Waikato Business News August/September 2020

6 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS August/September 2020
Firms frustrated as migrant workers
stuck in limbo
By RICHARD WALKER
Frustrated Waikato business owners say
opportunities are slipping away and staff
are under huge emotional strain because
of Immigration New Zealand’s opaque
communication and slow response to
applications.
They say rules keep
changing and appear
unfriendly to small
businesses, which face a compliance
burden every time they
support a worker for a visa or
residence application.
Rocketspark co-founder
Jeremy Johnson complained
to Immigration NZ after a
key staffer had her application
for residency stalled in the
bureaucracy for 17 months -
after which time she is yet to
be assigned a case manager.
Meanwhile, Automatic
Door Services director Andy
Marsden has gone around
the agencies in a desperate
attempt to get an exemption
for a skilled staff member
stuck in India during Covid-19
restrictions.
Cambridge-based immigration
adviser Matthew Gibbons
says residence applications,
apart from a very small category
of people, are taking about
18 months or more to get a case
officer allocated.
“That is a significant
increase from what we were
seeing a couple of years ago.
So it is causing a lot of distress
for people.”
Gibbons is on an industry
steering group formed during
Covid-19 by key players in
the area - the Auckland District
and New Zealand law
societies, the NZ Association
for Migration and Investment,
and the NZ Association for
Immigration Professionals.
The group is pushing
on several fronts, including
Andy Marsden
seeking greater clarity around
the exception pathway and
lobbying to see processing
times come down.
They have also met with
new Immigration Minister
Kris Faafoi about the stress,
anxiety and depression faced
by some migrants. “We want
to try and get some communications
from Government
and from Immigration New
Zealand to migrants to at least
give them some signposting,
some clarity as to what is or is
not going to be happening any
time soon.”
Faafoi appeared receptive,
Gibbons says.
Covid-19 is making the situation
worse, but Rocketspark
director Grant Johnson points
out customer marketing manager
Fei Guo’s problems began
well before the pandemic.
Jeremy Johnson and Fei Guo
The Cambridge-based
software firm was confident
she cleared the threshold to
be given residency when they
started the process two years
ago, with the expectation of
a decision within six months,
based on information on Immigration
NZ’s website. She had
flourished at the web-building
firm, after joining three years
ago, and had been promoted to
her current position managing
a team of five.
The founders say people
with her skill set are difficult
to attract to Cambridge, and
point out her performance in
the role has enabled the hiring
of further New Zealand
residents. She has made Cambridge
home, following a short
stint in Auckland after she
gained a Masters in Management
Studies majoring in marketing
at Waikato University.
She is, Grant Johnson says,
“a good citizen and a good
team member”. However,
with no certainty, she faces
the possibility of returning to
China. One small win after the
firm pushed her case was the
recent extension of her visa
from January to April, in line
with a general extension made
by the government.
Fei says the rules have
changed while she has been
waiting, with the introduction
of a two-tier system that gives
weight to high income earners.
“They’ve got a non-priority
queue and a priority queue
now. As I understand it, they
are processing the priority
queue, and put the non-priority
queue on hold,” Fei says.
Gibbons backs her view.
The only categories being processed
more quickly are high
income earners with salaries
of $106,000 or more annually
or occupations requiring occupational
registration, he says.
“Everything else is sitting in
the queue.”
Jeremy Johnson says the
salaries being given preference
are outside the reach of
most small firms.
“We’re a small business,
helping small businesses and
this is a major handbrake for
us,” he says. “It doesn’t feel
like a small-business friendly
approach.”
Gibbons frequently deals
with people in Fei’s situation,
and says they are usually
successful in gaining
a further temporary visa
because, by definition, they are
skilled migrants.
“But it’s far from certain,
and it’s causing a lot of anxiety
and distress to people
who have made plans for
their long term future and find
themselves in a very uncertain
world whilst their residence
[application] is just sitting in
a queue.”
