Collins calls for ‘Covid contribution’ visa
National Party leader Judith Collins says skilled migrants who have followed the rules deserve certainty about their future in New Zealand with a new ‘‘Covid contribution’’ visa.
Her party has announced a policy that would see Immigration New Zealand told to clear the backlog of residency applications and give other skilled migrant workers a clearer and more certain path to residency.
The National Party is also keen to decouple visas from specific employers to stop migrant exploitation, instead bonding migrants to regions.
This comes after Immigration NZ suspended the expression of interest programme that allowed skilled migrants to apply for residency, leaving many professionals in limbo.
‘‘The first thing we will do is clear the residency backlog. We will unfreeze the residency pool and streamline and fast-track residency processing to clear the backlog of more than 30,000 applications,’’ Collins said.
‘‘Then we need to offer our migrant workers here a pathway to residency. These are our dairy farm workers, aged-care workers, truck drivers, construction workers and hospitality staff who are in New Zealand because there was a skills shortage.
‘‘Finally, we will decouple visas from a specific employer to stop migrant exploitation.
‘‘A smarter approach is bonding people to sectors and regions which would make sure the right skills are in the right regions.’’
Collins said the pathway would be in the form of a ‘‘Covid contribution visa’’ expected to help about 35,000 workers and their families over the next two years, which the workers could use while waiting to be granted residency. ‘‘We cannot attract good people to our shores to help boost our economy and our productivity if we have a system that is in complete meltdown.’’
Speaking to yesterday, Collins was asked about a proposal to simply give residency to the thousands of skilled migrants already in the country keen to extend their visas or gain residency. She said that idea was ‘‘worth exploring’’.
‘‘We’re hearing constantly about skilled people, skilled migrants, who have come here on a particular visa. They’ve done everything right, and they’re either split from their families, because their families can’t get here, or else they’re in this limbo of waiting and waiting and waiting to see if they can get an extension.’’