 Alright, hey, welcome back to the channel today. I have a special guest and I'm so excited to introduce you to Ivy from pathways immigration and I just thought that we would bring her on today because she'll be so much better than me. And talking about the recent changes to the skilled migrant category, which is a huge deal because that's most of the people that come in are interested in that and there's been quite a few changes. She will also be overreviewing some other changes that have been happening over the last six to nine months. And they're just really great company. If you have any questions about immigrating here or just thinking about it, you can literally just reach out to them and they can just answer those and just see, you know, what visa possibilities you have and I will put all her information in the description below so be easy for you to access that so welcome Ivy thank you for coming. Hi Tara, thank you for having me and hello to your viewers and it'll be, it's good opportunity to be here and to reach out and also to assist everyone who has got questions about moving to AZ1. Yeah, so I just, we're just going to dive right in guys to the skilled migrant category changes and she'll overview kind of where we're at now and what the changes are, but it's great. And it's a big one. And so there's, there's lots of nuances to it so we'll do our best to cover it but go ahead and post questions below and we can just work together and getting those answered as changes are good. I think it's, it's moving in a good direction. So, that's right. So, here in New Zealand, there are several residents categories we've got, you know, the active investor, but the parent residents, but the main one where people would qualify for residents is the skilled migrant category so this is the points based system, which has been reviewed and the changes will be introduced in November of this year as it stands the current skilled migrant category is the points based system. So, you know, you get particular points for a particular criterion. At the moment, the minimum points for for a skilled migrant category expression of interest is 180 points. So you've got points for your age qualifications, skilled work, skilled work experience, skilled employment in New Zealand. That kind of that that kind of thing. So at the moment, if you want to apply for the skilled migrant category you need to apply for what's called an expression of interest so this is the first stage. Sorry, you can't even do the expression of interest unless you have those points is that right. Yes, unless you have claimed your points correctly claimed your point. No, that's a good way to say it. And just so you guys know like I moved to New Zealand in 2013. And it was 140 I believe at that point and then it went up to 160 and 180 so it's just it has gradually been getting harder. And so as you guys know I help a lot of people move over here, and they just hit it's hard to hit that 180. So let's I'm excited about the changes. So, but that's right Tara said that did come from 140 them to 160 and then last year they when they reopened the skilled migrant category. They said the 180 points would kick in earlier this year. So the 180 points like I said is made up of age qualification skill employment, but on top of that you'll also need to meet English requirements for primary applicants which could be an IELTS test. You'll also need to meet point five for the principal applicant and five for secondary applicants that would be your children or your spouse. And you'll also need to meet health and character requirements, which means you know, and nothing of a disease that would cause the New Zealand government money wise and resource wise so that kind of thing so. So those are all still in place. The, like, those are still remain health exams that you have to do, like as a as an American citizen, I don't know that's for every. You know, immigrant that comes over but like we had to do FBI fingerprints and we had actually show pictures of our family being happy like a real family over years. Like you couldn't just say that you were together like I actually had to send in actual photos. I don't know if this is still the case but it's kind of funny. But yeah, I really like it I think that immigration is only bringing in people that is useful to New Zealand, you know, where we have a lots of whatever you think about immigration here in US. You, New Zealand doesn't have a border and so they have, they're just they have really good rules around it I like it. It's hard to get in but it's fair. It's hard to get in. And, but, you know, in New Zealand, because such a small country and we like to attract high skilled and highly paid migrants, because of the you know it's small population we've got. And so that's that's been the focus of the skilled migrant category hence the name. So, and that's correct. You said that you talked about FBI clearances that that remains. So if you, you know, you present a police clearance from your country of citizenship in any other countries, you live in for 12 months or more in the last 10 years. So that still remains. You'll still need to provide general medical and x-rays for applicants that would need to provide those so those haven't changed at all. So the skilled migrant category. This will be ended. Well, the current policy would be finishing by the, I don't know, finishing the right term but the last expression of interest draw under the current policy would be the 16 this August. So the 16th of August, which is the Wednesday a couple of weeks from now, but