”
Covid leaving migrants between a rock and a hard place
After three years in New Zealand, Scott Bavidge and his partner Mijeong Yi were forced to change their essential skills visas to short-term ones because Covid wiped out the job Bavidge's visa was attached to.
“When Covid hit and the borders subsequently closed, my school had to close due to international students no longer coming to Aotearoa. As a result, we both had to change our visas to supplementary seasonal employment visas (SSE) to be able to stay and work in New Zealand,” Bavidge said.
Bavidge was hoping to find another job and get back on the essential skills visa to apply for residence, but the surprise one-off residence announcement meant he ran out of time.
Despite previously meeting the criteria to apply for residency, having lived in New Zealand for four years, being on a temporary SSE visa no longer offered eligibility.
“Giving up my essential skills visa was not a decision I made lightly but was at the time essential as immigration would not allow me to work in a different job type even though the country was crying out for seasonal workers,” he says.
“I can partially understand why the Government may not want to include short-term visas such as working holiday, recognised seasonal employment and SSE visas since they are intended to mean short-stay. However, taking into consideration the position we were put in, I believe it is fair to include us in the residency process, especially with our previous experience and visas status here.”
“We believe the visa should be inclusive of everyone who deserves it. Immigration could easily determine who has been here since the first lockdown and grant eligibility to all visa holders while knowing those people have stuck it out here.
"To be excluded due to a random unfair omission would be devastating when many of us have worked so hard.”
Stuck offshore
Hawkes Bay DHB worker Layeequlla Baig has been stuck offshore for a year now, pleading for an exemption for reentry into the country.
Baig became eligible to apply for permanent residency in March last year but because he was in India at the time, INZ decided to process his application under the offshore category, even though he was in the country when he made his application.
After six years of living in New Zealand, Baig went to India last October to visit his dying father and said this decision had made him feel like a “fool” for leaving.
“While I am still working for a New Zealand organisation and paying taxes I should be allowed to apply for this visa. But since I am not currently in New Zealand, I will not be able to apply for this visa,” Baig says.
He is also running out of time given his visa is due to expire next month, which will force him to resign from his DHB job.
“I have started to make peace with the fact that I will not be able to come back home. It is either because the immigration system is rotten or it is clear discrimination and exploitation against migrants.”
But Baig is still doing the best he can to get a humanitarian exemption to travel back.
“Abandoning all migrants who are stuck overseas without considering the amount of time they have lived in New Zealand or their contributions to their community or even if they are still working for their New Zealand organisation implicitly indicates the discrimination against migrants.
“Clearly humanity, empathy, kindness and compassion seems to be for optics and political mileage. Quite a sorry state of affairs.”
The Government also created a border exception in September 2020 to enable around 850 temporary work visa holders and their families who have strong, ongoing links to New Zealand to re-enter the country. However, Baig left for India after this exception was enforced.
Faafoi says policy work in the future will consider the aspirations of those people offshore wanting to make New Zealand home when we are able to begin safely reducing our border restrictions.
He says criteria for the one-off residence visa focuses on people whose primary purpose for being in New Zealand is to work.
“This provides certainty to the vast majority of migrant workers and businesses, and applies to settled, skilled and scarce migrant workers, reflecting their critical part in New Zealand’s economy.”
“The Government remains committed to reopening selections of expressions of interest for the skilled migrant category, but this will not happen until applications for the 2021 Resident Visa close on July 31, 2022.”
