We know that when it comes to hiring an employee, a genuine employer getssleepless nights due to the complications of the process involved.This sometimes discourages an employer to go through the process and hirea suitable candidate who could take the business to next level.Immigration Advisers New Zealand understands the process involved down tothe last detail Continue reading Employers Guide for Hiring Worker
Importance of advertising as part of labour market check?
Most work visa applications in New Zealand are essential skills work visa applications.When assessing an application Immigration New Zealand (INZ) must be satisfied that there are no suitably qualified New Zealand citizens (or residence class visa holders) available to do the work through a Labour Market Check, of which advertising is an important criteria, if the job vacancy is not for ANZSCO Skill Level 4 or 5.
Hence, it is critically important for the employer to give evidence of his efforts by advertising to recruit any suitable New Zealanders for that job, and then explain why New Zealand applicants or residents were not suitable or readily trainable.
Labour Market Check – How to advertise & assess the candidates
How to advertise?
Advertising is the most effective way to show that genuine attempts have been made to recruit a New Zealander by any employer.There are some guidelines for advertising below:
How to assess the candidates?
All of the candidates who apply for the job must be considered, including any referred by Work and Income.It’s important to remember the that suitable candidates are those who have the skills and ability to take up the job and/or can be trained. So,if one of the New Zealand candidates is suitable, he or she should have been offered the job. If no New Zealanders are suitable, the job could then be offered to a non-New Zealand worker, however submission of the following supporting documentary evidence with the Essential Skills Work Visa application must always be considered:
Role of Immigration Advisers
A common reason for Essential Skills Work Visa applications being declined is that the employer has failed to follow proper procedure while doing the Labour Market Check or has not specified the position correctly in the job advertisement.
Many employers are resistant to employing migrants because of this requirement, because it involves time and expense.
A License Immigration Adviser can help overcome this obstacle by helping the employer by drafting the advertisement and preparing the Immigration New Zealand form. The recruitment/advertising on employer’s behalf can also be handled by Immigration Adviser at appropriate places/mediums/platforms, and with the relevant agencies.
Caution
The Job advertisement and offer can not discourage New Zealand workers from applying.Immigration will not approve an Essential Skills Work Visa application application if the job advertisement discourages New Zealand citizens or residence class visa holders, from applying.
We are thrilled to announce that Vandana Rai, Director of Immigration Advisers New Zealand has been selected as one of the finalist in the Immigration Adviser/Lawyer of the Year and Hall of Fame category of awards of NZAMI that are announce once in two years.The significance of the awards that she has been nominated for is as under:
Vandana Rai has been part of 2016 Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA) referral group in addition to being one of the Directors on the Board of the New Zealand Association of Migration and Investment (NZAMI) for 2017. She is well known within the industry for her contribution to the well being and support of International students, by way of giving not only a range of immigration advisory services but also pastoral care support. In last 2 years Vandana Rai has lodged more than 1400 visas with an approval rate close to 93%.
She is highly educated, having done Masters in Human Development as well as Masters in Business Administration apart from a PG Diploma in Guidance and Counselling and Graduate Certificate in New Zealand Immigration Advice.
Vandana, in her role as a member of 2016 Referral Group of Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA) championed the cause of making offshore licensing mandatory. Vandana Rai, as a director of NZAMI has also made her contribution concerning the assessment of Partnership-Based Visa applications in the Indian market. She has also done lot of spade work over the past 2 years on the partnership based applications who were character declined due to having received unlicensed Immigration Advice and has got character waiver approved for a number of clients, thereby assisting in their family reunification.
Vandana is humbled by this achievement and says that her strength lies in her team , which works unbelievably hard and is the main reason behind this success.
For the full list and more information about these awards, visit the NZAMI website.
As per Education New Zealand ( link provided below) Providers, agents and international students need to be aware that all banks in New Zealand are now required to collect additional information from international students before they can open an account in New Zealand.
As a result of the Global Tax Information Reporting and Anti Money Laundering campaign, all banks in New Zealand, as well as other financial institutions, are required by law to collect additional information from a foreign tax resident before they can open an account in New Zealand. As part of these changes, banks also require a certified copy of (or, in some cases, the original) the student’s passport (bio-page) and proof of current residential address. Those who apply to open a bank account while outside New Zealand will be required to provide proof of their current overseas residential address, and to present themselves at the bank to activate the account when they arrive in New Zealand.
