New Zealand tightens immigration norms

AHMEDABAD: For those who are led by unscrupulous immigration agents to enroll in a one year diploma in a 'cooking' or 'gardening' course with any New Zealand school to migrate to Australia, here is a stern warning. From July 25 all such applications will be trashed by New Zealand immigration officers. Armed with a new list of genuine graded institutes and the Long Term Skills Shortage List (LTSSL), the New Zealand immigration will accept and reject applications. More criteria will be introduced to determine whether students are genuinely there to study, such as ensuring that education providers have assessed students' competencies for the course. Moreover, job search visas for one year diploma students will become a distant dream from July 25. "This condition is relaxed for students who opt for at least a post graduate diploma in selected subjects. Students have to know that the immigration officials will favor only those cases that are recommended by those agents authorized by the government and hold a license," says immigration consultant Sandeep Jani. A job search visa would, however, be made available for spouses of students who are pursuing genuine postgraduate, three year graduate and PhD courses. Agents who prompt students to enroll in unrecognized courses will be sifted from genuine ones. Besides, a students' progress from now on will be primarily determined by their education provider and assessed against the education providers' own academic progress policies. In case of work visa holders, the immigration department informs that genuine cases will no longer need to obtain a variation of conditions to undertake training authorized by their employer as part of their job. While dealing with sponsors the immigration department requires that the sponsor be either a friend or relative and insist that the sponsor support a genuine student and hold sufficient funds for each student they are acting for. Education is one of New Zealand's top five export industries, contributing approximately $2.3 billion to the country's economy each year and supporting 32,000 jobs.