[PeKaJoSa]

During 2009 the fortnightly selection of SMC applicants from the EOI pool, thus far it appears the only way to get selected was to be in one of three groups:
- 140+ points
- 100+ points with a job offer
- 100+ points with bonus points for qualifications or work experience related to absolute skills shortage areas.

However for the first time in 2009, the draw on 22nd April included 171 EOI's selected where the applicants had 100->135 points but no job offer or skills-shortage bonus points..!

That made me think of two questions:

1) Why the sudden acceptance of people without job offers or skills-shortage bonus points?

2) What was the lowest points total selected?

I'm wondering if we are coming to the end of the NZIS 'year' and maybe the sudden drop off in number of SMC applicants (due to the global economic situation) means that NZIS is actually *short* of it's target "quota"?

IF that is true (- and it's a big *IF* -) then perhaps now is a good time for those of us with no job offer and no skills bonus points (maybe in the 100-105 range?) to put in our EOI's.... :clap

I'd heard that the NZIS annual quota was possibly supposed to 'reset' possibly in May or June, but couldn't find confirmation on the NZIS site. Does anyone know at what point this year the NZIS immigration 'quota' is supposed to finish?

Also, anyone here know how 'low' the points cut-off was this time?

Cheers!
Pete M.

[Toonster]

Hi Pete,

The best place to look at is: http://formshelp.immigration.govt.nz/SkilledMigrant/ExpressionOfInterest/HistoryOfSelectionPoints.html

This gives you a list of all the points levels drawn this year, and if you go to the bottom, it gives lists for the previous years, too.

For the draw on the 22nd April, the cut off points level was 120 for those without extra points claims.

The acceptance of people without job offers etc is because they usually draw around 770-780 applications from the pool each time, and had "space" left over once they had people fulfilling the with job offer or with quals / work experience areas.

Looking at the selections from last year as a comparison, from about this time in, they started drawing people who didn't have a job, quals etc. The base line for points fluctuated from 135 down to 110 in the November and December draws, mainly sitting at the 115 points mark.

I'm afraid I don't know when the immigration quota resets, though.

[PeKaJoSa]

Thanks for that link Toonster - the data on those pages is VERY enlightening.

It looks like the process is based on NZIS picking between 700 - 850 applicants each fortnight and is very heavily influenced by -

1) The number of "140+ points" EOIs (automatic selection)
plus
2) The number of "100+ and a job offer" EOIs (very desirable to process quickly)

If the total of the two groups above dips below approx. 550 then they usually seem to start dipping into the "reserve pool" of those with 100-135 points (with no job offer or skills shortage bonus points).

The draw on 22nd April saw "1) + 2)" total drop to 481, so they drew down to the 120 points level in the "reserve pool".

I suspect that if they have several successive fortnights where the "1) +2)" total stays around (or below) 480 then NZIS will have to keep dropping the threshold further and further down (assuming the people with 'skills shortage bonus points' EOIs consistently keep at the relatively small / steady level seen historically).

Technically, I suppose that it could get as low as 100 points to be selected... well, I'm sure hoping to seethat...!!

Of course if the NZIS "annual quota" (or even just the fortnightly quota) gets reset to a lower level then all my calculations will get thrown out the window...

Cheers!
Pete M.