the expressions of interest have to be in by the 15th of August. Otherwise, basically, you miss out. So that's to get in the current way that it's done under the current under the you know the 180 points system. Right. So that's what it is. So if you're not finishing all that paperwork get it in. That's right. That's right. So, you know, and like I said, you'll need to have claimed your points correctly, because at the moment you'll also need for you to be able to put in an expression of interest. You'll also need to meet the median wage, which at the moment is $29.66. So even if you've got a skilled job, you wouldn't be eligible to and remember with in terms of skilled employment. These are still immigration still relies on the Australian and New Zealand standard classification of occupation or end school. So, you know, the job has to be classified as an end school skill level one, two or three, and the applicant must be deemed suitable for the role by meeting the requirements as set out an end school. So there would be, for example, requirements for bachelor's degree qualification, or any actions of a bachelor's degree qualification five years of relevant work experience to substitute for the qualification. So there are a lot of variables that can come into play with the expression of interest with the current skilled migrant category your employer does not have to be an accredited employer. And so if basically you have a skilled job you have a, you know, you're paid at the correct rate, you meet other requirements that the English and the points then you can put we encourage everyone who qualifies under the current policy to get it in there. Now, because you've got a very small window of opportunity, right, because you already worked, so like just leave it. If you if everything works, I would definitely put it in I totally agree. Yeah. So can I just ask a quick question at the moment. Yes, sure. So when you put your expression of interest, when I did it it was, how do I say, it was still like a pool, like they randomly would pick people is that still the way that it works. Okay, that is correct so at the moment you put in your expression of interest, it goes into a pool and if you have 180 points, it will be automatic, at least 180 points, it will be automatically picked from the pool. Yes, so the expression of interest, basically is information, a lot of information that you need to put in there and to justify how you meet the points criteria. And you once you put an expression of interest at the moment it's $590 New Zealand dollars when you put it in, and think about give or take probably a few days to maybe a couple of weeks they'll issue what's called the invitation to apply. So the invitation to apply basically means your expression of interest has been picked from the pool. Now these are the requirements for you to complete in order to apply for the skilled migrant category. So the intent, the invitation to apply or the it a lists all of the mandatory documents that need to be submitted with the skilled migrant category. At the moment, the, well, the immigration fee for the SMC for SMC is $4,290 on launch of the application. And the reason experience is that it's processed anywhere between two and four months. So that that's the current skilled migrant category. Oh, that's not too bad. Well, it's like a year. It's not too bad. No. But yes, they had a, you know, the processing times before weren't great, but in saying that the two to four months would be for countries that would not require was all a national security check. So the national security check is a third party check that's undertaken by a different agency within different agency. And there's no timeframe for the national security check. So sure. That would probably throw a spanner in the works in terms of processing times, but another government needs to get involved. Yeah. Okay, so question about application. Okay, so what was my question. So what you're saying, just so I make sure I understand is that someone puts in their expression of interest that the way they've calculated they have their 180 points. And you look at it and you and immigration looks at it, and they see that it's accurate and they allow you to go in so that's the point of the expression is just to make sure that you fit all you tick all the boxes and have enough points and then you can apply. And isn't there like a limit to the amount that they can let in or and no moment there. There is well accused to be a quota system but not but I don't think they're doing that now because skill microcategory was suspended over COVID. And in fact, for the first draw in November, I think they got like 6000 EOS or something. And, you know, they had to accommodate that because it was suspended for such a long time. Okay. Yeah, so that's that's the current skilled microcategory current. So now we're going to move to. So I'm just going to take this up. Yeah, go ahead. So we're going to move on to the new one. So the new skilled migrant category, what they've done is they've basically simplified it. So simplified meaning, instead of the 180 points, you now just need to aim for six points. So with the skilled my current skilled migrant, well, you know, the main difference I guess here is that because they've simplified the skilled migrant category. They've removed the points required for you know, for age, because that was the thing that you had points for in the old skilled migrant category under 40. So I'm just going to cook. Yeah, I'm just going to quickly show you what it looks like now. Okay, cool. Okay. So