Category: Advisory

No one had ever thought that a time would come when the whole world would come to a standstill. People will have to stay home and maintain social distancing. The year 2020 and the crisis arising out of COVID-19 pandemic has made international students aware to expect the unexpected and be always ready to face the challenges. However, as it is said, every crisis gives rise to an opportunity, and here is yours.

One glance on the job market is enough to know that people are losing their jobs. The loss of employment may be either because the company has shut down due to low business or employers are cutting costs by making their employees redundant. Hence, students on the verge of completing their studies are scared to come into the job market. Every individual is facing a challenge in some or other form.

Self-Assessment – Reskill, Upskill or New Skill

The first step while undertaking self-assessment is to do an introspection. If you are in a situation where you are unsure about your future, then take some time off and assess your available options. It would be best to get advised by professionals such as Immigration Advisers New Zealand Ltd.

Perhaps you need to reskill or upskill so that you remain relevant to the current requirements and can retain your job. Maybe the industry that you are currently working in has lost its relevance because of this pandemic, and you need to learn new skills. Learning new skills will not only allow you to make a career change but also ensure a career progression that you always wanted but did not dare.

While it is true that out of every crisis arises an opportunity, this is too is the fact that most people miss great opportunities because of their misperception of time. Therefore, get to work as now is the time to do what you always wanted to do, i.e. learn new skills, reskill and upskill.

We only get limited chances to have the things we want. Nothing is worse than missing an opportunity that could have changed your life. As the job market has changed post-pandemic, those who maintain their relevance will survive and thrive. Do not hesitate to upskill yourself by going for a higher qualification if you realise that this will open new avenues for you.

Why Should You Study To Learn New Skills?

There are many benefits to taking up studies and learning skills now.

• During this uncertainty, when jobs are scarce, it is best to gain a new qualification and learn new skills. Your newly acquired skills will make you more eligible for the future job market. This process is also popularly called making yourself “future proof”.
• If you have previously studied in New Zealand and are currently a work visa holder, consider study options which make you eligible for a second post-study work visa.
• Suppose you are a student who is completing their studies and are eligible for one or two years of post-study work visa. Then you can consider continuing your studies which might make you eligible for three years of post-study work visa. For example, students who are currently pursuing diploma level 5 and 6 can consider continuing their studies and complete their bachelor’s degree and be eligible for three years of post-study work visa.
• People currently on a dependent visa who have not studied previously in New Zealand can consider upskilling themselves and take up studies so that they become eligible for better career opportunities independently. They can even become the primary applicant in their Residence visa application should they meet other eligibility criteria.
• If the current course that you are studying is not meeting your expectations, then you should consider reskilling yourself. This additional skill set will assist you in maintaining your relevance in the job market.
• Studying now is a blessing in disguise as the education providers are currently providing scholarships and discounts, making it little easy on your budget.

Free Assessment

No matter what your situation is if you are in a dilemma or confused, you need to talk to someone who can give you more insight and help you in the right direction. Immigration Advisers New Zealand Ltd has always followed the policy of advising what is suitable for their client. Contact us for free counselling and free assessment session either in person or through a zoom call. We would be happy to assess your situation and give you honest advice.

Background

In New Zealand, providing immigration advice is a licensed and recognised profession. Anyone who advises you about New Zealand immigration matters must be licensed, or exempt from holding a license.

You can incur a fine of up to NZ$100,000 and/or up to seven years imprisonment for providing unlicensed immigration advice. The fine and imprisonment would be there even if the person does not charge a fee for that advice.

Employers and recruiters can support candidates to get a visa. Still, they must not provide them with immigration advice as part of the process, unless they are Licensed Immigration Adviser (LIA) or exempt.

Benefits of Using a Licensed Immigration Adviser?

It would be best if you considered using an LIA for several reasons. Immigration policies and instructions are continuously changing, and an LIA can ensure that you meet the updated and relevant immigration instructions. It is essential to submit your application in line with the immigration instructions to get a positive outcome. INZ could decline or raise/record concerns on your application if you do not get the instructions correct. The concerns could affect your profile in immigration adversely and could come back to haunt you in any future visa applications that you may decide to lodge.

For applicants, not getting it correct the first time can delay/jeopardise their immigration journey, which could cause undue stress.

