Most farmers who employ migrants would have been asked whether or not they could assist their employeeto obtain residence. This often equates to the employee printing off the immigration policy and with that advising their employer of what they reckon is required. So what really can a farmer do to support their migrant employees to secure residence and avoid the hassle of filling in forms and renewing work visa applications? The answer is simple; understand the policy as it applies to positions on farms.
Many migrants who are employed on farms commence their employment on working holiday, seasonal, work or other legitimate visas. Some are happy to continue working on these visas while some may wish to make New Zealand their home and may wish to apply for New Zealand residency. While obtaining residency has an obvious advantage for the employee, from the farmer’s perspective residency for key workers also allows the worker to settle fully in New Zealand and it helps farm operations retain goodworkers in the longer term. If their desire is to obtain residency, then unless a pathway is set and they believe they can actually achieve it with you, they will go work for someone else who will be able to make it happen.
Lane Neave receives a lot of immigration enquiries from farm workers employed in all parts of South Island. Their roles range from general farm labourers, assistant herd managers, to higher level positions such as herd or farm managers. Many of these migrants or their employers engage us to obtain work visas, although for some occupations residency is also a possibility. In most situations, herd or farm managers are the only positions deemed skilled enough for the purposes of residency, provided their tasks and responsibilities are at the right skill level. The issue most farmers have is not knowing the residence process and/or not being able to determine what roles will secure residency and what skill level/responsibility is required to achieve that.
Individuals who wish to apply for residence as skilled migrants need to undergo a two-stage process. The first stage is to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) for residence which is premised on a point based system. An application can be made either in paper form or on the internet. This points system is based on numerous factors calculated by Immigration to assist in the individual successfully settling in and contributing to New Zealand. Importantly, many individuals only qualify under this category if they have a suitable offer of employment, as this significantly increases their chances of successfully settling in New Zealand.
Submitted EOIs are placed in a pool from which there are fortnightly draws. At the time of each draw aselection point, determined by Immigration, is used to select a certain number of EOIs for preliminaryverification. Here, the EOIs are put through a verification process, which essentially is a quick check to make sure the applicant looks like they may have a chance of qualifying.
In the next part of the process, those individuals who’s EOI’s ‘check out’ are then invited to apply for residence, usually via a formal letter. From the date of this invitation to apply letter applicants have four months in which to collate documents in support of their application and lodge their application. These documents may include but are not limited to police certificates, medical and X-ray certificates, evidence of their employment, evidence of their qualification or of any previous work experience. In some instances, Immigration may also require evidence of the applicants English language ability.
Once the full application is lodged, Immigration will scrutinise and review the submitted documents inaccordance with the applicable policy. Only if they find all aspects of the application satisfactory will they then approve the residence visa.
In most instances during the processing of the application the employer is contacted by immigration over the phone to discuss the employment position of the migrant in question, and in some instances immigration will turn up unannounced to undertake a site visit to make sure what your employee is doing (or says s/he is doing) is skilled enough to obtain residency, and also to check your systems to make surethere is compliance with the applicable immigration and employment regulations.
When it comes to assessing the skill level of the role, there is no mystery in this process as Immigration have set out the criteria in writing for certain positions to qualify (these are called ANZSCO descriptions), so as long as the employee either researches the policy well or obtains professional guidance before they put their application in, they should understand what is required and you also should understand whether or not the position qualifies based on the actual role.
There is no point putting in an application that does not meet the criteria. We have seen plenty of assistant herd managers apply for residency and have their application declined simply because they (and their employer) did not understand the policy requirements. Assistant herd managers can qualify for residence, but it depends upon the role, usually only very large farm operations will provide the circumstances required for an assistant herd manager to qualify, but it does depend upon a number of factors. In all cases however, if you want to help your employee qualify for residence you need to understand the applicableANZSCO descriptions for “farmers”, “herd managers” and “farm managers”. We are happy to provide the applicable ANZSCO descriptions upon request.
Generally visa applications are designed for the individual to take on the process themselves but LaneNeave frequently meets applicant’s who have run into problems with their visas because of various reasons, including (as above) misinterpretation of current policy and/or immigration laws. This has become more common in recent times as Immigration policies have become more stringent and with more migrationcontrols having been implemented by the Government.
Adequate preparation and the correct professional advice at the outset from a lawyer specialising in immigration before an application is prepared can save both employees and their employers a lot of time, money, and stress during this process. In many instances we have been able to suggest additional tasks for the employee to undertake to allow compliance with the regulations. Many farmers are happy to increase the skill level of their migrant’s roles when they understand what is required to achieve residency, the trick really is knowing what an employee needs to do on a daily basis to qualify.
If you take the time to understand the requirements, seek some advice or suggest your employee looks at getting some help, you can work towards a positive outcome for all involved.
Hetish Lochan is a senior solicitor based in Lane Neave’s Queenstown office specialising in immigration law.
Disclaimer: The content of this article is general in nature and not intended as a substitute for specific professional advice on any matter and should not be relied upon for that purpose.