Six visa categories to one

A shake-up to temporary work visas looks set to make the process of hiring foreign workers easier.

But the Government said the new visa rules will also ensure ‘‘Kiwis come first’’.

The new employer-assisted temporary work visa will replace the current six visa categories with one temporary work visa, Immigration Minister Iain LeesGalloway said yesterday.

He expected it would assist about 30,000 businesses to fill skills shortages and provide more certainty for employers.

NZ First Leader Winston Peters said the new straightforward process – which took months of consultation for the coalition Government to refine – removed unnecessary bureaucracy.

The new system would prioritise New Zealand workers while ensuring temporary foreign workers would be recruited to fill genuine regional and sector shortages, Peters said.

Under the new system, employers would need to be accredited to participate, and Regional Skills Leadership Groups will be used to ensure the local labour market has been searched.

Lees-Galloway said the process would provide foreign workers with more assurance about the employer they were coming to work for and the job.

It would see an employer check, a job check and a worker check.

Other changes included reinstating the ability for lowerpaid workers to bring their families to New Zealand.

Business Central chief executive John Milford said the changes went some way to implementing policy changes recommended by businesses. However, more work was needed to boost economic growth, he said.

It was important the Government continued to clear the visa processing backlogs that exist and speed up approvals, he said.