On Sunday 7 April 2024 New Zealand’s Immigration Minister announced immediate changes to the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) scheme.

The Government has indicated changes are designed to ensure more stringent testing of the local labour market to reduce the risk of putting New Zealanders out of work and to reduce what the Government has called “unsustainable” levels of migration.

In 2023, annual net migration to New Zealand hit a near record high of more than 173,000 non-New Zealand citizens in the year to December.

Changes to the visa program include the introduction of English language requirements for low-skilled jobs and setting a minimum skills and work experience threshold for most employer work visas. The maximum continuous stay for most low-skilled roles has also been reduced from five years to three years.

Unless your occupation is on the Green List and meets the Green List role requirements, or is paid at least twice the median wage, you must now have:

·        at least 3 years’ relevant work experience.  To meet the work experience requirement, you must provide evidence proving you did the work — you cannot include documents that you wrote (this includes a CV).
or
·        a relevant qualification at level 4 or above of the New Zealand Qualifications and Credentials Framework (NZQCF). Evidence of your qualification must be accompanied by an International Qualification Assessment (IQA) if it is below Bachelor’s degree level.

Plans to add 11 roles to Tier 1 of the Green List were also cancelled.

Fortunately, the majority of healthcare roles, including doctors, specialists, sonographers, radiographers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, nuclear medicine technologists and podiatrists remain on Tier 1 of the Green List and are not impacted by the changes at this time.

The Green Lists are regularly reviewed with professions added and removed from the lists to meet the country’s labour shortages.

If your occupation is currently still on the Green List there is no better time to make the move to New Zealand.

Contact GHS today.

The post NZ Migration Update April 2024 appeared first on Global Health Source.

Partners of workers in Green List occupations will retain the right to an open work visa however if you have a job offer in an occupation not on the Green List, NOW is the time to make the move if you would like your partner to secure working rights immediately.

The post New Zealand Immigration Update appeared first on Global Health Source.

The exceptions to this policy change are if the AEWV holder meets Green List requirements or earns at least double the median wage (currently $55.52 hourly). Radiologists, radiographers, sonographers, radiation therapists, occupational therapists, podiatrists, audiologists, registered nurses and midwives will therefore all still be able to support their partners in an Open Partnership Visa.

These professions will also automatically qualify for residence in 24 months.

Unfortunately, Physiotherapists and Speech Pathologists did not make the cut and their partners will either need to initially travel on a Visitor Visa or secure their own Accredited Employer Work Visas to arrive on shore.

Like many others, we eagerly await the re-opening of the Skilled Migrant Residence pathway to determine exactly what residence pathways remain available to these occupations.

The post New Zealand Update appeared first on Global Health Source.

To be eligible for the straight to residence program, you will need to secure a role and meet both the required qualification level and minimum salary requirements.

The first step to ascertaining whether you would be successful in securing a role in NZ would be to determine whether you will successfully gain membership with Engineering NZ.  At present this is not compulsory how it will greatly improve your chances of securing work in NZ and indicates a commitment on your part for potential employers.  There is also a proposal for the introduction of a new registration and licensing regime for engineers in New Zealand.  Below are two links.  Engineering NZ also has job advertising under the Engineering Tools dropdown menu for your perusal.

https://www.engineeringnz.org/join-us/chartered-member/get-chartered/

https://www.mbie.govt.nz/about/news/a-new-registration-and-licensing-regime-for-engineers/

If you would like further information on this pathway to residence please contact GHS today.

The post CALLING ALL ENGINEERS! appeared first on Global Health Source.

The program provides skilled migrants with a pathway to permanent residency in the following visa categories:

• Skilled – Nominated (sub​class 190)
• Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) (subclass 491)

The Australian Government has announced the State and Territory nominated visa allocations for the 2022-23 Migration program year.

The ACT, Tasmania and Victoria have now officially opened their skilled migration program.

The remaining States and Territories are expected to follow in the upcoming months.

To discuss pathways to migration in Australia, please contact us to book a consultation with our registered Migration Agents.

