Residence visa approval numbers up 59% compared to pre-Covid levels

Economy / news

Just under 200,000 people currently in New Zealand on work visas

11th Dec 24, 9:50am by Greg Ninness

A total of 16,416 work visas were approved in November, plus 4242 residence visas, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

The latest visa approvals brought the total number of people in New Zealand on work visas to 199,800 at the end of November. That's up 15,429 (+8.4%) compared to November last year.

That's still 5.7% below pre-Covid levels in November 2019, when there were 211,797 people in NZ on work visas. However, the decline is not due to overseas workers packing up their tools and returning to their homelands, although some will have done that.

Most of the people who were in NZ on work visas prior to the 2020 Covid outbreak are probably still in the country, but are now living here with residence visas.

That's because of the 2021 Residence Visa Scheme, a one-off arrangement allowing more than 211,000 people already in NZ on work visas to obtain fast-track residence visas, so they no longer appear in the work visa population numbers.

If they had remained on work visas, the total number of people on work visas would probably number around 400,000 now.

Although the 2021 scheme has now closed, with just a handful of applications still being finalised each month, "normal" residence visa applications are still being processed, with the 4242 approved in November taking the total for the 12 months to the end of November to just under 55,000. This includes just over 1600 visas approved under the 2021 scheme.

That means total residence visa approvals in the 12 months to November 2024 were up 59% compared to pre-Covid levels, when 34,596 residence visas were approved in the 12 months to November 2019. See the graph below for the trend over the last 10 years.

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55 Comments

by huttman | 11th Dec 24, 10:00am 1733864454

now the first thing those new residents do is buy properties.

by Retired-Poppy | 11th Dec 24, 10:40am 1733866820

......some here will have hands clasped in prayer.

by Toye | 11th Dec 24, 10:34am 1733866460

Yeah all that uber eats and petrol station attendant money will certainly afford them a palace.

by Advisor | 11th Dec 24, 11:15am 1733868926

Yes - bring them in to undercut local wages and toil away in low-value industries yet expect them to buy overpriced houses from existing homeowners.

It appears that landlords and speculators are also losing out owing to our migration system that is designed to serve sweatshop owners. Poor sods!

by Matt_B | 11th Dec 24, 10:41am 1733866894

Top 5 Nationality approvals in November

India 1,176

Philippines 516

China 342

Samoa 210

Fiji 171

by easymoney | 11th Dec 24, 11:18am 1733869081

Nz turning into

little India..

by Blackbeard | 11th Dec 24, 11:32am 1733869964

I actually think the India race is one of the most visually attractive, those gorgeous beaming smiles, large cheeks, warm golden complexion. If we can interbreed, we can create a hybrid race of super models that we can export to the world. We may even eventually win miss universe.

by singautim | 11th Dec 24, 1:26pm 1733876764

European languages including English evolved from North Indian Sanskrit. Most Pakeha and Maori contain DNA from India. Most Indians speak English and are familiar with English culture. Familiar doesn't mean they approve of it but probably those who choose to come to NZ have some affection for it. Those who don't at least understand the rest of us. Makes more cultural sense to bring in PIs, Indians and English rather than from weirdly non-English alien cultures such as France or Germany.

by Mystery | 11th Dec 24, 4:18pm 1733887133

'European languages including English evolved from North Indian Sanskrit'

No. English (and other European languages) did not evolve from Sanskrit. Sanskrit and English are from different evolutionary branches, but both share a common ancestor in a Proto-Indo-European language.

by singautim | 11th Dec 24, 6:12pm 1733893936

Thank you for the correction.

by LapisLazuli5297 | 11th Dec 24, 2:05pm 1733879146

Natives from different parts of the massive Indian subcontinent look completely different to each other, but thanks for the colonial romanticization.

by RookieInvestor | 11th Dec 24, 11:32am 1733869972

Don't worry so is Australia, had some colleagues over last week, they said its the same in Sydney.

