Employer-sponsored workers make up about 40 percent of the 160,000 temporary migrant workers in NZ. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has warned the government that risk intelligence systems and information technology to carry out visa processing are "creaking".
The comments came in a briefing to immigration minister Erica Stanford, in which INZ discussed the coalition government's priorities for building an efficient, self-funding system, which would address migrant exploitation and review family and partnership visas.
It said operational trade-offs occurred between speed of processing, high volumes of applications and managing risk, with increased waiting times when more checks were needed.
"Effective foundational systems and settings can help reduce these trade-offs," wrote INZ officials.
"These include simple and clear policy settings, modern information technology systems that support processing, good performance monitoring and risk intelligence systems, and sound financial and resource management plans. In immigration these system foundations are currently 'creaking', increasing risks and causing some short-term impacts on performance."
The post-election briefing - before a meeting between officials and the minister in December - sets out some of the issues and priorities, which included dealing with the fall-out from accredited employer work visas (AEWV).
The minister was told "rapidly changing contexts and policy being progressed ahead of system investments" had been part of INZ's problems in recent years, including since the border closure and re-opening.
"A push strongly in any particular direction or directions may cause constraints or performance to suffer in other dimensions," said INZ.
"For example, with AEWV high application volumes and commitments to fast processing to get skills in after the border closures, contributed to concerns about integrity and genuineness of some roles being approved. Refocusing on integrity within current resources has come at the cost of slower processing times."
Employer-sponsored workers make up about 40 percent of the 160,000 temporary migrant workers in New Zealand, with working holiday makers, students, post-study workers and partners accounting for most of the rest.
Critics said too many policy changes and woeful IT had caused problems, ranging from the launch of 'fast-track' 2021 residence applications, to slow temporary visa processing after the border re-opened and AEWV began. RNZ was told INZ's new ADEPT system had been nicknamed 'Inept' for the number of errors, glitches and breakdowns.
Policy priorities
The December briefing document was part of discussions between INZ and Stanford about the government's priorities, including helping businesses recruit overseas workers, increasing visa fees to cover INZ's costs, and improving regulation and risk management.
The coalition's programme includes increasing the cap on the number of workers under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme; and introducing a five-year, renewable visa for overseas-born parents of New Zealand residents and citizens.
The government has also been reviewing fees and levies. One of the INZ suggestions in the briefing was legislation to allow it to charge more than cost-recovery, and to have businesses and colleges make contributions.
"The current [Immigration] Act is reasonably permissive providing further scope to fund some more system costs from the levy (such as policy or compliance costs) or introduce priority processing fees. Extending the third party revenue model to over-collect system costs would require legislative change, as would broadening the base to collect levies from certain employers, education providers and other system beneficiaries."
INZ also signalled the risk that if costs rise - for example if an economic lull affected work visa revenue, 'ongoing ICT cost pressures, potential non-realisation of projected automation efficiencies' - it would again be faced with visa fees failing to cover the agency's costs.
The report authors said the system had managed both the closing and reopening of the border, but reiterated that the system was creaking, leaving customers confused and stakeholders needing stability.
"A continuing high pace of policy change takes resources away from improving core systems that underpin the user experience and help detect risk.
"There are ongoing risks of increasing costs, reactive swings from quick to slow processing to manage risk, and user confusion, without a more measured pace of change, and investment in ICT and business operational and performance capability."