The post Australian State Nominated Migration Program appeared first on Global Health Source.

The Australian government has announced the planning levels for its 2022-23 Migration Program, which will consist of 160,000 places with two-thirds allocated to the Skills stream and one-third allocated to the Family Stream.

The Skills stream will have an allocation of 109,900 places (which is up from approximately 30,000 places in 2021-2022), which is intended to improve the economy and ease critical workforce shortages.

It consists of the following allocations for employer-sponsored, skilled-independent, regional, state/territory nominated, business innovation and investment, global talent (independent) and distinguished talent visa categories.

As a result, foreign nationals will now have additional opportunities to enter the country for work, residency and a pathway to citizenship.

To discuss pathways to migration in Australia, please contact us at ghs@globalhealth.com.au  to book a consultation with our registered Migration Agents.

The post Australian 2022-2023 Migration Program appeared first on Global Health Source.

As borders open and the global travelling community return to the skies a growing number of people are refused travel due to presenting passports that have even the smallest of imperfections.

Passport damage includes:

• Water damage
• Faded pages
• Stained pages
• Missing pages
• Loose binding or folded pages
• Tearing on the cover or any pages (even if it does not interfere with the information on the page)
• Damage to the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip.

Put simply, if your passport has sustained any such damage, then it should be replaced immediately as it will be invalid for travel.

Even if your home country allows you to depart on a damaged passport there is a very real likelihood that your destination country will refuse to accept your damaged passport on arrival and will immediately return you to your country of origin.

They will not permit you entry to obtain a new passport.

It usually takes several weeks for a passport application to be approved. In most cases that is between 6 and 8 weeks but it could take longer.  In some instances, it is possible to expedite the process in urgent cases by paying an extra service fee, but remember that depends on the issuing government.

Don’t take any chances. 

Keep your passport safe, dry, flat and in a secure location at all times.

#passports #passportdamage #keepyourpassportsafe #immigrationadvice #alliedhealthrecruitmentagency #alliedhealthrecruitment #sonography #radiography #radiologists #physiotherapy #occupationaltherapy #podiatry #speechpathology #travel

The post DAMAGED PASSPORTS appeared first on Global Health Source.

To be eligible for the fee exemption, you must:

• have held an accreditation under Talent (Accredited Employer) scheme on 23 May 2022, and
• have at least 6 months validity remaining on your accreditation period, meaning your accreditation was due to expire on or after 23 November 2022.

The fee exemption can only be applied for your first application for accreditation under the AEWV policy. The application must be made on or before 23 November 2022.  If you wish to employ migrants after 3 July you will need to be accredited under the new system so we would encourage you to apply now for a seamless transition.

The post Accredited Employer Work Visa: Employer Update appeared first on Global Health Source.

From 4 July 2022 vaccinated Accredited Employer Work Visa holders can enter New Zealand.

From 31 July 2022 all visa categories including visitor and student visas will re-open for applications for travellers from anywhere in the world.  You must be vaccinated to enter New Zealand, and have evidence of a negative Covid-19 test before your first international flight.

After you enter New Zealand you must do 2 rapid antigen tests (RATs) on Day 0/1 and Day 5/6 and declare your results. Children under 6 months do not need to be tested.

All positive RATs must be registered and followed up with a PCR test.

The post New Zealand Update appeared first on Global Health Source.

GHS recruit in the healthcare sector and we can assist you with securing a role, visas and residence in New Zealand.  If you are in an alternate Green List occupation, GHS can assist with a migration only service.

What are you waiting for?

Find out if you are on the GreenList and start your new life in New Zealand.

Contact GHS now.

Free Call from New Zealand:
00 800 9227 0822

Free Call from UK, Ireland or South Africa:
00 800 9227 0822

Free Call from Canada:
011 800 9227 0822

Standard International Call:
+61 8 9227 0822

Email Enquiries:
ghs@globalhealth.com.au

The post Are you on New Zealand’s GreenList? appeared first on Global Health Source.