Lexis Nexis Immigration Law Conference - Speech notes

Mr Chairman, Roger Haines QC

Ladies and Gentlemen, good morning.

When this Government came to office it put in place an economic agenda that had one single minded purpose — to lift the nation’s economic performance and deliver the standard of living New Zealanders expect and deserve.

We recognised very clearly the important part immigration had to play in this process. So I’m pleased to share with you some specific actions the Government has taken to increase Immigration’s contribution to the economy and improve Immigration New Zealand’s performance and service standards.

Lifting immigration’s economic contribution

Considering the economic challenges the country faces, lifting immigration’s economic contribution takes on even more importance. New Zealandwent into deficit in 2009 after several years of surpluses and the economic situation has been compounded by the September and February earthquakes.

Currently, we’re borrowing $300 million dollars a week to keep public services ticking over – and this cannot continue.

This year’s Budget set out a credible path which will return New Zealand to surplus within three years while continuing to maintain public services and support the most vulnerable. The Government has pitched its focus squarely on the economy and that is likely to continue.

Benefits of immigration - growing our economy

The Government has a comprehensive economic plan to grow the economy and immigration can play an important role in helping to drive that plan. The following numbers highlight how important immigration’s economic contribution is.

• If we were to close off immigration entirely by 2021:
  • Population would drop by 9.6 per cent
  • GDP would drop by 11.3 per cent
  • The available labour force would drop 10.9 per cent
  • The export sector would drop by 12.9 per cent.

It’s important to highlight the economic value of Immigration here.

• New migrants add around $1.9 billion to our economy every year.
• International students contribute $2.3 billion a year in foreign exchange to the economy.
• Inbound tourists contribute $9 billion a year.

Immigration recognises the strategic importance of the tourism and export education sectors and the direct links they provide to employers.

Given these figures, my number one priority has been to ensure Immigration is contributing to the Government’s economic growth agenda.

Ultimately this is about attracting the people New Zealand needs and making quality decisions quickly. We are doing that by:

• Helping employers find the skilled staff required to improve productivity if there are no suitably qualified New Zealanders available.
• Helping to grow the export education industry by streamlining processes, facilitating genuine students and improving the speed of decision making.
• Supporting the tourism industry by facilitating tourists’ travel and helping tourism tap into new markets.
• Attracting more high-worth individuals and raising investment levels through our Business Migration Package.

Increasing Business Migration

With business migration the Government has made significant changes to increase investment through our new business migration package.

Business migration is an important economic driver that can be used to stimulate economic growth and create jobs in new and ancillary industries by creating new businesses and export markets. Upon becoming the Government, we identified significant gaps in the existing business migration policies.

Now we have a package that makes New Zealand very attractive to business migrants, and in less than two years we have attracted $640 million in potential investment capital.

To date $173 million has been transferred and invested in New Zealand and an additional $245.5 million has been approved for funds transfer. Applications from investors worth an additional $221.5 million are being processed.

Since the policy has been operating, it’s attracted several times the amount of potential investment capital compared to the previous Government’s policy.

To ensure we’re getting the best return from this package we reviewed the Investor Migrant policy settings and introduced further modifications on 25 July.

Some of the key changes include:

• Reducing the residence requirements for Investor Plus migrants during the three year investment period from 73 days to 44 days per annum.

• Investment opportunities will be expanded by allowing migrants to invest in entities established by parent organisations to raise funds. Migrants will also be allowed to invest in bank bonds and equities.

• We’re providing more flexibility around the requirement for business experience. Instead of previously having to meet both conditions, business migrants only need to meet one of the following criteria - to have owned or managed a business with five full time employees or to have owned or managed a business with a minimum one million in annual turnover.

• We’re allowing migrants to transfer funds through approved foreign exchange companies— this recognises the emerging international trend in funds transfer.

• Approval of investment in some types of residential property to increase the availability of new housing.

I am confident the various changes will attract even more very high-worth investor migrants to New Zealand.

The new business migration package also provides incentives for wealthy migrants to upgrade their investment. These investors also have more capital and a greater ability to support New Zealand businesses. This new package is about attracting investment, but it is also about attracting people with commercial nous and experience needed to develop new business through their own global networks.

Immigration New Zealand is working closely with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to link high-worth migrants in the Investor Plus category with New Zealand businesses.

The marketing of our Business Migration Package will also be smarter and will target key OECD markets including the United Kingdom and the United States. We’re also looking at the major developing markets in India and South East Asia.

Improving Immigration New Zealand’s performance

Improving the quality of immigration services has remained an important focus and I’m pleased to say that under Nigel Bickle’s watch considerable progress has been made.

The Immigration New Zealand Change Programme is now nearing completion and it has resulted in significant service improvements in a number of areas.

