The Government has announced changes to its immigration policies designed to reduce the number of migrants gaining New Zealand residency by about 5% over the next two years.
It has reduced the planning range for residency approvals over the next two years from the current 90,000-100,000, down to 85,000-90,000, which could reduce the number of migrants gaining residency by up to 7500 a year.
It is also increasing the number of points required for a migrant to gain residency under the Skilled Migrant Category to 160 points from the current 140 points, which should also reduce the total number of migrants gaining residence and improve the skill levels of those that do.
"Increasing the points required to gain residence from 140 to 160 will moderate the growth in applications in the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) and enable us to lower the overall number of migrants gaining residence," Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse said.
The move comes with migration gains running at record highs with a 69,119 population gain in the 12 months to August, putting pressure on the Auckland housing market and being linked to subdued wage growth.
"Raising the points will also prioritise access for higher skilled SMC migrants, ensuring we strike the right balance between attracting skilled workers that allow companies to grow and managing demand in a period of strong growth," Woodhouse said.
The Government is also temporarily halting granting residency to the parents of existing residents wanting to migrate to this country under the family category.
The number of places for residency under the family category will also be reduced from 5,500 a year to 2000 a year.
This may have a significant impact on the number of older migrants following their children and settling in this country.
"Changes to the Family category, including temporarily closing the Parent Category to new applications, will also reduce the total number of new migrants being granted residence," Woodhouse said.
'There will be queues of young migrants waiting for a long time to get Mum and Dad to NZ'
David Cooper, the Operations Manager for immigration consultants Malcolm Pacific Immigration, said lifting the skilled migrant pass mark to 160 points meant people without any university qualifications were going to struggle to meet the new standard, regardless of how much work experience they had.
And compulsory English language testing for people wanting to emigrate here from non-English speaking countries created another hurdle, he said.
Reducing the number of parents allowed to migrate here because their children had already obtained residency would also have a major impact.
"From the work we do, I predict there will be queues of young migrants waiting for a long time to get Mum and Dad to New Zealand," he said.
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