For employers undertaking immigration processes for their migrant employees, there are many associated risks, one of giving unlicensed immigration advice and the other of the consequences of getting it wrong.

How to Check the License of Immigration Adviser

The Government’s Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA) (www.iaa.govt.nz) provides information on who can give New Zealand immigration advice and explains how to complain if you are unhappy. They also provide a useful guide about LIA’s.

Before appointing, an adviser, check the register of LIA given on the IAA website to make sure the person you are engaging has a valid immigration adviser license. Check the license expiry date and type of immigration license. (some advisers may only be able to advise on limited areas).

Why Immigration Advisers New Zealand Ltd

To learn more about the immigration policies, eligibility criteria, and options connect with Immigration Advisers New Zealand Ltd.

We are a highly experienced team of Licensed Immigration Advisers, who provide a wide range of immigration services. We can assist you in successfully applying for and getting a New Zealand visa under the appropriate visa category.

Get in touch with us today, and talk to an experienced Licensed Immigration Adviser, to get your free profile assessment done.

Bad News: Onshore Student Visa Declined

Simran Kaur on arrival at our Auckland office was worried, anxious, and feeling helpless. She had just received the decline letter from Immigration New Zealand (INZ) of her student visa application. To add to her nervousness, her previous immigration adviser had expressed his inability to assist her any further. It was a foregone conclusion that the decline of her student visa application would soon result in more bad news. Simran is married; hence her visa decline meant that her husband’s visa application would also get declined.

Identification of Immigration Concerns

The decline letter citing the reasons for the decline of her visa application was five pages long. Even the Potential Prejudicial Information (PPI) letter ran into multiple pages. Immigration Advisers New Zealand Ltd team had to painstakingly peruse each page of both letters. There were numerous concerns, but not limited to, her bona fides, breaches of work rights, attendance, evidence of funds, salary, more than usual earnings in IRD, discrepancies in bank statements, limited ties to the home country, mismatched bank balances of the financial guarantor, genuineness of source of funds, etc.

In other words, it appeared that the INZ had formed a complex web. Each concern had sub-categories and more links attached to it – ambiguous, spread like a labyrinth.

Process of Decluttering and Planning

Vandana Rai, the principal Licensed Immigration Adviser, first understood the case and then decided to take the case. She then started with the unravelling of each concern. She and her team dug deep into every word and identified visa officers concerns. After that, the team listed all the concerns sequentially. This effort focussed on ensuring that every concern of the visa officer got identified and addressed.

Now came the tricky part – brainstorming the possible pieces of evidence that could corroborate the truth, which the applicant wanted to convey to INZ. Every statement of Simran had to be substantiated by credible and verifiable documentary evidence. The team first gathered the evidence, then scrutinised it and eventually followed it up by preparing a covering letter. The advocacy letter covered and explained each concern pointwise.

Approval of Reconsideration Request

Vandana Rai’s and her team’s effort yielded a positive outcome as the submissions made were accepted by INZ. As a result of this systematic and targeted hard work, INZ approved the reconsideration request of Simran Kaur. On approval of the reconsideration request, her husband also received his visa in due course. The couple’s despair had turned into their ecstasy. Their relieved expression conveyed their profound gratitude.

To serve our clients with total dedication is our mission. Our motto is to work for you by working with you. Contact Immigration Advisers New Zealand Ltd, for all your immigration matters.

We are thrilled to announce that Vandana Rai, Director of Immigration Advisers New Zealand has been selected as one of the finalists in the Immigration Adviser/Lawyer of the Year and Hall of Fame category of awards of NZAMI that are announced once in two years. The significance of the awards that she has been nominated for is as under:

Immigration Adviser/Lawyer Of The Year Category – This award recognises outstanding professional individuals who are a Licensed Immigration Adviser or Immigration Lawyer who enhance the migration profession, and have contributed to the industry by their notable work in assisting migrants during the last 3 years.
Hall Of Fame Category – This is a rare acknowledgment of a worthy recipient within the Immigration industry. This award is presented to an individual who has provided continuing service and participation in a field that contributes to New Zealand immigration, made a significant and noteworthy contribution to New Zealand immigration which should be recognized by their peers and the wider community.

