General Skills passmark to increase

The General Skills Category passmark will increase from 29 to 30 points on Monday, 7 October 2002, Acting Immigration Minister Damien O’Connor announced today.

The new passmark will set the number of points a person requires to gain New Zealand residence under the General Skills Category (GSC). The passmark was last changed on 9 September 2002 (from 28 to 29 points) to help manage the New Zealand Immigration Programme.

“It is no secret that the New Zealand Immigration Service has been inundated with large numbers of residence applications in the GSC since the 2001/2002 year. The passmark increases announced earlier this year were implemented to help us manage down the number of applications. The points requirement that takes effect next Monday, will allow us to continue effective management of the NZ Immigration Programme,” Damien O’Connor said.

The NZ Immigration Programme allows for 45,000 residence approvals (with a tolerance of +/- 5000) across three streams:

Skilled/Business 60% (27,000 places +/- 3000 places) Family Sponsored 30% (13,500 +/- 1500 places) International/Humanitarian 10% (4,500 +/- 500 places)

“This level of demand does indicate that New Zealand continues to be a highly desirable migrant destination. Essentially, we are not experiencing any difficulty in attracting the kind of skills New Zealand needs.

“The passmark increase will not affect the ability of New Zealand businesses to tap into the global labour market through other government initiatives including the Talent Visa, Long Term Business Visa and Priority Occupations List schemes in the Work-To-Residence programme.

“In addition, GSC applicants with job offers relevant to their qualifications or work experience, will continue to get priority assessment,” Damien O’Connor said.

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