NEW ZEALAND IMMIGRATION POLICY

The New Zealand Government has established a long and complex immigration policy that is designed to recruit and retain desirable individuals from overseas to assist New Zealand to reach its economic goals, while maintaining social cohesiveness.

Unlike other areas of New Zealand Government policy, New Zealand's immigration policy changes frequently. This is due to the changing direction of the Government and the associated needs and requirements of the economy.

Even though New Zealand's set immigration target is one of the highest, per capita, in the developed world, its immigration policy is selective and it is considered more difficult to qualify for New Zealand residence than most other international jurisdictions that operate a controlled migration program.

A transparent system?

One of the broad objectives of the New Zealand Government is for immigration policy to be transparent and fair. However, in reality, the New Zealand Government's drive to increase transparency in the system has removed a significant degree of discretion from the immigration officers processing residence applications (Skilled Migrant Category applications in particular). While this may be perceived as a benefit, in practice it means that unless an individual is appropriately assisted or completely understands the immigration policy they are applying under, mistakes can easily be made for basic failure to understand how the policy is administered and processed, even if what the policy provides is understood. Once you make the decision that you would like to obtain New Zealand permanent residence there are two choices. First, you can assess, complete, submit, and process your own applications directly with Immigration New Zealand.

 

The difficulty in taking responsibility for your own application is that you will not receive assistance with your application from Immigration New Zealand. They will provide information to you however they will not provide personalised tailored advice. There is a difference between the two.Second, you instruct Mark Manhire to take full responsibility to ensure you qualify and therefore obtain the visas you require. There are two main reasons why Mark Manhire receives instructions to assist applications:

1. You may simply not have enough time to research and understand the regulations in sufficient detail to ensure that you will obtain residence
2. You may wish to instruct Mark Manhire to assist you through the entire process to ensure you qualify and to ensure that you obtain the required visas in a timely manner with the least amount of stress.

 

We are selective with the instructions we receive on an immigration matter due to the fact that the goodwill that has been built up by Mark Manhire which is of significant benefit to all our clients moving through the immigration process.

Each immigration processing office and individual immigration officer has a set target of applications that they must process on a yearly basis. To us, our reputation with Immigration New Zealand is very important. The development of goodwill between our firm and Immigration New Zealand branches throughout the world is invaluable when, in some complex applications, discretion is exercised.

Application of immigration policy

You either will have or will soon attempt to navigate the Immigration New Zealand website to determine your eligibility for New Zealand residence.

While the information provided in the INZ website is substantive in terms of application criteria and policy, relying on the information provided in that website alone is extremely dangerous. INZ will provide information to you. However, they will not provide tailored guidance to you in terms of your particular circumstances and the best way to achieve your migration goal, nor will INZ provide any assistance if there is a potential issue with your application that could be easily corrected.

The New Zealand Government invites applications from individuals to apply for New Zealand residence while providing a comprehensive breakdown of the rules and application criteria. Your application is sorted and vetted strictly against these criteria. The key with many residence applications is how to present the application to INZ, and also to identify possible issues where genuine changes can be made to the application before submission to the New Zealand Government. You have one chance to file a correct and compliant application.

In reality, no two residence applications are the same, and that is why Mark Manhire provides an online assessment and consultation as part of our immigration service. Our online immigration assessment has been designed so that, within two to three days of reviewing the form, we will be able to provide an opinion as to whether or not the individual is likely to qualify for New Zealand residence. If an individual would like to move forward with the immigration process and engage our firm to assist them, we would then follow up with a full consultation and a final assessment during that particular part of the process.

 

Application criteria

The Immigration New Zealand Operational Manual that contains the significant part of INZ policy is over 1000 pages long. It would be impossible in this website to provide a full analysis of each policy, and what we offer here, therefore, is a broad summary of the main parts of immigration policy that apply to most overseas applicants wishing to reside in New Zealand. By contacting Mark Manhire lawyer and completing our online assessment, this form will record the basic details in order for Mark Manhire to assess your eligibility for New Zealand permanent residence under all current categories. What we offer here is not so much of a substantive look at each policy. It is an overview, and a practical summary as to how each particular policy works. For obvious reasons, we have decided not to set out all residence criteria, in favour of concentrating on the major policies.