One of the most desirable visa categories in New Zealand is the Essential Skills category which relies on employers testing the local labour market (LMT). This is to determine whether any suitable New Zealanders (citizens or residence class visa holders) are either available or readily trainable to perform the role. The employer must make genuine attempts to recruit suitable New Zealanders, before supporting a migrant’s visa application.

New Zealand businesses are starting to retrench staff and the pool of unemployed skilled labour increases. This means the prospect of an employer finding New Zealanders to perform work will also increase. In addition this is further enhanced by New Zealanders who have returned home after living overseas and are now on the job market. We need to brace ourselves for a much greater level of scrutiny into the LMT part of the application process.

INZ’s latest directive instructs immigration officers to be satisfied that there are no suitable New Zealanders available to perform the role. To do this, they will request employers for updated information about the availability of New Zealanders for the role on offer. The reality is that unemployment across New Zealand is increasing and this situation is only going to get worse when the Wage Subsidy Scheme ends later in June. Therefore, it is quite likely that an LMT undertaken now will be more favourable than one undertaken two months later. It will be very difficult to secure a work visa for an occupation in ANZSCO skill level 5, unless issued as an exception to the Instructions.

In addition to the enhanced LMT approach, INZ is also placing greater emphasis on assessing whether an offer of employment is genuine, sustainable and full-time for the duration of the employment offered. This could potentially take many forms including, potentially providing information such as bank statements, tax records and information whether any redundancies have been made recently.

The post COVID-19 decline in the New Zealand economy means all applicants for Essential Skills work visas must be prepared for far greater levels of scrutiny on job offers and any applicant’s suitability. It will still be possible to secure work visas, albeit with a thorough approach toward all aspects of any application.

Steve Baker from Enterprise Recruitment’s Global team, coordinates all Immigration related matters. He and his team welcome the opportunity to discuss all opportunities from potential employees and employers alike.