Residency woes - Queenstown losing valued workers
Qualifying for New Zealand work visas under confusing and difficult skilled migrant rules is proving to be a major, and sometimes heartbreaking, issue for many local migrant workers and their families.
Queenstown Citizens Advice Bureau general manager Tracy Pool says that because of the way the skill levels are set some hardworking, valued and much needed workers have to leave NZ after five years.
In other cases, fathers who qualify for residency will come here ahead to get established and then bring their wives and partners over with the children, only to find the wife - if she’s on a lower skill level, can’t stay beyond five years, Pool says.
Children who don’t have both parents qualifying for a low skill work visa are not funded to attend NZ schools either, so they’re missing an education. “Unless one parent is on the right skill level the children can’t go to school here. If you’re a cleaner, waitress, or even work in a rental car company, you won’t get your kids here on visas that allow them to go to school,” she says. “We’ve had a couple of families bring their kids out and then find they can’t afford to pay the rent. A number have required help with food parcels.”
Pool says they’ve seen some apparent morally unfair cases, just because of the way the skill level rules are set, with those who would seem most deserving missing out while others breeze through.
“For a skilled person with no degree, like a bar manager or a builder, the rules say they’re out in five years, whereas the likes of a plumber and electrician quality.”
Pool says it’s frustrating with one local Japanese refrigeration engineer finding out recently after working here for four years that he doesn’t qualify for residency in a sector where there are shortages in NZ. It was heartbreaking telling these people that they didn’t meet the criteria, she says. “This guy was gutted, and his employer needs him. There are some good people who will never qualify, and we have to burst their bubble when they come in to enquire,” she says.
In another case a young British man with a degree, who the bureau referred to an immigration advisor, was told he didn’t fit the criteria despite working as a bar manager locally. “He’s gutted too,” Pool says. In other skill sectors if you have an overseas degree, regardless of whether it is relevant to the job, you gain automatic points towards qualifying for residency, but a tradesperson, like a builder – another skill we need here, doesn’t because they’re not on the shortage list,” Pool says.
“Gaining residency for our migrant population is the single biggest issue we’re facing at the bureau at the moment,” she says.
“We’re seeing a lot of very disappointed people who realise they won’t meet the criteria and requirements for residency. They thought they did but find out that they don’t. It’s so hard having to tell them.”
