New Zealand to tighten visa rules

New Zealand will tighten its visa rules for some migrants as the coalition government moves to overhaul the immigration system. Immigration Minister, Erica Stanford announced changes to the accredited employer worker visa (AEWV), the main temporary work visa, which was introduced in mid-2022 to help fill workforce shortages after the pandemic.As per media reports, last year, annual net migration to New Zealand hit a near record high of more than 173,000 non-New Zealand citizens.
The changes include measures such as introducing English language requirement for low skilled jobs and setting a minimum skills and work experience threshold for most employer work visas. The maximum continuous stay for most low skilled roles will also be reduced to three years from five years."The Government is focused on attracting and retaining the highly skilled migrants such as secondary teachers, where there is a skill shortage," Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said in a statement."At the same time we need to ensure that New Zealanders are put to the front of the line for jobs where there are no skills shortages," she said.
New Zealand, which has a population of about 5.1 million, has seen a rapid growth in its migrant numbers since the end of the pandemic, raising concerns last year that it was fanning inflation.Neighbouring Australia, which has also seen a big jump in migrants, has said it would halve its migrant intake over the next two years.