this is the new skilled migrant, the simplified skilled migrant category points system. So as you can see they are now focusing on, you know, occupational registration or recognized qualifications or the income. And if you don't have enough points to get to the six points that lets you supplement it with New Zealand work experience. Oh, okay. Well, how are you New Zealand work experience if you can't come there and work. That's that's another I'll talk about that shortly but basically to cut and the current scheme and the current policy you'll need to be on an accredited employer work visa. To be able to, you know, obviously to obtain a job in New Zealand so that's a, it's a different category altogether from the policy that was, and that was active last year and pre COVID. So from July in 2022 immigration has introduced what's called the accredited employer work visa. So now with this skilled new skilled migrant category. I said earlier in the current policy for the skilled migrant category your employer does not have to be accredited, but with this new policy, your employer needs to be an accredited employer for you to qualify for the skilled migrant category. All right. So I'm just going to quickly run through the, you know, the simplified point system. So occupational registration, these would be like, for example, doctors, nurses, you know, teachers know that kind of thing so there are corresponding points for the occupational registration. So you can see it goes on from six, five, four, and then two. And the first question about that. So are you that says occupational registrations that mean an occupation where like, you know, you have a, you need to have like a teaching certificate to teach like that kind of like a business person that doesn't count because you wouldn't really have that. No, that doesn't count. So this is like more for occupations that require annual registration, like, for example, I said, thank you. So the higher the, the higher the points. So, and then the next one would be the income. So again, this relies on what's called the median wage here in New Zealand. So the median wage at the moment is $29.60. It's reviewed normally around November and they announced when the new median wage kicks in usually on February the following year. So if we're at 2966 now that's going to change. So the median wage kicks in usually on February the following year. So if we're at 2966 now that's going to change. So does that, does that take in consideration like, like exchange rates because like the New Zealand dollar to the US dollar I feel like that would be pretty easy to meet. The meat. Sorry, the median wage is basically based on the studies done by statistics New Zealand. I'm sorry. Yeah, so it relies mostly on what's called, you know, the median income in New Zealand and why and this is why migrants need to be able to meet this. Right. But what I'm saying is, yeah, what I'm saying is, so if someone in the US is making $20 US an hour, it would still be, you know, like 30 something in New Zealand dollars. So that's what I'm saying. So, okay, so, and this one, it's got to be a job. I think, no, it doesn't, it doesn't. I don't know how, how to address this, but basically it means that this income has to be earned in New Zealand. So I don't see it. Okay, okay. Yeah. Okay. Because the only, for the skilled migrant category, again, you'll either have an offer of employment or already in skilled employment with an accredited employer in New Zealand, which means they've already committed you to, they've already committed to paying you at least the median wage, whatever the median wage is in New Zealand. I think 80% of the time, or maybe 90% of the time, I'm not sure if the statistics, people who apply for the skilled migrant category are in New Zealand anyway. And so, but we'll see how this policy actually comes into play when November comes around. Right. That's true. Like once it actually comes into play. The other question was, so like if someone, okay, so if you're not, if you're not in a, you know, occupational registration, you're not in that kind of job. And, you know, so obviously degrees, you can get points. So let's say you have a bachelor's degree, which would be most people and they're only getting three points. And there's say a marketing manager and have been doing it, you know, for 20 years, let's say, or 15 years. So what you're saying is they would need to get a job offer in New Zealand. That would be three times the median wage to get those extra points. Am I understanding that? Okay, so the combination is a bit different. So, okay, because it's a laterized system, like I said, if it's a bachelor's qualification, several considerations. So basically, is it New Zealand qualifications authority recognized? Because if it's not, then that's another process that you'll need to go through. Right, the NZQA. That's right. Before you can claim those points. So assuming it's an NZQA recognized qualification. So you've got three points. You have to supplement it with three years of skilled work experience. So this skilled work experience has to be in New Zealand. And the reasoning for that is because it's difficult and it's time consuming to verify work experience from overseas. Yeah. So, you know, basically, or another scenario, for example, someone has got a PhD, so they already have six points. Do they still need skilled employment? Absolutely. They need skilled migrant category. They'll need to be still in skilled employment and just rely on their PhD to get those six points. So, again, a lot of variations to