An industry leader thinks the focus going forward should be on revving up standard visa processes at Immigration New Zealand, rather than changing the 'band-aid' scheme
Just a fraction of the Government’s border exemptions for 600 high-skilled tech workers have been dished out so far, with industry experts admitting the border reopening will likely leave the scheme defunct.
In December 2021, the Government announced border exemptions for specialist tech workers in software development, security specialists, ICT managers, and multimedia specialists roles.
The programme opened on February 14. Between the opening and April 28, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) invited 39 individuals to apply for a visa.
Subsequent to this, 12 people have been granted a visa through the programme, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment.
This comes as the Government’s phased reopening of the border is underway, with the doors set to open to Accredited Employer Work Visa holders in July 2022.
Wellington-based video game studio PikPok is among the companies making use of the 600 border exceptions scheme, but the talent is only dripping in.
The company is set to bring in one worker on the border exemption within the next month, and is applying to bring in two more.
“The uncertainty about whether or not you could bring someone into the country was a major barrier to even trying to recruit people, as you can't say to a candidate ‘We are provisionally offering you this role that may or may not start sometime in the next year or two.’” – Mario Wynands, PikPok chief executive
Chief executive Mario Wynands says the low uptake of the scheme so far doesn’t reflect the huge demand for talent in the tech sector that can’t be filled domestically.
For the past couple of years, bringing in talent from overseas was virtually impossible due to border restrictions, he says.
“The uncertainty about whether or not you could bring someone into the country was a major barrier to even trying to recruit people, as you can't say to a candidate ‘We are provisionally offering you this role that may or may not start sometime in the next year or two,’” he says.
He says an earlier iteration of the programme included the ability to ‘reserve a visa slot’ that allowed companies to recruit against a vacancy with some certainty.
“Between that, needing time for the recruitment process to play out before you can even apply, and the programme not accounting for visas for partners and families of candidates, I can understand why many companies haven't been able to take advantage.”
Wynands thinks the focus should now be on revving up the standard processes at INZ, rather than changing the tech skills scheme.
"The 600 programme was only ever supposed to be a temporary bandaid, so making changes to it at this stage are perhaps less useful than pushing forward and trying to get the standard process at INZ working properly and effectively again."
Scheme no waste of time, despite low uptake – NZTech
NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says the 600 border exemption program was worth the effort, even though the staged border reopening will make them "somewhat defunct" in time.
“The development of the border exception increased the Government’s understanding of the critical importance of tech workers across the economy, and the focus on supporting both immigration pathways and improving domestic education pathways,” he says.
As for the low uptake, Muller says there are a number of factors behind this.
Most large companies had created teams in other countries, and firms couldn’t start recruiting until the border exceptions came into play in February.
It could take months before reaching the visa step in the hiring process, as firms had to advertise the vacancy, go through the selection process, offer the role, and have it accepted before looking at visas and the border exception.
While the number of approved visas will increase over time, he thinks employers will opt to go down the new Accredited Employers Visa route when it is introduced in July.
Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications David Clark says the scheme was co-designed with the sector as a short-term measure to meet skill shortages at senior and experienced levels, while the borders were largely closed.
He says the nomination process was designed by IT Professionals New Zealand, and MBIE and Immigration New Zealand don’t play a role in this process.
Clark says the Government is working to address New Zealand’s digital skills shortage through an industry transformation plan, which seeks to create high-quality jobs and focuses on skills and talent development.