The same changes are being implemented in other countries that are part of this global initiative.
These changes also apply to international students who intend to use INZ’s Funds Transfer Scheme (FTS) to transfer their funds to New Zealand. Note the FTS is only available to international students from certain countries.
FTS information
If applying for an account under the FTS in the near future, ANZ, the New Zealand bank that operates the FTS, may contact the student to complete additional forms to ensure they capture the additional information they require. These forms include questions around the student’s tax information, and the student themselves will need to complete and sign these forms (not their agent).
For FTS accounts only, acceptable proof of residential address includes:
The document(s) listed above must be less than three months old and must state the student’s name and their residential address. Where the student is living with their parents and the document states their parents’ name(s), a parent whose name appears on the document must provide a letter stating that the student lives with them.
Note: there may be some delays visa application processing while Immigration New Zealand and ANZ work through these changes.
Link – https://enz.govt.nz/news-and-research/ed-news/international-students-affected-by-bank-changes/
Why are so many Post Study Work Visa (Employer Assisted) applications of International students being declined in Auckland, New Zealand?
Concerns Identified resulting into declined applications
As per the media reports there has been a sudden spike in the number of applications declined, which had been lodged under Post Study Employer Assisted Work Visa category. Going by the feed back and experience the major reason (s) for the declines have been as under:
Way forward and precautions to be taken
The way forward and precautions required to be taken to minimise the risks of getting a negative outcome for such applications lodged could be as under:
Should you still get a Potentially Prejudicial Information (PPI) from Immigration case officer, please be rest assured that Immigration is now posturing itself to decline your application, hence give it the attention it deserves and book an appointment by mailing at contact@nzimmigration.info
DO NOT TRY AND ANSWER THE PPI RESPONSE YOURSELF SEEK AN IMMIGRATION ADVISER ASAP
There has been a flood of character concerns that have been raised by Immigration New Zealand (INZ), Delhi Branch, in context of partners of First Time Student Visa (FSV) holders from India,who have displayed remarkable gullibility and naivety in lodgement of their visitor/work visa applications.
Both these words suggest that these applicants have been victimised,however while a naive person may not have realised the danger,a gullible person should have known better.
Please be advised that the use of these words, which has somehow surfaced as an excuse for making a false and misleading statement while filling up his INZ 1198 (Partnership Based Temporary Visa Application Form) and INZ 1146 (Form for Partner’s Supporting Partnership Based Temporary Visa Application),is in itself evasive in nature, and may not be bought by INZ.
Hence, it would be advisable for all Partnership Based Temporary Visa Applicants to seriously consider the long-term damage they may incur, on their chances to get united with their partners, before allowing themselves to be misrepresented and then resorting to gullibility and naivety as an excuse, which will always be open to questions by INZ.
Even the student recruitment agents who are misrepresenting these applicants are making a huge error of judgment, because not only are they loosing their remunerations but also killing their chosen profession in the long run.
The following relevant links will assist the partnership based applicants and their agents in making their choices:
INZ Link: http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/stream/advice/
IAA Link: http://www.iaa.govt.nz/migrant/options/index.asp
INZ Link to character requirements: http://dol.govt.nz/immigration/knowledgebase/item/1183
Please be advised that most students who had come to New Zealand on Two Year Diploma, and are filing ONSHORE second year student visa, are being questioned by Immigration New Zealand (INZ) on the evidence of funds,which they are providing in context of the commitment that they had earlier given with their OFFSHORE student visa applications.
It is for your information that based on the information submitted by the student applicant in his offshore student visa application,INZ now needs to be satisfied that the applicant holds/has held satisfactory funds for maintenance and outward travel at all times during the currency of his current visa, and has not breached the conditions of his current visa.
INZ is concerned that the student visa holder who was granted his student visa for New Zealand under Funds Transfer Scheme (FTS), no more has these funds available to him,wherein they still should be available to him in the proportion that they should be , as at that time they were considered satisfactory for a study of two years.
INZ therefore needs to be given evidence for onshore applications also, that these funds, which were previously shown were genuinely available to the applicant during his period of study in New Zealand and/or used for the purpose of the applicant’s maintenance while he was residing in New Zealand.
