Immigration New Zealand has responded to mounting criticism and employer dissatisfaction by changing the new work visa system.
Employers complained about a significant amount of red tape and an intricate online procedure for the work visa system.
Since the Accredited Employers Employment Applications (AEWV) began more than five weeks ago, only 21 visas have been granted. Immigration has been asked to accept nearly 30,000 applications for jobs by employers.
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has established a toll-free number for employers with an average call center wait of 47 minutes. It also calls them right away to obtain the information they may need in the ‘job check’ portion of the new visa application process.
“The AEWV policy is an employer-led work visa approach, which is new to employers and requires different behavior,” said Nicola Hogg, INZ’s general manager of border and visa operations.
“Employers not only learn how to navigate the new technology and AEWV policies, our employees also learn how to process this new visa category and help employers educate employers about what is needed.”
Since the first phase of the AEWV was completed in May, most employer accreditations have been granted.
However, the second stage, which began on June 20 and promised to conclude in 10 days, has been hampered by technological constraints that businesses have trouble with. Three of the five applications were not processed.Of the 4,312 applications, representing 29,348 jobs, 1,687 (12,403 jobs) had been completed.
These seem to be initial hiccups that would soon go away for sure.