Are skilled migrant resident visas about to get a jumpstart?
The Government is due to make an announcement soon about when it will restart selecting SMC expressions of interest.
The suspension was introduced last year and then extended in October. But in the meantime, thousands of New Zealand workers have continued to submit their EOI.
With no clear timeframe in place, most immigrants have been facing uncertainty and anxiety, their mental health being put to the test. Currently, those who have already applied for a skilled migrant resident visa have to wait about two years for a decision, positive or negative. Frustrated and caught in a bureaucratic limbo, unable to return home and unable to move on with their dreamed-of life, many are considering trying their luck in Canada.
For National Party immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford, while there is a “Covid response element” to this situation, the issue stems from the broken state of the immigration system, with huge backlogs of tens of thousands of applicants that have been building for years.”