Immigration 2023: a hot election topic

Rachael Mason, Partner in the Immigration team at Lane Neave Lawyers, looks at what employers can expect for the year ahead with the immigration system changes.

Employers have struggled over the past few years with critical labour shortages in both skilled and unskilled roles across a wide variety of industry sectors. The immigration system has always played a part in helping to plug some of these workforce gaps. However, recent changes to the immigration system, introducing the concept of the median wage as a minimum entry point for securing a visa, have made it more difficult for employers to access migrant workers in lowerpaid and lower-skilled roles. These changes have brought real pain to many employers who have previously relied on migrant workers in their organisations.

Just before Christmas, we saw welcome announcements that will give employers a much-needed break, including:

• additions to the Green List, including 10 new roles added to the Green List (Work to Residence) and registered nurses, midwives and all medical doctors being upgraded to the Straight to Residence pathway

• a one-off automatic extension of the validity of employer accreditation for a further 12 months, meaning many employers will now not need to extend their accreditation status until mid-2024

• maintenance until April 2023 of the ability for partners of work visa holders to also secure an open work visa

• provision of a time-limited residence pathway for bus and truck drivers

• the extension of compulsory accreditation applying to all migrants, even those with open work rights, has been deferred until 2024.

Although these changes are not a silver bullet, they will certainly provide relief in some sectors and give all employers of migrants breathing space in relation to their accreditation status.

Median wage and exceptions

Most employers will be aware that the median wage for immigration purposes increased to $29.66 per hour on 27 February 2023. In many roles, it is not possible to secure a work visa for a migrant worker if the pay rate sits below the median wage. However, there are important exceptions where it is possible to pay less than the median wage.

We should expect that things will stabilise and we can return to a form of ‘business as usual’, albeit in a tougher environment.

The sector agreements for certain specified roles within the care, construction and infrastructure, meat processing, seafood processing and seasonal snow and adventure tourism sectors provide time-limited relief from the median wage. In most cases, these pay rates now sit at around $26.69 per hour, and the sector agreements are expected to be in place through until 2024. The intention is to allow employers in these sectors time to gradually work towards transitioning to the full median wage where they need to recruit migrant workers.

A further exception to paying the median wage is for specified roles in the tourism and hospitality sector, where a pay rate of $25 per hour is acceptable. It is important to note that this pay rate will increase in April 2023 to $28.18 per hour; so right now there is a time-limited opportunity for employers to secure work visas for employees in these roles to lock in the current pay rate.

Immigration New Zealand processing times have blown out to never seen before levels, bringing further pain to both employers and migrants trying to navigate the process.

Visas issued based on pay rates below the median wage are for a maximum two-year duration. They will then require the migrant worker to depart New Zealand and stand down offshore for a minimum of 12 months before they can reapply for a visa at below the median wage.

What does 2023 have in store?

The introduction of the Accredited Employer Work Visa in 2022 brought with it multiple changes to the immigration system, both at an eligibility level and in relation to the way applications are made and processed. Additionally, Immigration New Zealand processing times have blown out to never seen before levels, bringing further pain to both employers and migrants trying to navigate the process. However, with all that change under our belts and a good working knowledge of how the new system works, we should expect that things will stabilise and we can return to a form of “business as usual”, albeit in a tougher environment. Even if the processing times don’t improve, we are all now better placed to manage the expectations of our internal and external stakeholders, knowing that the timeframes could be lengthy. These matters should give employers some reassurance that things can improve from here.

The recent changes highlighted above indicate the government is responding (albeit in a limited way) to employer feedback. However,

even more promising is the hope that, with a new prime minister and as we draw closer to the election, we may well see moves to further improve the immigration outcomes for New Zealand employers with some easing of the system from the current government, a potential new government, or both. Roll on the rest of 2023!

Rachael Mason is qualified in New Zealand, England and Wales, and has practised exclusively in the area of immigration law for several years. Rachael is a facilitator for HRNZ PD courses, virtual courses and webinars. Go to hrnz.org.nz/pd to see upcoming courses. She works with both multi-national corporate clients and smaller local employers across a range of industry sectors in managing their global and local migrant workforces and developing and maintaining compliance and legal right to work policies. Rachael is focused on providing highquality technical immigration advice that is both pragmatic and commercial.