Free advice for NZCB members

A free helpline offering legal advice is available to New Zealand Certified Builders (NZCB) members. Specialist employment lawyers, Copeland Ashcroft Workplace Lawyers, who have been on hand to assist NZCB members for the last year with employment related issues, are now offering free 15-minute phone calls to discuss immigration and visas. Plus, here is the latest from them on the New Recovery Visa recently announced by Immigration New Zealand (INZ).

New Recovery Visa

INZ has announced a new sub-category work visa – Recovery Visa – under the Specific Purpose work visa category to help the recovery and rebuild in the North Island.

Eligibility

If applicants come to New Zealand for a short period to do one of the following support jobs for the North Island recovery from extreme weather events in January and February 2023, they may be eligible for the new Recovery Visa.

• Providing emergency response

• Immediate clean-up

• Assessing risk or loss

• Infrastructure, building and housing stabilisation and/or repair (including planning functions)

• Work that directly supports the recovery (e.g., producing relevant material for road rebuild, transport drivers etc).

The Recovery Visa is not limited to roles in the North Island, recognising that some direct support industries will be South Island-based. However, this visa is not available to industries providing indirect support (e.g., businesses in the affected areas facing an increased demand for services) or to backfill vacancies of people leaving roles to work on the recovery.

Duration and INZ application fee

This new work visa will be valid for up to six months. INZ aims to process the application within a week. INZ will refund the application fee of $700 for all successful applicants.

We are here to help

If you need advice or information about visa applications, talk to us. We can help at a reduced fee of $600 – $850+gst for this Recovery Visa to support the North Island recovery and rebuild. Have a question? Please contact us on 0800 354 821.