From 2021 to hire any employee on a work visa you must be an accredited employer. Accreditation under the new policy will be different from under the current Talent Accredited policy and it will have a significant impact on the pool of talent available to your business.
Current Policy – Talent Work Visa Accreditation
If you need to regularly recruit skilled overseas workers, you can consider becoming an Immigration New Zealand Accredited Employer. While you are accredited you can employ skilled migrant workers without first having to check if any New Zealanders can do the work. You must take direct responsibility for the workers you employ, for their work and you must pay a minimum base salary of NZD $79,560.
To gain Accredited Employer status for the Talent Work Visa, employers need to provide evidence that they are in a sound financial position, have good HR practices, have good workplace practices and be committed to training and employing New Zealanders.
Processing applications usually takes 2-3 months by NZ Immigration. Prior to submitting an application, employers may need to integrate a number of HR, workplace and training practices into their business.
If you aren’t an accredited employer you can still hire temporary migrant workers. However, the process for approval can take longer and you must provide more evidence to support your application.
Future Policy
NZ Immigration recently made an announcement outlining immediate changes to the Talent Work Visa, as outlined above. In addition, by 2021, six different visa categories will be replaced by one Visa category and all employers wishing to employ a temporary migrant worker on this visa will have to become an Accredited Employer. There will be a staged process across different industries to smoothly handle what will be an avalanche of applications for accreditation. More clarity will be given in 2020 on this process.
More information can be found here.
Be prepared, get in first and win the war for talent
With such significant changes coming, there is considerable risk to your talent pipeline and business if you do hire migrant workers, so it makes sense to be prepared. Working through the accreditation process now for the Talent work Visa will help you:
- Identify any gaps you have to fill
- Get your visa requests processed faster and the process simplified now
- To continue to recruit staff on temporary work visas while the changes take place, causing minimal disruption to your business
- Get
well set up to smoothly make the necessary application that you will need to submit
as NZ Immigration announces the changes during the course of 2020
Positive People have especially developed and established an Accredited Employer HR Pack which covers an easy 5 step process designed to provide you with all the HR policies, documents and processes to meet the New Zealand Immigration Department Talent Visa HR requirements to become an accredited employer.
This enables employers:
- To understand their gaps for gaining accreditation
- Provides templates and implementation guidelines to fill these gaps
- Includes a follow up audit to support ongoing implementation and accreditation
Contact us now on 09-445 1077 to discuss the changes and how we can help your business be prepared for the future.