The week has had a big advocacy focus on immigration.
We wrote to Minister for Immigration, Michael Wood on the Level 4 qualification requirement for benchmarking chef and cookery skills as required to obtain an Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV).
At present, the policy and policy structure is not supporting the visa process and should be rectified immediately to allow the industry to obtain the skills that are desperately needed. We again asked that the migrant chef criteria include Level 4 qualification requirements or relevant industry experience.
We have also spoken to NZQA regarding the verification of international hospitality qualifications and a list of countries or institutions whose courses have been approved as equivalent to New Zealand Level 4 qualifications.
I was on the AM Show on Monday addressing both these issues.
More Working Holiday Visa spots have been made available this week. Working holiday schemes progressively re-open from yesterday, 4 larger capped schemes will re-open this month:
- Malaysia: 8 September 2022
- Argentina: 15 September 2022
- Chile: 22 September 2022
- Taiwan: 29 September 2022
This follows previous WHV announcements on extending the visas of working holiday makers already in New Zealand with visas expiring between 26 August 2022 and 31 May 2023 by 6 months, doubling the Working Holiday Scheme caps with a one-off increase to recognise the spots that were unused last year due to the border restrictions, and giving WHS visa holders offshore more time to travel to New Zealand.
We have been informed that MBIE has stood up a Reconnecting NZ team specially focused on the speedy processing of all visa types to cope with the demand as visitors and migrants return to New Zealand.