INZ also needs to be explained that why after one year of study, the applicant is now evidencing his/her funds by way of sponsorship from ABCD.
Additional Documents That May Be Asked For by INZ
Implications of Not Providing the Above
INZ may DECLINE to grant you a visa or you may become liable for DEPORTATION.
Recommendation
While going through an Immigration New Zealand (INZ) update that was presented by Celia Coombes, Sector Relationship Manager (Education) during ITENZ Conference 2015,I came to know about the rebalance strategy that was underway in the international student markets of China, India, Chile, Malaysia, Germany and South Korea. One could not help but marvel at hard work put in and the noble intentions displayed by all involved.
As I watched the strategy take shape by way of the excellent ground level initiatives launched by INZ and Education New Zealand (ENZ) that were targeted to woo students of some of the South Asian countries into New Zealand, I also came across another bit of data related to INZ Student Visa Approval rate of 2015,which set me thinking.
The data which has been released by INZ gives out the student visa approval rate between January 2015 and December 2015.The Global figures of 42,514 approvals against only 18,103 declines are really impressive. However when I dwelled deeper I was aghast to find that of the 18,103 declines, 13,224 belonged to India alone, which was a staggering 73% of the total visas declined. I then decided to analyse the figures at hand a little bit more and totaled the visa declines of countries that were routing their applications through INZ, Mumbai Branch in addition to India i.e. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. My surprise knew no bounds when I saw that the figure of 13,224 jumped to 15,449, which came to a mind numbing 85%. Armed with this data and my psychological background I sat down to think and analyse as to what effect must these student visa declines be having among the student market of these five countries that also are each other neighbours, shouldn’t ENZ be alarmed about the bad publicity it is causing and the years of hard work and money ENZ has put in to bring up New Zealand as a viable study abroad destination going waste.
My analysis of the situation gave rise to more uncomfortable questions, which prompted me to write down these few lines for an open brainstorming session.
More in another session….
Several news report items as well as a communique of Independent Tertiary Education New Zealand (ITENZ) conveys that INZ has prioritised for deportation Indian nationals that are:
Due to the investigative work undertaken by its Risk Management Team, INZ has become increasingly aware of issues in the India market and is working with its partner agencies to tackle the problem.
INZ has already uncovered fraudulent behaviour involving the submission of forged or altered education loan documentation with student visa applications from India. It has identified approximately 160 approved student visas, of which 17 were cancelled before they entered New Zealand. The remaining students are in New Zealand and compliance action is being taken against those individuals.
We at Immigration Advisers New Zealand Ltd (IANZ) recognise that international students are vulnerable to exploitation and are focused on ensuring that students do not put themselves in a vulnerable situation.
A significant amount of enforcement activity is now underway in New Zealand involving Indian nationals. There are a number of ongoing investigations being carried out dealing with allegations of exploitation, provision of false information, aiding and abetting of unlawful work/overstaying and allegations of relationship fraud concerning Indian nationals and some education providers.
Please be advised that subject to any special direction to the contrary, every student visa, limited visa and interim visa granted for the purpose of study is subject to the following conditions:
Internal Administration Circulars (IAC) of Immigration New Zealand (INZ) provide information for immigration staff on procedural and process issues.They generally provide clarity of the instructions contained within the INZ Operational Manual.
Few of the important points of INZ Internal Administration Circular No 16/02 regarding Immigration Advice are reproduced here for your easy comprehension.
When can a person who is not licensed or exempt is deemed to have given immigration advice?
Who cannot give immigration advice?
Employers, recruiters, education providers and travel agents/sellers are not permitted to provide immigration advice, unless licensed or exempt.
They may complete an applicant’s form under the applicant’s direction, but cannot use their knowledge or experience to give the applicant advice about any immigration matter, such as:
When does INZ have reasonable grounds to believe that someone other than the applicant or a licensed or exempt immigration adviser has given immigration advise?
If someone other than the applicant or a licensed or exempt immigration adviser is listed as the contact for communication, that person must not provide immigration advice.
Immigration New Zealand may have reasonable grounds to believe that a contact for communication who is neither licensed nor exempt is providing immigration advice if:
Ref :Policy and Law – www.immigration.govt.nz