And while the minister
recently exercised new powers
to issue a six-month extension
for work visa holders, it did
not apply to their family members,
which Gibbons thinks
was a mistake that will create
more work for Immigration
NZ as spouses and children
apply for an extension.
Marsden was able to
renew one Automatic Door
Services (ADS) staff member’s
skilled migrant worker
visa just before Covid-19
hit, but says the administrative
load is daunting, time
consuming and costly.
Even worse for Marsden,
another key worker, Harwinder
Singh, is stranded in
India, where he had returned
home for a visit, with no
indication of when he might
be able to return.
Marsden says local MP
Louise Upston has given
“fantastic” support, but he is
unimpressed with the government
agencies he has dealt
with, which include Foreign
Affairs and MBIE as well as
Immigration NZ.
“It all comes down regularly
to lack of communication,”
he says “Unless you
are really fortunate and have
the right people on your side
there is no straight line of
communication with anybody
at Immigration NZ -
there is a blank wall.”
ADS won recognition from
MBIE that part of its business
was essential during Covid-19
level four lockdown, in recognition
of its role making essential
premises secure.
“At this point I thought,
home free, we’ve got it.”
But he says when he forwarded
the email to Immigration
NZ in expectation
of getting Singh back into
New Zealand, he discovered
MBIE’s acceptance
made no difference.
It all comes down
regularly to lack
of communication,
unless you are really
fortunate and have
the right people
on your side there
is no straight line
of communication
with anybody at
Immigration NZ -
there is a blank wall.
Marsden says Singh, who
he describes as his “righthand
man”, was expecting
to submit his application
for residency in September,
and his skilled migrant work
visa comes up for renewal in
January. “So we’re in a bit
of a worried position now,
given the timeframes that
we’re seeing.”
Marsden says when Singh
phoned Immigration NZ, he
was told they could find nothing
in relation to his exemption
application. Marsden has
even offered to pay for quarantine.
“Imagine how isolating
it is overseas. Everything
you have has been moved to
New Zealand, it’s in a house in
New Zealand, you don’t even
know when you can go back
to that country to go and get
it, let alone go back and start
your life again.”
Gibbons says in his experience
the problem is lack of
action, rather than a failure of
communication. “Generally
speaking if I contact Immigration
New Zealand, I get a
response from them but not
necessarily the response I
want. If I make a request for a
case to be escalated so it gets
processed I nearly always get
a decline. Immigration introduced
a system to escalate
cases and it is granted only
in very rare circumstances
in my experience.”
As for the delays, he thinks
both rising demand and an
Immigration NZ decision to
close offshore branches are
contributing factors but not
the whole reason.
Cambridge Chamber of
Commerce chief executive
Kelly Bouzaid describes the
situation as a “mess”. She
asks why some get approved
while others don’t, after writing
successfully in support of
a local chef whose visa had
expired. She says the first two
approaches, before he was
approved, involved the restaurant
being told they could
hire a Kiwi. “Actually here
and now that’s not really the
answer for business continuity
in amongst a pandemic.”
The toll on small firms
such as ADS and Rocketspark,
lacking the resources of large
firms, is challenging, and
is potentially holding back
growth of jobs for New Zealanders
as well as migrants.
“When you believe you’re
operating with complete integrity,
and it’s the right person
for the job and you’re growing
the New Zealand economy,
that’s when you start to
get a bit testy,” Grant Johnson
says. “We are pretty placid but
we’re getting ticked off.
“We’re pretty realistic in
terms of it [Covid-19] is a
one in 100 year event. But it
wouldn’t be that hard to provide
some clear guidance.”
Gibbons: “I think throughout
all of this, what we would
love to see is a little bit more
guidance, a little bit more
signposting as to exactly what
is or is not likely to happen.
I do understand that these
are extremely unusual times.
But I do think there’s been
quite a lot of time to try and
work through these issues to
get more policy, more planning
as we move forward.
And if that means giving
people bad news, so be it,
but at least let people know
where they stand.”