As New Zealand gears up to re-open its borders and reconnect with the rest of the world fully as part of the government’s immigration rebalance plan and more international students and temporary migrants are set to return to the country and hopefully address the issue of staff shortage, there is growing confusion if non-accredited employers would be able to hire temporary migrant workers coming into the country.
Notably, from July 4, the Accredited Employer Work Visa System has come into place that requires employers seeking to hire temporary migrant workers to get accredited by Immigration New Zealand, which will only allow accredited employers to hire migrant workers on a special AEW visa.
However, many employers and businesses, who are delaying a decision to get accredited, largely due to financial constraints and still reeling under Covid-19 impact, are worried, if they would lose the ability to even hire casual staff from the new incoming pool of international students.
Following this prevailing confusion, the Indian Weekender approached the Immigration New Zealand to get more clarification, which has confirmed that the non-accredited employers will still be able to hire casual staffs from the pool of international students.
Immigration New Zealand’s Nicola Hogg, General Manager Border and Visa Operations told the Indian Weekender, “Non-accredited employers are currently able to hire any migrant whose visa allows them to work for any employer. This includes student visa holders who have been granted work conditions on their student visa.”
However, the Government has announced that it will be introducing a requirement that employers will need to become accredited to hire any migrant worker in 2023. No specific date for this change has been set yet.
“Last year the Government signalled its plan to rebalance our immigration system to ensure it contributes to a future economy that is highly skilled, highly paid and highly productive.”
“To achieve this, the Government wanted to make it easier for employers to attract and retain more highly skilled migrant workers, improve employment opportunities for New Zealanders, reduce exploitation risks for migrant workers, and remove opportunity for people to misuse the immigration system to remain in New Zealand for long periods of time where they wouldn’t otherwise meet the requirements to do so.”
“The Accredited Employer Work Visa is a key part of the Rebalance and is designed to ensure New Zealanders are first in line for jobs and where genuine skill or labour shortages exist, accredited employers can hire skilled migrants,”
“Accredited Employer Work Visa holders can only work for the Accredited Employer who supported their visa application. They can transfer to another Accredited Employer with an approved job by requesting a variation of conditions to their visa,” Nicola Hogg said.