IMMIGRATION LAW UPDATE VIENNA TSE AND RABIAH KHAWAJA
Accredited Employer regime: Success for New Zealand employers?
18 HUMAN RESOURCES | SUMMER 2023/24
Associate Vienna Tse and Senior Associate Rabiah Khawaja from Cavell Leitch evaluate how successful the Accredited Employer Work Visa system has been, one year into its implementation.
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hrough the accreditation of employers, the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) system seeks to mitigate risks associated with migrant exploitation and promote fair employment practices. Now, more than a year into its implementation, the critical question arises: have the policy developers successfully achieved their intended goals? According to Immigration New Zealand (INZ), as of 9 October 2023: • 29,295 employers obtained accreditation • 90,662 AEWV applications have been approved • 1,157 post-accreditation checks have been undertaken, and an additional 1,345 are under way • 81 employers have had their accreditation revoked, and 24 have had their accreditation suspended.
checks have been completed. This means that less than 4 per cent of verifications have been carried out since the policies were implemented in May 2022. With the meagre percentage of verifications being made under the AEWV system, its integrity has been called into question. DECELERATION OF PROCESSING JOB CHECK APPLICATIONS
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Currently, most job checks are taking more than 5–6 weeks for processing
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INTEGRITY OF THE AEWV SYSTEM
he AEWV scheme is supposed to make it easier for employers in New Zealand to hire skilled migrants where genuine skills or labour shortages exist. However, the reality is that all employers are required to go through several verification steps before they are able to employ a skilled migrant, including obtaining accreditation, advertising the role, if required, and applying for a job check.
NZ has stated it aims to carry out about 15 per cent of post-accreditation checks. However, as of 9 October 2023, only 1,157 post-accreditation
While the processing timeframe for a job check application is about 10 working days, many employers have experienced substantial delays in job check
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