had come confirm it,

https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-statistics/statistics/country-profiles/profiles

by Yvil | 11th Dec 24, 12:10pm 1733872257

Fun fact, there are more Indian people than all of Europe, the USA, Russia, Australia and New Zealand put together. 😳😳😳

by LapisLazuli5297 | 11th Dec 24, 2:06pm 1733879213

You could easily chuck in Canada too.

by Yvil | 11th Dec 24, 2:26pm 1733880405

True ! It's really astonishing if you look at the land mass of Russia, Canada, all of Europe, USA and Australia, and then realise they have less people than India.

by John Mendel | 11th Dec 24, 3:57pm 1733885835

NZ is already India 2

by singautim | 11th Dec 24, 1:34pm 1733877293

Have Brits and South Africans given up on NZ?

Should Samoa be considered an unofficial dependency of NZ and excluded from these figures? Elderly Samoans may choose to return home to Samoa when they retire - not so sure of those other countries.

by HouseMouse | 11th Dec 24, 5:38pm 1733891916

NZ was a great deal for Brits in the early 2000s, our housing was a great deal especially with the exchange rate of the time. Financially, NZ is much less appealing now.

by K.W. | 11th Dec 24, 11:11am 1733868703

Yup, most of them got in before the First Home Buyer grant got canned, but they can still use the Kainga Ora first home loan with 5% deposit.

by ozzzy2 | 11th Dec 24, 2:05pm 1733879113

I would be interested to see if the application forms address this.

Do you have pre-arranged accommodation?

Do you intend to buy or rent?

Do you have family or friends to stay with?

Etc

by nz-it-worker | 11th Dec 24, 11:49am 1733870979

NZ tumbles in international adult literacy, maths rankings

The report said many countries had lower scores than the last time the test was run, in 2015, but New Zealand's declines were among the largest.

The report indicated that increased immigration had affected New Zealand's results.

"Between 2014 and 2022-23, the proportion of foreign-born adults of foreign-born parents grew by about 7 percentage points in New Zealand. Over this same time period, the declines in literacy proficiency were more pronounced for foreign-born adults than for native-born adults in New Zealand, and the literacy gap between the two groups widened.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/536321/nz-tumbles-in-international-adult-literacy-maths-rankings

Not a lot of strategic thinking going on with our gatekeepers.

by Yvil | 11th Dec 24, 12:13pm 1733872431

So, "Be kind", "everyone's a winner" abolishing grades at school is not producing smart people ?

by Zwifter | 11th Dec 24, 12:51pm 1733874678

Yes exactly it all turned to shit when they dropped School certificate and University entrance and just gave everyone a hospital pass. I guess we will have to keep on going until we hit the bottom before it gets re introduced.

by Slapheid | 11th Dec 24, 1:15pm 1733876151

Not sure what you're talking about (hospital passes for everybody?)

My son has just finished his Yr12 NCEA exams. The content and workload for his last couple of years of Maths, Physics and English didn't look that much different to the Form 5 - 6 SC/UE work I did many, many moons ago.

by singautim | 11th Dec 24, 1:46pm 1733877982

Yesterday I was doing a fun problem found on YouTube with my 16 year old grandson and when we had converted the geometry and used Pythagoras theorem I said now it is just a matter of applying the quadratic formula (which after 50 years I'd forgotten). He replied they won't be teaching that until year 12.

Maybe the majority can live their lives without any exposure to the quadratic formula but bright kids at school should know it and they should know it well before they reach 17 and their brains lose flexibility.

by LapisLazuli5297 | 11th Dec 24, 2:21pm 1733880062

Quadratic equations and simultaneous equations are covered off in the Singapore Year 10 curriculum, I believe.

by Chaosinflesh | 11th Dec 24, 2:40pm 1733881250

That seems wrong to me (historically was Form 6/Year 11) - but I tried to find it in the NCEA government page - and it's a shambles, with the Mathematics curriculum seemingly not available due to being rewritten.

This makes me think the level of our education system is directly reflective of the competence of those in 'leadership'.

And in comparison to the Australian standards (which seem to relate quite closely to what I grew up with, and very well defined) it's just embarrassing.