Vandana Rai has been part of the 2016 Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA) referral group in addition to being one of the Directors on the Board of the New Zealand Association of Migration and Investment (NZAMI) for 2017. She is well known within the industry for her contribution to the well being and support of International students, by way of giving not only a range of immigration advisory services but also pastoral care support. In last 2 years, Vandana Rai has lodged more than 1400 visas with an approval rate close to 93%.

She is highly educated, having done Masters in Human Development as well as Masters in Business Administration apart from a PG Diploma in Guidance and Counselling and Graduate Certificate in New Zealand Immigration Advice.

Vandana, in her role as a member of 2016 Referral Group of Immigration Advisers Authority (IAA) championed the cause of making offshore licensing mandatory. Vandana Rai, as a director of NZAMI, has also made her contribution concerning the assessment of Partnership-Based Visa applications in the Indian market. She has also done lot of spade work over the past 2 years on the partnership-based applications who were character declined due to having received unlicensed Immigration Advice and has got character waiver approved for a number of clients, thereby assisting in their family reunification.

Vandana is humbled by this achievement and says that her strength lies in her team, which works unbelievably hard and is the main reason behind this success.

For the full list and more information about these awards, visit the NZAMI website.

There has been a flood of character concerns that have been raised by Immigration New Zealand (INZ), Delhi Branch, in the context of partners of First Time Student Visa (FSV) holders from India, who have displayed remarkable gullibility and naivety in the lodgement of their visitor/work visa applications.

Both these words suggest that these applicants have been victimized, however, while a naive person may not have realized the danger, a gullible person should have known better.

Please be advised that the use of these words, which has somehow surfaced as an excuse for making a false and misleading statement while filling up his INZ 1198 (Partnership Based Temporary Visa Application Form) and INZ 1146 (Form for Partner’s Supporting Partnership Based Temporary Visa Application), is in itself evasive in nature, and may not be bought by INZ.

Hence, it would be advisable for all Partnership Based Temporary Visa Applicants to seriously consider the long-term damage they may incur, on their chances to get united with their partners, before allowing themselves to be misrepresented and then resorting to gullibility and naivety as an excuse, which will always be open to questions by INZ.

Even the student recruitment agents who are misrepresenting these applicants are making a huge error of judgment, because not only are they losing their remunerations but also killing their chosen profession in the long run.

The following relevant links will assist the partnership based applicants and their agents in making their choices:

INZ Link: Click Here

IAA Link: Click Here

INZ Link to character requirements: Click Here

While going through an Immigration New Zealand (INZ) update that was presented by Celia Coombes, Sector Relationship Manager (Education) during ITENZ Conference 2015,I came to know about the rebalance strategy that was underway in the international student markets of China, India, Chile, Malaysia, Germany and South Korea. One could not help but marvel at hard work put in and the noble intentions displayed by all involved.

As I watched the strategy take shape by way of the excellent ground level initiatives launched by INZ and Education New Zealand (ENZ) that were targeted to woo students of some of the South Asian countries into New Zealand, I also came across another bit of data related to INZ Student Visa Approval rate of 2015,which set me thinking.

The data which has been released by INZ gives out the student visa approval rate between January 2015 and December 2015.The Global figures of 42,514 approvals against only 18,103 declines are really impressive. However when I dwelled deeper I was aghast to find that of the 18,103 declines, 13,224 belonged to India alone, which was a staggering 73% of the total visas declined. I then decided to analyse the figures at hand a little bit more and totaled the visa declines of countries that were routing their applications through INZ, Mumbai Branch in addition to India i.e. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. My surprise knew no bounds when I saw that the figure of 13,224 jumped to 15,449, which came to a mind numbing 85%. Armed with this data and my psychological background I sat down to think and analyse as to what effect must these student visa declines be having among the student market of these five countries that also are each other neighbours, shouldn’t ENZ be alarmed about the bad publicity it is causing and the years of hard work and money ENZ has put in to bring up New Zealand as a viable study abroad destination going waste.

My analysis of the situation gave rise to more uncomfortable questions, which prompted me to write down these few lines for an open brainstorming session.

More in another session….

