With the start of the pandemic New Zealand hasn’t accepted any application under the parent category.  But now the country is planning to accept the applications of permanent residency of parents of skilled workers. 

Skilled workers and their parents can apply for the residence again, as per reports. No new applications have been accepted under the parent category since 2016. 

According to Immigration Minister, with a simplified system and no restrictions on numbers, the system will be more transparent.  

The parent category visa with lower income and higher cap will be restarted allowing various families to re-join their loved ones in New Zealand.

The Skilled Migrant Category

The immigration Minister Michael Wood stated that skilled Migrant Category SMC will also be reopened which was shut since the start of the pandemic. This is a point based system.

The Minister also added that the first selection under SMC will be on 9 November with minimum points starting from 160 to reaching up to 180 for the migrant workers.

While some of the occupations have already moved to the green list which was opened last month for applications. These were initially under the skilled migrant category. 

The immigration Minister Michael Wood also said that as a part of the Immigartion rebalance, the new system will make a clearer view about the eligibility and skills allowing New Zealand to invite talented individuals under new Accredited Employer Work Visa. This will also help the streams in Green list and  announce Highly paid Residence pathways. 

This requires the six points which can be obtained by experience, training, qualifications and income of the migrants. This also requires a job offer from New Zealand paying the median wages and 1.5 times higher wages than the median wages for higher skilled occupations. 

The proposed changes also include the removal of the planning range which allows applicants meeting the criteria will be allowed to process. Setting a more simplified point system, will allow more transparency in eligibility for migrant workers.

These changes will also be beneficial for highly skilled migrant workers like University Lecturers or scientists with a Ph.D. while the teachers and others will have a clear route by working a specific period of time in Country. 

Also this will improve the processing time for the visa applications. There will be no limit on individuals to gain residence if they fulfill the eligibility criteria. 

Parent category

The Parent Category will reopen from 14 November for people who have already submitted the expression of interest.  

A new expression of interest ballot will start from 12 October, while the selection for the same will be in August 2023.

The number will increase every year from 1000 to 2500 for lower income thresholds, including 1.5x of the median wages for single parents sponsored by one and 2x of median wages sponsored by joint. 

Previously this threshold was 2x for single sponsors and 3x for the joint sponsor. Siblings are also able to co-sponsor now. 

The priority is to select from the current expression of interest queue, said the Minister. The ballot system will allow the applications to be selected in two years by avoiding the lengthy queues he added.