NZ should stop trying to reinvent the wheel.

by LapisLazuli5297 | 11th Dec 24, 2:59pm 1733882388

Too many "PhDs in education" now running the show and needing to prove their fancy theories and qualifications on our children.

by Getting it right. | 12th Dec 24, 1:46am 1733921219

singautim, see if your grandson can prove Pythagoras' Theorem just using geometry (I'd do it using similar triangles but there's more than one way to do this). Also try proving the quadratic formula using completing the square. Both are fun and pretty satisfying for anyone with an interest in maths. It's the sort of thing the teacher gave us as extension work in 4th form. Obviously now anyone can search this sort of thing on the interweb now, but I remember being thrilled when my maths teacher gave me an old copy of a 1930s text book on geometry - Ptolemy's Theorem and all that kind of good stuff!

by LapisLazuli5297 | 11th Dec 24, 2:17pm 1733879839

You would have needed to do minimal internal assessment work when you went through high school.

by singautim | 11th Dec 24, 1:27pm 1733876871

Bounce off the bottom? When will we hit it?

by Baywatch | 11th Dec 24, 1:37pm 1733877437

Charter schools will fix this...proven winners

by singautim | 11th Dec 24, 1:49pm 1733878161

A good charter school system has winners and losers. You cannot have just winners. If no charter schools fails it would be as bad as no small business failing. They are a gamble, maybe worth taking, with the alternative being one standard size trying to fit all.

by Advisor | 11th Dec 24, 12:17pm 1733872675

That's not surprising.

There have been reports (in Australia and NZ) that thousands of new arrivals are turning up to schools each year, across all school years, with very limited English proficiency. A lot of the older ones' self-report as having attended overcrowded low-quality schools in their home countries and find it rather difficult to fit into NZ's system, which is not exactly top of the game to begin with.

by nz-it-worker | 11th Dec 24, 12:38pm 1733873905

Petone Central School principal Trina Bennett said the school's roll of 140 students included about 50 new migrant students who arrived this year with little to no English.

"We've just seen so many come from Sri Lanka, Fiji, India, Vietnam, and China. We've never seen this amount of ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) students come all at one time.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/496496/increase-in-new-migrant-students-puts-strain-on-english-language-teaching-resources

by interesting1234 | 11th Dec 24, 12:46pm 1733874402

Bare in mind this can, in part, be allocated towards the level of value parents put into their childrens' education.

by singautim | 11th Dec 24, 1:29pm 1733876984

Bear in mind. Bear as in “endure” or “carry”.

by Yvil | 11th Dec 24, 2:24pm 1733880271

So, not as in Yogi bear ?

by singautim | 11th Dec 24, 1:16pm 1733876179

Richard Prebble in today's Herald.

""In the past 10 years, economic growth has come from immigration. Immigration has increased the size of the economy at the expense of living standards. As the economy has grown the average New Zealander has become poorer. In 2013, our population was 4.4 million. In 2023 5.2 million. An increase of 800,000. Population growth of 18% in a decade. It is the reason our hospitals, schools and roads are overwhelmed. It is unsustainable.""

by Advisor | 11th Dec 24, 1:31pm 1733877086

As the economy has grown the average New Zealander has become poorer

If not for the easy way of stamping out visas to grow the economy off greater aggregate demand, the government of the day would be forced to make meaningful reforms in our housing, tax, education, health and workforce training policies to achieve productivity growth. Under the current system, the government can grow its tax base by simply bringing in more taxpayers.

Kiwi businesses would have to innovate and compete with foreign firms in the global export markets to grow their revenue, if they were not given a rapidly growing consumer base at home on a silver platter to feed off.