how you can claim the points. A lot of little fish hooks in there. You know, in terms of the qualifications, if they're called, if they're read, you know, if it's in New Zealand recognized qualifications, that's not a problem. Or if it's been completed in New Zealand, that's easy to be claimed. But if it were from somewhere else, then it needs to be checked if it meets policy requirements. And if it's not, then you know, NZQA and then you'll need to supplement it from points with skilled work experience. So just to be clear, if you have a PhD, you don't need anything else, or you also need to have a job offer. You need to have a job offer, a skilled job offer from an accredited employer. So when I say a skilled job offer, again, it's got to be within the ENSCO one, two, three list of occupations and paid at the median wage, at least the median wage, $29.00, $69.00. Okay. Ooh, all right. Okay. There are a lot of permutations that can arise from this new policy. Again, the important thing to remember is that apart from meeting the points requirements, the English requirements haven't changed, the health and characters requirements haven't changed. So those remain the same. Okay, so you still do all those same things. It's just the point situation. Okay. I think you guys are going to need to talk to the pathways. If you're, because this is like I can think of like 100 scenarios, which I'm not going to just throw you off the top of your head. Like how I would calculate the points for this because just reach out to her and I think that that would be helpful. I think that it's also a good, it might be helpful to talk about so because I can, I'm not seeing a lot of options for people to not get points through getting working in New Zealand. So how would they do that then? So that's the thing. So they, because the skilled migrant category, it focuses again on, you know, it has, there has to be skilled offer of employment or skilled work experience in New Zealand. If they can't get in. Yeah, so that's, that's the other thing that, you know, the, it's cash 22 as well. So if you don't, you know, you'll need to have a job offer to be able to apply for the accredited employer work visa. And then the accredited employer work visa would obviously be a path, hopefully there would be a pathway to residence. So I'm just going to briefly talk about the accredited employer work visa. So Immigration New Zealand has introduced this change last year. So for any New Zealand employer wanting to employ a migrant, a they need to be accredited by Immigration New Zealand. This means they've subjected them, you know, they've submitted preliminary checks and say that we're compliant with New Zealand laws. Once they've got the accreditation, then they'll need to provide a job check, which is basically they've provided evidence they've tried to recruit New Zealanders but there are no suitable people to fill in the roles. And can we please have unique job links for job tokens for these people to apply. So the job, the last one, the job token is the unique link for a migrant to apply for an accredited employer work visa. In the past, Immigration would look at end skull and to satisfy themselves if an applicant is suitably qualified in the current regime. It's the employer who sets the requirements. So for example, I want a painter, for example, painter blast, you know, painter blaster. Normally they'd say they require maybe like three years work experience. But if the employer says this is an entry level role will accept anyone with six months work experience and they're paid at this rate, provided that an applicant meets the requirements, then they can apply for an accredited employer work visa. So how they'll say, and just to transition to the skilled migrant category, let's say they've got a bachelor's qualification. That's been recognized by Immigration New Zealand, and they've got three years of work experiences to send blaster painter. Then that'll give them six points and that'll be a pathway for for residents for them in the future. So for the accredited work visa, is there like a time limit or is that just what's set with each different employer. The accreditation itself by employers is renewed annually. There's no in terms of the time limit, the accredited employer work visa at the moment is valid for they're issuing it initially for three years, but they've announced earlier this year that any work visas for three years. So at the moment, but they've announced that they are now extending the validity to five years. So for anyone who's been granted a three year accredited employer work visa from November this year they can apply for the balance of their visa to get the full five year entitlement. And the expectation is that within that five year period, they'll have a pathway to residents, otherwise there is a 12 month stand down period, you know, whether they'll need to leave New Zealand for a year before they can apply for a further accredited employer work visa. And in November, as of well in November this year, any accredited employer work visa will be granted for a duration of five years. And again, no expectation is that there is going to be a residence pathway for them. Oh, that's, is it me or does that seem like a lot easier, like at least giving options, like because before it was like if you don't have this and you can't do this and too bad. You know, like there wasn't like that work visa option we could come in a different way and then work towards your residency. Some cases there were but I was finding that quite hard. And there is still the