Decision-making is Immigration New Zealand’s core business and it’s critical that it’s done well.  Latest figures show good and adequate decisions have increased from around 71 percent in mid-2009 to its current mark of 87 percent.  Poor and questionable decisions are down from over 29 percent in mid-2009 to 13 percent in early 2011.

This improved performance is being noticed by Immigration New Zealand’s customers. Over the past two years employer satisfaction has increased from 70 percent to 90 percent and overall client satisfaction has risen from 68 to 80 percent.

In the critical area of processing student applications, improvements in timeliness have been made.

In April 2010, Immigration’s Palmerston North branch - which processes 96 percent of all fee-paying onshore applications (approx 45,000) – had 6600 applications on-hand. At the end of April 2011 the on-hand figure was almost halved to 3420.

• INZ’s overall performance in processing student applications has improved over the past year. As at March 2011, 89 percent of student applications were being processed on average in 30 days.

Currently 86.5 percent of all temporary visas – work, student and visitor – are being processed within 30 days. For business visas it’s 99.5 percent within 30 days and 95.3 percent for general visitor visas.

There will be continuous downward pressure on targets - 90 percent of all applications to be processed within 25 days by June 2012.

For the key China market, visitor visas lodged at our Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou or Hong Kong branches are processed on average in nine days with 96 percent of applications decided within 30 days.

Performance is improving but there’s still more work ahead. However, what’s good is that the mechanisms are in place to ensure that progress continues to be made.

Immigration supporting tourism

With tourism, Immigration New Zealand is helping the industry tap into new markets. The entry of China Southern Airlines into the New Zealand market with a thrice-weekly Guangzhou – Auckland route was a major coup for tourism.

Chinais one of New Zealand's fastest growing visitor markets. 131,000 people visited last year adding $365 million to the economy. In April China Southern announced it would fly daily from later this year increasing the expected number of visitors on China Southern Airlines to 50,000 per annum, worth an estimated $150 million to the economy.

This decision was made easier after Immigration New Zealand committed to providing a faster and more efficient service to meet the increased demand by increasing staffing, streamlining application processes and havinga Visa Acceptance Centre in Guangzhou. Visa Acceptance Centres will also be established simultaneously in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong and they will be operating this month.

Last week I visited China to promote New Zealand tourism, meet with Chinese government ministers and to open a new Immigration New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand office in Shanghai.

I also visited VACs being run for the British and Canadian governments, the same model that will be used by Immigration New Zealand. By streamlining application processes, VACs will save time and allow Immigration staff to concentrate more on decision-making instead of administration. Ultimately this will result in faster processing times in the key China market.

To support the growing markets in India and South East Asia, a new office has been opened in the New Zealand Consulate General in Mumbai and Ho Chi Minh City has been upgraded to a full Branch. A new South African Branch has also been opened in Pretoria.

Immigration working smarter in New Zealand

To support the domestic market, Immigration New Zealand is working smarter. A dedicated branch has been set up to better service the needs of licensed immigration advisers. The Henderson Branch is Immigration New Zealand’s largest branch — including its overseas branches. Its 70 staff are now primarily focussed on processing applications from licensed immigration advisers representing clients in the Auckland region.

The branch has been receiving residence applications since March this year and began receiving temporary visa applications in July. When it started receiving temporary applications, its service goal was to decide 90 percent of these within 25 days.

The branch has already achieved this and expects to maintain or exceed this standard in the year ahead.

A dedicated 0800 number for licensed advisers was established last October. At the end of June 2011 it had received 24,496 calls. Over 82 percent of these calls are answered within 30 seconds. 

Last November, a dedicated email address was also set up for licensed advisers. The target turn around for email inquiries was originally 48 hours. This target is being exceeded by a significant margin— currently turn around time is between one and two hours.

Immigration New Zealand is looking carefully at the operations of the Henderson Branch and where systems prove effective it will consider extending these to other regions in consultation with industry.

These are all very positive developments and you can expect to see more improvements in the future. Immigration New Zealand is already in the process of implementing a new operating model that will better meet the needs of stakeholders and Government. This may ultimately mean a new way of working but it will be focussed on better aligning Government’s goals and stakeholders’ requirements — and, of course, lifting immigration’s economic contribution.

Over the next year to eighteen months you should expect to see changes in the areas of health screening, streamlining labour market processes and working with accredited employers and licensed advisors as trusted agents for Immigration New Zealand.

With health screening do we need medical certificates for international students? Are there other areas where Immigration could change its criteria while not putting our health system at risk?

A new IT system will also allow Immigration New Zealand to provide more online functions and adopt a more risk-based approach. 

Enhanced online capacity means we can streamline applications and reduce processing times by triaging low-risk people and high-value migrants while maintaining the system’s integrity.