Introduction

New Zealand is a trade-dependent economy, and the international education sector is a significant contributor that helps the Government of New Zealand earn its way in the world. As given out in the Education New Zealand (ENZ) statement of intent, which was published in 2012, the Government had given the New Zealand international education industry a set of challenging “export” targets that were to be met in next 13 years. The targets included doubling the value of international education industry to $5 billion, part of which was to increase revenues from the export of education services to $500 million a year from $109 million in 2010/11.

It goes to the credit of ENZ marketing strategists that these targets were met in just 5 years instead of 13 years. However, the exponential and rapid growth has not been without experiences, many of which need to be documented under the heading ‘lessons learnt and corrective measures undertaken’.

The most significant and evident lesson learnt is related to the constantly changing dynamics of various players involved such as education providers, education agents, immigration advisers, international students and the knowledge of how and why international students decide on New Zealand as their study destination.

Know the Players Involved

In order to correctly appreciate the players involved in this game an overview of each of their skills is necessary and is as mentioned below:

Education Provider: These constitute private training establishments (PTE’s) and institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs), which deliver a variety of educational options under the New Zealand Qualification Authority (NZQA). Education providers focus on their ability to offer education to the required quality standards while NZQA’s focus is on ensuring that the New Zealand qualifications are increasingly valued as credible and robust.
Education Agent: An individual, company or organization in the business of recruiting international students. The agent/agency derives income from the educational provider with which it works, contingent upon the referral of applicants. The relationship between the agent/agency and education provider is typically governed by a contract or written agreement.
Education Counsellor: An education counsellor helps the prospective international student to find the correct course and education provider for achieving the desired educational success. These counsellors must be aware of New Zealand education system and how it is governed and administered by different agencies and providers at different levels.
Career Counsellor: A career counsellor helps the prospective international student to effectively connect education and training with employment opportunities so that they make informed choices about their future employment and career progression.
Immigration Adviser: An immigration adviser is licensed to provide immigration advice, which relates to a prospective international student’s particular circumstances in connection with an immigration matter. They use their knowledge of or personal experience in immigration matters to advise, assist, direct or represent the students in their visa application.

New Zealand Experience

In the statement of intent document of ENZ, it is a well-highlighted fact that New Zealand education experience needs to be a positive one if the New Zealand education brand is to grow in value, and its reputation is to be maintained and enhanced.

Hence, in order to ensure that the international students get the desired New Zealand experience, it becomes incumbent on the players involved to ensure that the process of marketing it involves a pragmatic expectation mapping with the international students. This expectation mapping must cover the various aspects involved with respect to the roles and responsibilities of the above-mentioned game players.

Having said that, it also is true that it has always been and will remain a challenge to successfully manage each of these facets of international education as they tend to overlap with each other due to their ambiguous nature of qualifications, skills, services and interests.

The more we learn to manage them effectively, the better we get at giving the desired New Zealand experience to the international students and in turn increasing the profile of New Zealand’s education system in its priority markets. Therefore, evolving a collaborative model which focuses on matching the expectations of international students with their experience, while they are in New Zealand is the need of the hour.

Concerns Surrounding Role Conflict, Role Ambiguity and Conflict of Interest

The various concerns that have the potential to cause a mismatch between international student’s expectations and experience are many, but the most significant among them is the role conflict, role ambiguity and conflict of interest surrounding the game players such as education providers, education agents, education counsellors, career counsellors and immigration advisers.

There is no doubt that there are many dimensions, which are surrounding the concerns and influencing the consequences, but the most noticeable among them is the huge payout involved in the form of commission to education agents by the education providers, which has the potential to cause ethical conflicts among the players involved.

The Way Forward

An analysis of the situation at hand legislates that the lessons are learnt and corrective actions are undertaken in order to ensure that brand New Zealand continues to shine and New Zealand gets popularised as a viable destination for quality international students. The game players involved need to take more responsibilities and ensure that the international students expectations are met and they get the New Zealand experience the way they had perceived it when they were offshore.

Education New Zealand website has reported that a Universities New Zealand delegation comprising representatives from AUT, VUW and Massey universities visited Latin America from 18-30 November.
Education New Zealand website has reported that a Universities New Zealand delegation comprising representatives from AUT, VUW and Massey universities visited Latin America from 18-30 November.

Most of our clients ask us to manage their entire visa application process – Our guarantee to our clients is for the best professional service with honesty and integrity from start to finish!