Jamie Smith
19th February 2005, 01:58 PM
Hi all
NZIS have been slow processing LTBVs, two weeks ago one of our clients was wondering about their case lodged in August 04, they still did not have a case officer on their file despite NZIS assurance in February 2004 that by October 04 LTBVs would take 3 months to be decided.
April-July 04 cases were assigned to officers in August 04, but August cases still not allocated. Cr*p really.
I wrote to the agent and advised them to approach the Service Manager.
Service Manager's reply on 2nd February was this:
"Progress on LTBVs has not been as rapid as we have hoped and regrettably we have not been able to attain the goals mentioned in our newsletter. We will be completing another allocation of these next week. Currently there are 31 LTBVs lodged before your clients which are still awaiting a case officer. These LTBVs were lodged between June and the middle of August 2004. In fairness to clients who applied before your client we will allocate those first. Realistically we are unlikely to be able to allocate your clients application to a case officer before early March.
If your client is at risk of losing his business opportunity, please advise what benefit to New Zealand his opportunity was proposing and I will see if it is sufficient to merit being allocated ahead of schedule."
So we reminded them of their public assurances, restated the benefits to NZ and likelihood that target business for sale might be sold and back to square one.
NZIS then allocated a case officer, and.... case was approved the next day! It just goes to show that they can do it if they want to. Mind you, it must have been a helluva good business plan :clap
From analysing their processing statistics it appears that the Business Unit are too busy issuing work permits to spouses and partners to really prioritise new cases.
Despite the info that follows, the likelihood for UK LTBV approval is fairly reasonable if applicants have strong business ownership/management evidence and follow a specific process in putting things together.
Here is some recent anlaysis on LTBVs for cases lodged decided since July 1 2004:
2002 policy LTBV cases have a 37% success rate overall, down from 55% success rate in the previous year.
41 LTBVs were approved since July 1, 70 were declined. Just 20 cases are being decided each month....
In BMBs defence the total number of decisions made for all visas appears to be tracking at about 15% higher than last year, but the main growth appears to be in non-business visas such as partners, work permits.
Perhaps BMB could offload this non-critical aspect and get stuck into processing business cases a lot faster, this would certainly help with encouraging conditional offers to purchase businesses and lease properties, giving BMB more concrete proposals to work with, and more certainty to migrants.
Top LTBV countries are UK, USA, India, Korea, China, Malaysia, Fiji
UK provided 25 cases, 9 declined and 16 approved, 64% success rate.
India 27 cases, 6 cases approved, 21 declined, 22% success rate.
South Korea 12 cases, 2 approved, 9 declined, 18% success rate.
USA 8 cases, 3 cases approved, 5 declined, 37% success rate.
China 6 cases, all declined
Malaysia 5 cases, 3 approved, 2 declined, 60% success rate
Fiji 5 cases, 2 approved, 3 declined, 40% success rate.
Imagine, just one case per month and you get in the top 10 countries....
If you drop out the UK from the figures, then just 25 cases were approved and 61 declined, overall 29% success rate.
UK, India and South Korea are really the only countries with about 2 or more cases decided per month, but because India and South Korea have appalling success rates this really only leaves UK in the market, and you would have to budget for a good proportion of failed cases....
For UK to have 2/3 success rate shows that few people can relate to NZIS requirement of total control of all aspects of the business, as it is NOT mentioned anywhere on NZIS website nor is it in their information guides. If an applicant did all of their own application then there is a very good chance that they would trip up on this point. Same goes for the USA, most cases from there are declined and self completing people might get tripped up.
That might also show that the US based NZIS relationship managers are having no effect or influence on the LTBV market, or don't themselves know about this management criteria.
I know that many UK applicants no longer consider LTBV to be attractive enough, given the 100 points threshold for SMC. However if you LTBV policy was improved and clients came back to it then the SMC results would show even fewer applications....
Done properly, LTBV would cost a client somewhere around up to $20,000 for research visit, accounting fees, property valuations, biz plan, NZIS costs etc - all of this to obtain a work permit of just 9 months duration with no guarantee of continuation! :wah
This shows that LTBV policy is in serious need of an overhaul, starting with:
a) review of the unrealistic requirement to have total control over all aspects of a business to be considered a suitable business person,
b) ensuring that NZIS web and paper information includes a clearer explanation of the level of experience required,
c) getting rid of non-business visa processing in BMB to speed up processing, this will generate more concrete business proposals and reduce the need for "change of business" and "reconsideration" and perhaps s35a.
c) market education activities in UK, India, Korea and USA so that our only significant markets can provide better quality applications.
One would have to say that both SMC and LTBV are not effective polices at present, in terms of how they are received by the market, the quality of resultant applications and of course overall desire to endure the cost and necessary processes.
Compare that result with Australia, which is getting more skilled applicants than it can accept even within a more difficult points framework, also consider that 7 State Governments plus DIMIA (NZIS equivalent) are up in China this month exclusively promoting business migration visas to Chinese business people who do not speak English.