work to residents option under the accredited employer work visa. And normally that's for the sector agreements. I wouldn't say it's easy if, if I were to compare to the previous policies, the accredited employer work visa is a lot stricter compared to the previous years. So this accredited employer work visa basically limits your staying using them for five years if you don't have an accredited, if you don't have a skilled migrant pathway or residence pathway, whereas in the past people have been here on work visas for 10 years, and there was no limit on them being on the work But at the same time, if you want to get a pathway to residency and you don't have 180 points and you can't get a job because you're not over there, like you kind of have no option which is what I experienced as the majority of people, unless they're on like the green list or the ones that they're looking for. So, I don't know, so that's, it's, yeah, it's complicated. It is complicated. And that's why some people also approaches for a student visa pathway. Because some people who, who got the funds and want to move to New Zealand, they invest in studying in New Zealand for a year or two, whatever level of education and that sort of, that's them up nicely for a residence pathway in the future. There are different permutations into achieving residence. It really just varies on how flexible I suppose someone is in terms of, you know, their long term goal and the hoops that they're willing to go through to be able to achieve residence. Yes. So the question about the accredited work visa, does that, when someone comes here say like, and they get the five years, do they get the social benefits of New Zealand like the health care and like the right to vote and So for anyone coming to New Zealand on a visa of at least two years, they would be entitled to public health system and they would not be entitled to vote that is for residents or citizens. But I think mostly it's about the public health publicly funded health service is a big one. And that's why that's why when immigration, you know, assesses health requirements, they need to make sure that these people are going to come in, you know, healthy and yeah. Anyone coming on a visa for two years or longer would be eligible for publicly funded health services. Okay, cool. Not not benefits as provided by, you know, the Ministry of Social Development but publicly funded health is yes, voting, no benefits. No. Got it. Okay, got it. Good. So, I mean, I guess, like you said, Tara, there is a lot of fish hooks and the policy there. I know I'm sure people would have a lot of questions about what we've just discussed. So, Tara would be displaying my contact details below. But if you do want to reach out directly. My name's IBM one of the lessons immigration advisors here at pathways to New Zealand. We do have a website that you can jump in. I'm just going to show that. That'd be great. Yep. So that's us. Yes. Okay, so that's Poffice in New Zealand. And we've, we have offices in the Hamilton and Wellington region. We've been, you know, over 30 years. We've been the industry for 30 years. There are a lot of, we've have, you know, tabs for the services that we offer depending on what pathway you're looking at. We also have a jobs board. And so this one, that's nice. Yeah, so this mostly we have, you know, medical fields that are mostly here. I think so feel free to browse through that we have our sister company and ZDR helps with the medical recruitment. But if you've got any further questions, our contact screen is here. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. And we've got, you know, a team of 12 advisors who would be more than willing to assist with any questions you may have. Does it cost to contact us? No, it doesn't. And that's our question. Yes. So, um, it's always been pathways philosophy to give clients or people the correct information at the get go, because it's easier to do that than to fix something. And so we consults are free. We would only be charging once we agree to a visa pathway. And even then we would tell you what the upfront costs are. We are probably in the mid range and cost wise in the market. And yeah, we speak several languages in the office as well. So if I'm Filipino. So we've got Indonesian, we've got Chinese, we've got Indian, we've got French, we've got Spanish speakers in the office. So there is a plethora of languages that can be spoken in this office. Oh, that's so great. And I just so you guys know I've like reviewed their, their costs are very reasonable for what you're getting. I just was like, oh, this is great. So I am on board for recommending pathways to guys and definitely reach out. Do not hesitate if you have just have a question and you're just thinking I would love to come to New Zealand. I just wonder if I can because everybody gets lost on immigration site, although I think it's well really well done immigration site and easy to figure out but you know there's all those different circumstances, you know, somebody in the family has a little bit of a health problem and you're not sure, you know, like, there's so many like little things that matter and so just reach out to Ivy and her team and that'll be great. So, yeah. So yeah, thank you so much for joining us today and if you guys have questions comment below, put them in there we I'll do my best and maybe I'll just you know send them to her maybe we'll do another video if this was helpful or if there's more information that you want to know, comment below let us know and I will see you next week. Thank you. Bye.