Rules eased for essential race staff

Border regulations prised open a tad for America’s Cup hopefuls

The Government has cleared the way for two America’s Cup teams to set up here in moves which partly ease Covid-19 border restrictions.

Nearly 500 workers and their families from the syndicates are expected to be in New Zealand for 10 months.

Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford said approving the border exemptions allowed the teams to start setting up their bases and carry on key design and boat testing

The US Challenger, team American Magic, would bring 102 workers and 104 family members to New Zealand, Twyford said.

The INEOS Team UK — the other team granted an exemption — would bring in 86 workers, 128 family members and one nanny.

“The Government and Auckland Council have made significant commitments and investments in building infrastructure for the event,” he said. “The America’s Cup would not be able to go ahead unless these international syndicate teams are allowed entry into New Zealand.”

The Government has separated the criteria for an essential worker into two time frames: short term (less than six months) and long term (more than six months).

A short- term worker must have “unique and technical or specialist skills that are not obtainable in New Zealand”. They must also be working on a major project, such as infrastructure, which is time critical.

Long-term workers must earn twice the medium salary, have a role essential for the completion or continuation of science programmes or that was essential for the delivery or execution of a government-approved event, such as the America’s Cup.

The new essential worker rules are targeted at bringing in “high-value workers” who would contribute to “projects of national or regional significance”. Twyford said the threshold remained “very high”.

The high bar would help stop Covid-19’s spread and protect the health of people already in New Zealand, he said.

“Businesses should ensure no alternative options are available before applying.”

The diplomatic exception, which allowed re-entry to those who normally living here, was also being expanded to include diplomats with new posts here, Twyford said.

Maritime vessels “where there is a compelling need” could enter.

Immigration Minister Iain Lees Galloway said everyone coming in would still need to do 14 days of managed isolation or quarantine.

The Government was working within its current capacity of 3200 for the facilities run by the Ministry of Health.

Twyford said the maritime exception would allow ship entry to those arriving from sea, where there was a “compelling need” for the ship to travel to New Zealand.

The border restrictions would not apply to replacement cargo ship crew arriving by air and going straight to a cargo ship to leave New Zealand.

Officials are working to implement the changes as quickly as possible. The Government expects the changes to partners, other essential workers and diplomats will be in effect by the end of next week, and the maritime changes in place later in June.

Immigration NZ estimates that, as of May 27, there were 10,062 people with a work visa who may be “ordinarily resident in New Zealand”, but were stuck overseas.

As of June 10, there had been 15,331 requests for a border exception; 2914 were invited to apply for a visa, and 2456 visa applications were approved. Of those, 2372 people made border exemption requests as essential workers, and 237 were invited to apply for a visa (about 10 per cent of all approvals).