I'd rather be living in NZ (Australian sports commentators were born one eye patched over), but the immigration market is over here in Australia, especially for business cases. :cheers
NZIS have been slow processing LTBVs, two weeks ago one of our clients was wondering about their case lodged in August 04, they still did not have a case officer on their file despite NZIS assurance in February 2004 that by October 04 LTBVs would take 3 months to be decided.
April-July 04 cases were assigned to officers in August 04, but August cases still not allocated. Cr*p really.
I wrote to the agent and advised them to approach the Service Manager.
Service Manager's reply on 2nd February was this:
"Progress on LTBVs has not been as rapid as we have hoped and regrettably we have not been able to attain the goals mentioned in our newsletter. We will be completing another allocation of these next week. Currently there are 31 LTBVs lodged before your clients which are still awaiting a case officer. These LTBVs were lodged between June and the middle of August 2004. In fairness to clients who applied before your client we will allocate those first. Realistically we are unlikely to be able to allocate your clients application to a case officer before early March.
If your client is at risk of losing his business opportunity, please advise what benefit to New Zealand his opportunity was proposing and I will see if it is sufficient to merit being allocated ahead of schedule."
So we reminded them of their public assurances, restated the benefits to NZ and likelihood that target business for sale might be sold and back to square one.
NZIS then allocated a case officer, and.... case was approved the next day! It just goes to show that they can do it if they want to. Mind you, it must have been a helluva good business plan :clap
From analysing their processing statistics it appears that the Business Unit are too busy issuing work permits to spouses and partners to really prioritise new cases.
Despite the info that follows, the likelihood for UK LTBV approval is fairly reasonable if applicants have strong business ownership/management evidence and follow a specific process in putting things together.
Here is some recent anlaysis on LTBVs for cases lodged decided since July 1 2004:
2002 policy LTBV cases have a 37% success rate overall, down from 55% success rate in the previous year.
41 LTBVs were approved since July 1, 70 were declined. Just 20 cases are being decided each month....
In BMBs defence the total number of decisions made for all visas appears to be tracking at about 15% higher than last year, but the main growth appears to be in non-business visas such as partners, work permits.
Perhaps BMB could offload this non-critical aspect and get stuck into processing business cases a lot faster, this would certainly help with encouraging conditional offers to purchase businesses and lease properties, giving BMB more concrete proposals to work with, and more certainty to migrants.
Top LTBV countries are UK, USA, India, Korea, China, Malaysia, Fiji
UK provided 25 cases, 9 declined and 16 approved, 64% success rate.
India 27 cases, 6 cases approved, 21 declined, 22% success rate.
South Korea 12 cases, 2 approved, 9 declined, 18% success rate.
USA 8 cases, 3 cases approved, 5 declined, 37% success rate.
China 6 cases, all declined
Malaysia 5 cases, 3 approved, 2 declined, 60% success rate
Fiji 5 cases, 2 approved, 3 declined, 40% success rate.
Imagine, just one case per month and you get in the top 10 countries....
If you drop out the UK from the figures, then just 25 cases were approved and 61 declined, overall 29% success rate.
UK, India and South Korea are really the only countries with about 2 or more cases decided per month, but because India and South Korea have appalling success rates this really only leaves UK in the market, and you would have to budget for a good proportion of failed cases....
For UK to have 2/3 success rate shows that few people can relate to NZIS requirement of total control of all aspects of the business, as it is NOT mentioned anywhere on NZIS website nor is it in their information guides. If an applicant did all of their own application then there is a very good chance that they would trip up on this point. Same goes for the USA, most cases from there are declined and self completing people might get tripped up.
That might also show that the US based NZIS relationship managers are having no effect or influence on the LTBV market, or don't themselves know about this management criteria.
I know that many UK applicants no longer consider LTBV to be attractive enough, given the 100 points threshold for SMC. However if you LTBV policy was improved and clients came back to it then the SMC results would show even fewer applications....
Done properly, LTBV would cost a client somewhere around up to $20,000 for research visit, accounting fees, property valuations, biz plan, NZIS costs etc - all of this to obtain a work permit of just 9 months duration with no guarantee of continuation! :wah
This shows that LTBV policy is in serious need of an overhaul, starting with:
a) review of the unrealistic requirement to have total control over all aspects of a business to be considered a suitable business person,
b) ensuring that NZIS web and paper information includes a clearer explanation of the level of experience required,
c) getting rid of non-business visa processing in BMB to speed up processing, this will generate more concrete business proposals and reduce the need for "change of business" and "reconsideration" and perhaps s35a.
c) market education activities in UK, India, Korea and USA so that our only significant markets can provide better quality applications.
One would have to say that both SMC and LTBV are not effective polices at present, in terms of how they are received by the market, the quality of resultant applications and of course overall desire to endure the cost and necessary processes.
Compare that result with Australia, which is getting more skilled applicants than it can accept even within a more difficult points framework, also consider that 7 State Governments plus DIMIA (NZIS equivalent) are up in China this month exclusively promoting business migration visas to Chinese business people who do not speak English.
I'd rather be living in NZ (Australian sports commentators were born one eye patched over), but the immigration market is over here in Australia, especially for business cases. :cheers