Photo: RNZ
Immigration advisors have questioned the government's decision to increase visa fees for applicants across nearly all migrant categories from 1 October.
Raising visa processing fees by such significant amounts has been described as a "risky" move that could deter migrants from seeking to find work in New Zealand, they say.
The application fee for a skilled residence visa will be $6450 from 1 October, up from $4290.
The fee for a partner visa will rise to $5360 from its current $2750 setting, while the fee for a dependent child visa will increase from $2,750 to $3,230.
The fee for processing a student visa will also double from $375 to $750.
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said the move aimed to create "a more sustainable immigration system", freeing up more than $563 million for the Crown over the next four years.
The move was in line with what the National Party had campaigned on - making the visa processing system largely user-pays to claw back taxpayer funding.
Arunima Dhingra, chair of the New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment, said the fee hikes were substantial, and the government needed to roll out the changes with care.
"Obviously, it's going to come at a cost to New Zealand," Dhingra said. "The fees are being increased but, as you can imagine, as the fees increase, people will expect more - better delivery and shorter time frames.
"It is going to come as a shock to the system because it is quite a lot of increase in certain areas, especially for individuals. New Zealand is definitely positioning itself to be a very expensive country to come to."
She said some visa application fees increased a couple of years ago, and people would have a lot to digest as the increase was much higher than what they had previously seen.
"It is a risky move by New Zealand," she said. "I think we will have to be very careful in what we offer migrants and employers in return for this increase in fees."
Stanford said the charges remained competitive in comparison to countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom, so she was confident New Zealand would continue to be an attractive destination.
Dhingra said it wasn't "comparing apples to apples".
"I mean, the reality of the matter is that if you look at it, we do compare in a lot of areas with Canada, the US and Australia, but the fact of the matter is that we are not those countries," she said.
"Our economy is a lot more volatile than their economies," she said. "People's salary ranges and what people get is quite different."
She said people chose to move to New Zealand for different reasons, but the government needed to make the country attractive for migrants and make the process easier.
Immigration consultant Sonny Lam said the move was discriminatory to impoverished people.
Lam warned it could exacerbate the severity of overstayers, as some families would struggle to get residency for all members.
He said the increased fees meant an individual would have to use a significant portion of their yearly income to apply for residency for their partner or children.
"Immigration covers many aspects of life, not just business," he said. "Not just work, but also family.
"If you're making the cost of having family in New Zealand exorbitant, then you're either chasing people away or else you're forcing people who don't have the economic means to try and hide their family members or, worse, stay illegally and become undocumented."
He said the move was also a deterrent to lower-skilled and lower-paid workers, which might be what the government wanted to achieve.
Lam was grateful the government had given people some time to adjust to the October fee hike, but Immigration New Zealand was going to face challenges.
"The next seven weeks will be a very busy time for immigration," Lam said. "I think they're going to see a massive influx of poorly prepared applications from people desperate to avoid the fee increase."
Higher fees would mean an increase in work for immigration officers, Lam said.
A student from China, who spoke on condition of using her family name due to concerns over future employment prospects, said the increase was "unreasonable".
"The skilled residence category is going to charge over $6000, but it will eventually cost us more than $10,000, including fees for immigration consultation, document certification, health examination and so on," she said, adding that she was trying to secure a work visa after graduation.
"It is already very difficult for us to find work in New Zealand, and everything is so expensive," she said. "This is making it more difficult for us."
Li said she might consider returned to China instead of staying in New Zealand.
Visa applications from Pacific migrants would remain the same as part of New Zealand's ongoing commitment to support the region, Stanford said.