Immigration NZ – our worst-managed Government department

Ankur Sabharwal is the owner of immigration advisory Visa Matters. He is a licensed immigration adviser dealing with complex immigration matters.

OPINION: I’m calling it – Immigration New Zealand is our worst-managed Government department.

An 80-page official report details the massive blunders INZ made in approving work visas to thousands of people with fake jobs in New Zealand.

From mid-2022 to mid-2023, INZ simply waved migrants through our borders on empty promises that they were coming to work in genuine jobs for genuine employers.

So, what happened?

It is clear from the report that INZ was poorly prepared to implement the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) scheme when it opened in May 2022.

Here is a list of the eight worst blunders that INZ made in implementing the AEWV scheme.

Blunder No 1: Tight time targets

Before the scheme opened, INZ committed to taking two weeks to decide employer accreditation applications, as well as applications for “job checks” (approvals for employers to hire workers from overseas).

It was only possible to meet these targets if INZ made almost no checks on the employers or the jobs they were offering.

That is what happened.

Blunder No 2: INZ underestimated the number of applications it would receive.

INZ always does this. Always.

Blunder No 3: INZ’s new computer system wasn’t able to process applications for 10 days

Within three days of opening, INZ had received 1151 online applications for employer accreditation through its new ADEPT computer system.

However, it took 10 days after the employer accreditation scheme opened until ADEPT was able to process the applications in its system.

Instant backlog.

Blunder No 4: Staff weren’t familiar with the new computer system, so it took longer to process applications

Well, you would expect that – wouldn’t you?

Blunder No 5: INZ panicked, and let its guard down

Because there were more applications than INZ had anticipated, and they were taking longer to process than INZ expected, its promised two-week processing times were not being met.

INZ was under pressure from employers and the Government to meet those targets, so it stopped checking applications. A General Instruction was sent to staff which limited:

• checking of the employer regarding the acceptability of the employment;
• the requirement to calculate remuneration;
• the requirement to determine the genuineness of job vacancies;
• the requirement to determine that employers had genuinely tried to find suitable New Zealanders to fill positions offered to workers from overseas.

The review report writers were flabbergasted that INZ gave these instructions without assessing the likely risk of not checking.

Blunder No 6: INZ suspected that it was being ripped off, but carried on regardless

By February 2023, INZ had sampled 1225 approved applications, and found that 83 of them (6.8%) showed signs of not being genuine.

This rate was considered to be “within risk tolerances” and comparable with historical levels.

Why is this dumb? Because the 6.8% of fraud that is occurring increases exponentially unless you do something about it. It just tells the fraudsters “You’re getting away with this, and you can carry on getting away with it.”

Blunder No 7: INZ’s staff told their managers that INZ was being ripped off, but they were ignored

INZ had two systems of staff feedback called “No Surprises Fact Sheets” and a question-and-answer forum known as “Ask Me Anything”.

Multiple staff raised issues with INZ managers, such as:

• employers receiving accreditation despite being ineligible;
• migrant workers arriving in New Zealand and not getting paid;
• migrant workers concealing the fact that significant fees had been paid to secure their jobs and their visas;
• businesses applying for incorrect accreditation categories; and
• employers using the AEWV scheme for horticulture and agriculture work, which was not allowed.

Staff told the review team that they did not know what happened to submitted No Surprises Fact Sheets. Where they did receive responses to issues raised, staff told the review team that they felt INZ managers’ responses were dismissive and that issues raised had been “swept under the carpet.”

Listen to your staff: it’s Management 101, isn’t it?

Blunder No 8: The new computer system kept changing

Regular readers of my columns may recall INZ’s $57 million IT disaster called ADEPT.

The report stated: “ADEPT was changing constantly as bugs were fixed and new functionality was added.

“Changes were poorly communicated, often ‘last-minute’ and without clear rationale, leaving staff with little or no time to prepare and a lack of understanding of the reason for the change or its impact ahead of working with the changes in the system.

“The constant change, coupled with constantly changing documentation, caused confusion and stress amongst staff.”

It got so bad, that, in order to process Accredited Employer applications using ADEPT, staff had to give wrong answers, pretending that checks had been completed when they hadn’t been.

By this stage, INZ managers had told staff that checks weren’t necessary – but ADEPT was still requiring them.

At the end of the day

So, at the end of the day, how many people entered New Zealand having paid for their job offers, for jobs which weren’t actually genuine?

And how many migrant workers are still being exploited in New Zealand?

Radio New Zealand has reported that, as of December 2023, 1552 complaints had been made against Accredited Employers where one or more migrants reported instances of exploitation.

The review report quotes New Zealand’s Migrant Survey, where 8 percent of respondents said they had not received minimum pay or holidays, or had been asked to pay for their jobs – this could equate to around 20,000 migrant workers being exploited.

DISCLAIMER: This article does not constitute immigration advice. Individuals need to seek personal advice from a New Zealand licensed immigration adviser or lawyer to assess their unique situation. Ankur can be contacted at info@visamatters.co.nz.