New Zealand is making changes in the work rights of the partners of the migrant workers. The expected changes will be effective from next month. 

Immigration experts are concerned about the changes in the work rights of partners of migrant workers. 

Partners of the migrant workers would get an open work visa allowing them to work for any employer. But after the new changes only the partners of green list workers will be given the open work visa.

After the changes the migrant couples are required to find an accredited employer to support their application individually. Or their partner can only visit them but not be able to work. 

Borey Chum an Immigration adviser, said that the government should rethink their decision. These changes in the partner work policy can lead the migrant workers with their families to choose other countries to work. 

He wants the government to take careful consideration for issuing the visitor visa to the partner of the migrant workers instead of the work visa. 

He said that New Zealand is currently competing globally for skilled migrant workers. And it is natural for migrant workers if they want to work with their partner after arriving in the country.  

Also if they have to file separate applications it will also consume the government resources to process the application. With the current processing speed of the applications it will only add burdon on the immigration department to increase their workload. 

Paul Spoonley, Massey University Professor also the co-chair of the International Metropolis Project looking at migration and integration stated that this decision is based on individuals not on the families. 

He said that the immigration system often focuses on the prime applicant ignoring the families while the reasons for many immigrants to come to New Zealand was their families. 

The doubling of the administration on these applications of migrant workers will only make these migrant workers rethink their decisions of migrating in New Zealand. 

These changes were introduced at the wrong time. Currently the government is facing the backlogs of the applications in all categories. 

According to Immigration minister Michael Wood, the open work permit will affect the accredited employer work visa, affecting the protection against workplace exploitation.

Also the partner of the migrant workers will not be able to access the public healthcare according to NZAMI.