Hence, we're all worse off!

by singautim | 11th Dec 24, 1:53pm 1733878436

The GDP growth is almost immediate but the four new schools announced this week and the demands for new hospitals are faced by the next government down the line. Luxon is juggling with problems created by Labour govt's excess immigration. If he does as per previous Nat govts he will maintain or increase immigration and pass the related problems future governments.

by HouseMouse | 11th Dec 24, 5:41pm 1733892070

Good that these kinds of views can be aired these days without automatic accusations of being a ‘racist’ or xenophobe

by Getting it right. | 12th Dec 24, 1:32am 1733920332

Put Prebbo in charge!

He gets it, unlike every other politician who is only looking a month ahead!

The country has been absolutely vandalised by the radical left and the feckless centre right.

by singautim | 11th Dec 24, 1:58pm 1733878699

I worked and lived in a 3rd world country for a dozen years. The cost of my work visas covered the cost of employing two local teachers. When my job was localised and I was made redundant I had to leave the country. I could not buy land.

Do developed countries have something to learn from under-developed countries?

by Small Kev | 11th Dec 24, 2:27pm 1733880452

4242 residents visa is nothing.

A recent survey suggests that over 2 million Indians would consider relocating to New Zealand or Australia if offered the opportunity, citing a better lifestyle and education as key motivations. 1500 at a time no hurry…

by LapisLazuli5297 | 11th Dec 24, 3:00pm 1733882445

I suggest that the number interested would be more than 20 million once you add in their relatives and extended family members.

by bloodymigrant | 11th Dec 24, 3:11pm 1733883093

No one is interested to come to NZ, where did you get this nonsense?

by Small Kev | 11th Dec 24, 4:06pm 1733886391

“No one is interested to come to NZ”

where did you get this nonsense? Just look around.

by HouseMouse | 11th Dec 24, 9:36pm 1733906201

Tens of millions of people keen to leave third world shitholes to get to any developed country, not particularly NZ

by singautim | 12th Dec 24, 2:58pm 1733968723

There are both 3rd and 1st world shitholes. Some of the under developed world is magical with plenty to envy But even the 3rd world citizen now knows the benefit of free quality education, free medical facilities, 1st world wages and state pensions. So they have good reasons for leaving their beautiful villages with ample food for a life in alien but developed countries. For example most of my extended family.

by singautim | 11th Dec 24, 3:44pm 1733885095

I'm astonished it is so low. Much as I love India there are religious minorities experiencing discrimination (Christian 28m & Muslim 205m) who may prefer NZ. Then there is anyone who is poor (129m in extreme poverty) and needing good schools or hospitals. Maybe the survey didn't get to the poor places.

It is not love of NZ although given the recent cricket tour there will be plenty of that that makes them want to live in NZ. It is as per some of my PI friends and family, who prefer tropical food and warmth but stick to NZ for medical & educational benefits and good job opportunities. They take their holidays back in their home countries.

To quote Milton Friedman: ""There is no doubt that free and open immigration is the right policy in a libertarian state, but in a welfare state it is a different story: the supply of immigrants will become infinite"". Also ""It's just obvious you can't have free immigration and a welfare state,""

by 21Trillion | 11th Dec 24, 7:34pm 1733898890

The desperation to fill the gap of kiwis leaving is a joke. Broken country.

by singautim | 11th Dec 24, 9:09pm 1733904558

800,000 population growth in a decade; not new Kiwi babies out numbering Kiwi deaths. So INZ can't count? Or does it take two foreign low-paid workers to replace each nurse, teacher or policeman who chooses to leave for greener pastures?

by Rhumline | 12th Dec 24, 9:10am 1733947850

This is the vision of our current coalition - and sadly their predecessors

- facilitate the departure of New Zealanders to other shores

- replace with more people who care not a jot for New Zealand and its founding principles (the real ones David, not those you make up)

The end is the end of New Zealand as a nation - NZ now more like a brand?

Sad.

by Getting it right. | 12th Dec 24, 1:23am 1733919814

Utter madness. Jam pack everyone into all the tiny new badly designed "townhouses". Clog the schools, hospitals and roads, then have them all in place to receive super after 20 years of barely scrapping by and taking more in entitlements than they paid in taxes!!

If the current population can't prove profitable, then recklessly growing it without any plan is no recipe for success.