The Devil in the Details

Following on from my mid-week announcment, and now that the dust has settled somewhat on the Minister’s big announcement, it is a good opportunity to dive a bit deeper in to the changes and proposed changes, with some slightly more detailed analysis of what this all means for New Zealand and our immigration future.

As is always the case with these announcements, there are winners and losers and not everyone will be happy. That has certainly been the situation here with the Minister receiving both praise and criticism, although not in equal measure. There was certainly a greater deal of negative press following the announcement than people jumping for joy.

So what actually happened?

This was really a game of two halves and for two separate categories. Let’s tackle the parent category first, which was largely good news. In short the parent category which has been on hold for several years has been given a new lease of life. Income thresholds for the NZ sponsoring child have been reduced, siblings in NZ can also now jointly sponsor and the overall cap for parents has been increased. So far so good.

However what wasn’t discussed in great detail was the potential timelines involved. With the existing queue being in the region of 9000 Expressions of Interest (EOIs) and those getting priority, along with only 500 new EOI’s being selected each year from August 2023, it is going to take several years to clear out the existing queue. New EOI’s can be filed now, but selections for those will only start in August 2023 and only 500 of the 2,500 places per year will be allocated to the new EOI’s.

The parent category has always been a lengthy process because demand has always exceed available Visa places. The Government has tried to move that demand around with the EOI system or to slow down demand with high income thresholds but there is still strong interest in that pathway. That interest will continue as we see tens of thousands of people approved under the 2021 Resident Visa, looking to eventually bring their parents across.

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