NZ immigration changes result in higher uptake of ballot residency [1]
Saturday, July 23, 2005 - 13:33. Updated on Monday, May 12, 2014 - 09:39.
MEDIA RELEASE
New Zealand Department of Labour,
Workforce Pacific Division,
Immigration New Zealand.
NZ Saturday 23 July 2005
Nearly 3,000 Pacific people given NZ residence under quota policies
Pacific people given residence in New Zealand under the Samoan Quota (SQ) and Pacific Access Category (PAC) policies are a welcome addition to New Zealand...s workforce and community, Department of Labour Deputy Secretary, Workforce, Mary Anne Thompson said today.
She said the SQ and PAC, under which nearly 3,000 Pacific people were approved for residence in 2004/05, were an expression of New Zealand...s close relationship with Samoa and the PAC island nations of Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga and Tuvalu.
Ms Thompson announced that, from preliminary data for 2004/05, 1,482 people were granted residence under the SQ policy ... 1,091 under the 2004 and previous years... quotas, and 391 under the SQ "residual places" policy, introduced in November 2004 to make unfilled places available to Samoan citizens in New Zealand on valid temporary permits. Applications from up to a further 270 people selected in the ballots are still being processed.
She also announced that 1,491 people had been granted residence under the PAC ... 854 under the 2004 and previous years... quotas, and 637 under the PAC residual places policy, which also made unfilled places available from November 2004 for citizens of PAC countries in New Zealand on valid temporary permits. A further 717 PAC applications are still being processed.
The two quotas are government immigration policies that give Pacific people with a genuine job offer at or above a specified minimum pay level the opportunity to obtain permanent residence in New Zealand. Each year people are invited to register for the quotas, and those chosen in a random ballot are invited to apply for residence if they can obtain a satisfactory job offer here.
The SQ, which began in 1970, is based on the spirit of close friendship embodied in the 1962 Treaty of Friendship between New Zealand and Samoa, and provides an opportunity for 1,100 Samoan citizens to gain permanent residence in New Zealand each year.
The PAC began in 2002 and provides a similar avenue for a total of 650 citizens from these countries - all of which have close cultural and historic ties with New Zealand ... to be granted New Zealand residence. Under the PAC there are 250 places each for Fiji and Tonga, and 75 places each for Kiribati and Tuvalu.
Ms Thompson said that the residual places policies had been introduced because, while the number of people registering for quota places offshore in 2002 and 2003 had been expected to result in sufficient numbers of people being selected to fill the annual quotas, many of the places for those two years were subsequently not taken up.
Various factors are likely to have contributed to the failure to fill ballot places in previous years. Some people selected in the ballot decided not to proceed with their application for residence, others failed to meet immigration health requirements, and some simply could not obtain an acceptable offer of a genuine, permanent, full-time and sustainable job.
"Following discussions with heads of Pacific Island governments in March 2004, the Government asked the Department to review the schemes... operation and implement measures to help ensure all available places ... including those unfilled in the previous two years ... were taken up in 2005 and future years."
Ms Thompson said the high demand for places in 2004/05, and the number of applications approved under the SQ ballot and residual places policies this year, were encouraging signs that the SQ would be fully subscribed in 2005/06 and future years.
She was similarly optimistic that the PAC quotas for Tonga and Fiji would be fully subscribed in 2005/06 and beyond, although she said further efforts might be needed to help citizens of Tuvalu and Kiribati meet the requirements to fill the full complement of balloted and residual places for their countries.
Ms Thompson said the high uptake of places under both the SQ and PAC quotas in the year ended June 2005 was made possible largely by immigration policy changes implemented in 2004/05, and promoted by the Department in SQ and PAC nations and in New Zealand...s Pacific communities. The changes were:
the minimum income requirement for people with dependent children had been lowered, and the incomes of both parents could now be counted towards meeting the minimum income level where both had secured acceptable job offers;
the period of time successful quota applicants were given to obtain a job offer had been doubled, from three to six months;
citizens of Samoa and PAC countries already lawfully in New Zealand on temporary permits were permitted to apply for residence in New Zealand if selected in the quota ballots. Previously, they had to return to their home country to make an application for residence if selected in the quota ballot;
citizens of Samoa and PAC countries lawfully in New Zealand on temporary permits were invited to apply, on a first come, first served basis for "residual places" unfilled in the current or previous years.
As well, she said, the Department had developed partnerships with employers to assist successful quota applicants to find jobs in New Zealand in areas of skills shortage such as horticulture, bus driving, meat processing, caregiving and roadwork.
"All these initiatives appear to have been most effective in addressing the low uptake of recent years, to the extent that we have now filled a significant number of previously unfilled quota places," Ms Thompson said.
PAC residence approval figures 2004/05
Quota Residual Total
Fiji 306280 586
Kiribati 7840118
Tonga 443310753
Tuvalu 27734
TOTALS854637 1,491
SQ residence figures 2004/05
Quota Residual Total
Samoa: 1,0913911,482
Applications for the 2005/06 PAC and SQ quotas opened on 4 July and close on 12 August.