Further Immigration Act changes

The implementation of the new Immigration Act has formed an important part of this process of reform and renewal. The Act has provided Immigration New Zealand with a modern legislative framework which positions it better to meet the needs of industry and build stronger links with partner agencies overseas.

In particular, international cooperation on border security issues has been greatly advanced by the introduction of biometric facilities and improved data sharing and technology partnerships.

The Act’s implementation is now almost complete and I understand that industry feedback indicates that this progressed smoothly. Industry feedback has played a very positive part in this process and I encourage you to continue to contribute in this way. There are, however, a few provisions that are still to be implemented.

The new provisions still to come into force relate to an Immigration Officer’s power of:

• Four hour detention

• Entry and inspection of education providers

• Entry and search relating to deportation

The new Act provides an Immigration Officer with the limited power of detention for up to four hours. The intention of this provision is to enable Immigration Officers to detain a person until they can be detained by the Police or en route to or at the airport, for example. An Immigration Officer does not have the power of arrest.

However, the new provision does place similar responsibilities to those of an arresting officer. This includes such things as the need to produce an officer’s warrant and inform the detained person that they may contact a lawyer. An Immigration Officer is also not liable in criminal or civil proceedings if he detains someone on reasonable and probable grounds.

These powers will be supported by specific training and operating instructions which will ensure that such decisions are only made on proper grounds and the legal rights of the person detained are fully respected. These provisions are in line with the strong emphasis the new Act places on protecting border security and the integrity of the immigration system.

Although Immigration Officers have the power to enter premises and inspect an employer’s records they do not have the power to enter and inspect the records of education providers.

This provision will correct this anomaly and strengthen Immigration New Zealand’s ability to weed out shonky providers and protect the interests and reputation of this increasingly important two billion dollar industry.

Currently, only police and customs officers have the power to enter and search places and craft at the border or enter buildings and search for a person liable for deportation. These powers will also be made available to Immigration Officers so that they can carry out their full range of functions under the new Act.

The contribution of immigration advisers

A successful Immigration system needs the active support of the private sector and that is why the role of professional immigration advisers will become increasingly important.

The introduction of mandatory immigration adviser licensing has heightened the immigration adviser industry’s sense of professionalism and created a new sense of common purpose. These developments have been good for the industry and good for New Zealand. They have also made it easier for Immigration New Zealand to work with immigration advisers. Mandatory licensing has lifted everyone’s game.

On 4 May last year mandatory licensing was extended to immigration advisers servicing the New Zealand market offshore. The adoption of offshore licensing was a world first for New Zealand — a bold move into previously uncharted territory. Looking back now we all know that it has been not only a bold but also a successful move.

I understand that the Immigration Advisers Authority’s Register currently lists 500 licensed advisers with 162 of those domiciled offshore.

Occupational equivalency between New Zealand and Australia has been established through the Trans Tasman Mutual Recognition Agreement.

A total of 101 immigration advisers registered with Australia’s Migration Agents Registration Authority are now registered as licensed advisers with the Immigration Advisers Authority and can conduct business on the same basis as New Zealand licensed immigration advisers.

In another major move the Authority’s Code of Conduct has been translated into Simplified and Traditional Chinese. A new Graduate Certificate for Immigration Advisers will shortly be offered by The Bay of Plenty Polytechnic in partnership with the University of Waikato and Melbourne’s University of Victoria.

These developments show a keen awareness of the international potential of the immigration adviser industry and the need to support this with professional standards that reflect international best practice.

The immigration adviser industry is now well positioned both on and offshore to help maximise the contribution migration can make to the New Zealand economy. And this is recognised in the market place. In a recent survey, 92percent of respondents agreed that mandatory licensing had added value to the New Zealand Immigration industry.

These are very considerable achievements and we all owe a considerable debt to the pioneering work of the Immigration Advisers Authority.

Barry Smedts and his dedicated team have done a remarkable job both in terms of setting professional industry standards and extending the scope and reach of your industry.

 Meeting the challenges of the future

As a nation we now face enormous challenges. The Canterbury earthquakes will continue to place huge additional demands on the economy well into the future. As we’ve seen this past week, the debt crisis in the United States and Europe has global knock-on effects and it’s combined to create intense volatility and uncertainty in the markets.

 Fortunately we are better positioned to meet these challenges. This Government’s policies are starting to show solid economic results and its public service reforms are delivering better and more cost-effective services. This is evident in the changes within Immigration New Zealand.

 With the advantages of a modern legislative framework, a clearer strategic focus and improved business systems Immigration New Zealand is now well positioned to meet these challenges. It cannot, however, achieve this alone and will need to continue to build on the productive partnerships it is now developing with industry and the immigration adviser community in particular.

 I am committed to ensuring that this new spirit of partnership continues to be translated into concrete results that will ensure the economic and social benefits of immigration are fully realised.

 Thank you.