New Zealand Immigration: Foreigners restricted to support work or student visa applications for spouses

New Zealand Accredited Employer Work Visa rules have been modified to allow foreigners to support student visa applications for their partners.

The New Zealand Government has changed the Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme, affecting individuals holding roles at ANZSCO levels 4 and 5 without residency pathways from June 26, 2024, and those with ongoing partner or dependent child visa applications.

An Accredited Employer Work Visa allows you to support a work visa for your partner, a visitor visa for your partner or children, or a student visa for your children.

The type of visa you can support depends on your job’s Green List status, earnings, and the ANZSCO skill level of your occupation.

From today, 26 June 2024, people holding an AEWV in roles at Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) levels 4 and 5 without a pathway to residency are no longer able to support work, visitor or student visa applications for their partners and dependent children.

Partners and dependent children can still apply for a visa in their own right to come to New Zealand, such as an Accredited Employer Work Visa or an international student visa, provided they meet the requirements.

If you supported a visa for your family before 26 June 2024, your job does not need to meet the ANZSCO skill level requirements.
It will be either open or conditional if you can support your partner’s work visa.

An open work visa allows your partner to work for any employer with no salary requirements.

A work visa with conditions requires your partner, as the visa holder, to follow a set of job norms or criteria.

Partners and dependent children will be eligible to apply for a visa in their own right to visit New Zealand, such as an Accredited Employer Work Visa or an international student visa, if they match the requirements.

This modification, which brings the settings back to those of the former Essential Skills Work Visa, was made by the government to be consistent with the larger set of changes made to the AEWV system earlier this year.

The AEWV holders working in ANZSCO level 4 and 5 roles with a pathway to residency, such as the Green List, sector agreements with residence pathways, and those earning at least 1.5 times the median wage threshold for the Skilled Migrant Category, will not be affected by the change.

Neither will individuals who currently hold visas as dependent children or partners.

New Zealand has recently changed the regulations and work privileges for spouses of students who are studying there.

Spouses of students pursuing level 7 or 8 qualifications listed on the Green List are now eligible to apply for a flexible-term work visa through New Zealand immigration.

It means students who hold graduate certificates, diplomas, and bachelor’s degrees at Level 7 or postgraduate certificates, diplomas, and bachelor’s degrees with honors at Level 8 will be permitted to help their spouse apply for a partner of a student work visa.

Source : https://www.financialexpress.com/business/investing-abroad-foreigners-without-residency-pathways-no-longer-able-to-support-work-or-student-visa-applications-for-their-partners-in-new-zealand-3556550/