Minister of Immigration
Hon Tuariki Delamere

• POLICIES FOR PROGRESS INDEX
• PM WELCOMES PROGRESS ON IMMIGRATION
• POINTS FOR WORK EXPERIENCE MORE REALISTIC
• ENTREPRENEURS ENCOURAGED
• MAKING NEW ZEALAND A MORE ATTRACTIVE DESTINATION
• LANGUAGE TRAINING
• MORE QUALIFICATIONS TO BE ACCEPTED
• STUDENT POLICY
• TOURISM AND TRADE
• BUSINESS INVESTORS

The Minister of Immigration, Hon Tuariki Delamere, said that because existing policy requires work experience to be relevant to an applicant's qualification it is preventing many skilled people from meeting the General Skills category points requirement.

The new General Skills category points system will award one point for every two years work experience up to 10 points. Twenty-five points are currently needed to qualify for residence. Applicants must have a minimum of two years work experience to qualify for residence (people with New Zealand qualifications that are recognised for points, will be exempt the two year requirement). Work experience does not have to be relevant to qualifications.

"The new policy reflects the fact that people have much more flexible career paths than they used to. Highly skilled people will work in a variety of professions or set up their own businesses throughout their careers. Our immigration policy needs to reflect the realities in the labour market.

"The way the points system stands, graduates with profession-specific qualifications like law or engineering might not qualify for work experience points if they spent most of their careers in other professions or self-employment. We don't want to exclude people from moving here for the wrong reasons," Mr Delamere said.

The new points system for the General Skills category will take effect from 30 November 1998.