More Immigration NZ staff, but work visa services unlikely to speed up

Immigration NZ (INZ) says buinesses and migrants should not expect better visa services, following a hike in fees.

Thirty-three new staff start work at the agency next week, but a body representing the immigration industry says that will be a drop in the bucket in overcoming slow wait times.

Businesses who were hoping to have migrant staff in place for summer are waiting more than seven months to get a job check and visa, not including up to three months for accreditation.

The cost of an Accredited Employer Work Visa more than doubled from $750 to $1540 last month, with hopes that may also improve service levels.

But INZ said the increases were instead aimed at ensuring users pay a higher proportion of the costs of running the immigration system

“It is important to be clear that users of the immigration system should not expect a different level of service as a result of the new visa application fees,” said acting deputy chief operating officer Jock Gilray. “The new visa application fees have reduced taxpayer costs associated with the immigration system.”

More than 1000 people work full-time in INZ visa processing and another 1000 in other frontline roles. A further 270 people work in other parts of the INZ workforce, such as quality assurance, service design and customer engagement.

Association of Migration and Investment chairman Simon Laurent said in that context, 33 new staff members was welcome but underwhelming.

Under the former essential skills visas, decisions took two to four months, he said.

“In any private industry, you would expect an increase in costs to equate to an improvement in investment in the product, so that for them to double the fees effectively and say that there’s going to be no change in service delivery is extraordinary and is completely out of touch with the expectations of people operating in a modern society.”

A seven-month wait in a business environment was incredibly long and proving to be a real headache, he said, with some firms having to downsize or even close as a result.

Migrant Workers Union president and immigration adviser Anu Kaloti said the delays were affecting migrants and businesses alike and while new INZ staff were necessary, it was only part of the equation.

“That’s welcome, but it might also be just the drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things. And retaining experienced staff should be a priority for them, because it’s good they’re taking on new staff, but sometimes it takes a while before people have had their orientation, and had some training and found their feet.”

Immigration New Zealand said the new visa application fees ensured those benefiting from immigration paid a higher proportion of the costs of running the immigration system.

Previous fee and levy increases in 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2022 to overcome shortfalls in Immigration NZ’s funding mechanism, which dates back to 2009.

The deficit in its visa memorandum account – which reconciles department costs and user-pays fees – reached $65 million in 2019 and a series of write-offs cost the taxpayer about half a billion dollars over the pandemic period.

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