NZ tightens visa rules amid near record migration

WELLINGTON (Reuters): New Zealand’s immigration minister has flagged immediate changes to the nation’s employment visa program after a near record migration in 2023.

The changes include measures such as introducing an 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 on Sunday.

“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.

Last year, a near record 173,000 people migrated to New Zealand, the statement said.

The nation, which has a population of about 5.1 million, has had a rapid growth in its migrant numbers since the end of the pandemic, raising concerns in 2023 that this was fanning inflation.