Ankur Sabharwal is the owner of immigration advisory Visa Matters. He is a licensed immigration adviser dealing with complex immigration matters.
OPINION: More than 5000 New Zealand employers have already applied for accreditation with Immigration New Zealand (INZ) ahead of the Accredited Employer Work Visa category opening on 4 July.
According to statistics provided by INZ on 30 June, 5282 employers have applied for accreditation since 23 May. Of these, 3819 applications have been approved already.
INZ aims to decide 90% of employer accreditation applications within 2 weeks, but did not respond to my request to say whether this timeliness standard is being met.
The Essential Skills work visa category closes this Sunday, 3 July. From Monday, employers wishing to bring overseas workers to New Zealand on work visas will need to be accredited by INZ.
Employers whose staff hold Essential Skills work visas due to expire from January 2023 onwards will need to be accredited if they want to continue to employ them.
INZ has estimated that about 24,000 employers will apply to become accredited. My guess is that number will be higher, given the tight labour market and the fact that INZ is often surprised by the number of applications it receives (e.g. INZ predicted that 165,000 people would qualify under the 2021 Resident Visa category; over 200,000 people have actually applied, with more likely to apply before the category closes on 31 July).
Government-funded employers such as hospitals and schools are only starting to wake up to the fact that, if they want to continue employing migrant workers, they will first need to be accredited by INZ.
The Government has indicated that, from 2023, all employers wishing to employ migrants on work visas (including those on ‘open’ work visas such as Post-Study work visas) will have to apply for and be approved as an INZ accredited employer.
Fairly easy. In most cases, INZ accepts an employer’s declarations on their application form that they have met the requirements of immigration law and employment law and will continue to do so. An employer also has to declare that they:
Only a small number of employers are being asked for additional evidence to support their accreditation application. These employers tend to be “labour-hire” or “triangular” employers, that is, employers who hire migrants who they send to work for other companies.
INZ requires labour-hire employers to provide more evidence with their applications, such as their policies and procedures to ensure that employees are well looked after at the workplaces they are sent to.
While the first employer accreditation application may be relatively straightforward, INZ will look a lot more closely at an employer’s second application, which must be made within 12 months of accreditation being approved.
This is because employers are required to give guarantees in their original accreditation applications, including that they will:
With their second accreditation application, INZ will ask employers for evidence that these guarantees have been met – failure to do so could lead to their application being declined.
Once accredited, employers will need to make a Job Check application to INZ to prove that no New Zealanders were available for the positions they want to fill with overseas workers.
Advertising requirements are much stricter for Job Check applications than they were under the Essential Skills category.
For example, job ads need to show the job description, minimum and maximum pay (which must meet the market rate for that role and be at least $27.76 for most occupations), location of employment, minimum hours of work, minimum skills, experience and qualifications required for the role.
Employers must not inflate qualification and work experience requirements; otherwise, INZ is likely to object.
Only after the employer’s Job Check application has been approved can migrant workers apply for their Accredited Employer Work Visa, which is the third and final stage of the process. Workers must prove they are suitably qualified for the role offered and meet health and character requirements for temporary entry.
I congratulate those employers who have applied for accreditation with INZ and have been approved already.
Other employers need to be lodging their applications soon if they want to hire migrant workers in 2022.
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.
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