Both de-facto partner and a married spouse of a New Zealand citizen/resident will qualify for residence provided you can establish that your relationship is genuine, stable, intended for a long-term and is exclusive. Please note that there is no automatic right of residence for partners of a New Zealand citizen/resident.

From 22 March 2021, Australian lawyers are exempt from holding MARA registration. In fact, Australian lawyers holding unrestricted practising certificate, cannot become a registered migration agent or continued to be a MARA agent from this date . As an Australian legal practitioner, Lloyd is able to provide immigration assistance to clients.

Lloyd Vivera, our immigration lawyer, has been chosen to be one of the best immigration lawyers by www.topreviews.co.nz/best-immigration-lawyers-auckland/

Immigration has announced that they will be strictly interpreting the labour market test, which is a major component in an essential skills application. In order to be able to meet the labour market test an employer must demonstrate that they have made “genuine attempts” to recruit a New Zealand citizen or resident who is suitably qualified and/or experienced for the role or who can “readily be trained to do the work on offer”.

Immigration has decided that they will take the current unemployment situation when assessing applications, even though when the employer advertised prior to COVID-19, no suitable candidates were available. In other words, Immigration is likely to assume that due to COVID-19, the situation has changed, and New Zealand citizens/residents are now available to do the job. According to Immigration, their priority is that employment opportunities are given to as many New Zealanders as possible. If there is a New Zealand candidate who is suitably qualified or can be readily trained to do the role on offer, then the labour market test will not be satisfied. In other words, Immigration would proceed on the assumption that for most roles, New Zealanders would be available, and the onus is on the employer to displace the assumption.

We expect that in majority of the applications, Immigration officers are likely to ask employers to provide updated information/evidence to confirm that no suitable New Zealanders are available to take up the offer despite the current unemployment situation. Employers will be asked to confirm that they can sustain the employment.

With these changes, the decline rates would be substantially higher than usual till the unemployment rates fall to less than 5%

There has been a marked increase in the processing times for residence applications under skilled migrant policy. Currently Immigration is allocating case officers for applications filed in May 2019.

A residence visa entitles you to come to New Zealand and live permanently in New Zealand. If you are already in New Zealand, it allows you to remain in New Zealand permanently. Resident visa usually comes with travel conditions usually for two years which means that you are allowed to travel in and out of New Zealand for two years.

A resident visa allows you to leave and re-enter New Zealand only for a limited period. If you want to travel in and out of New Zealand for an indefinite period, you need to apply for a permanent resident visa. Permanent resident visa allows indefinite travel.

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