[Trigirl]

This may have been discussed before but as I couldn't see it I thought I'd post it here as it may be of use to people who are preparing to send in ITA's.

In a change to previous policy every single application that has

a) no job offer; and
b) bonus points claimed for work exp / quals in an area of absolute shortage

will now have to provide a full NZQA assessment of the qualification used to claim points and work expereince - even if its a qualification that is on the approved list.

http://www.immigration.govt.nz/branch/londonbranchhome/News/NZQA+requirements.htm

[renew]

Oh fantastic. A new way to get money from us. So now my degree title "Electronic engineering" from uk university cant be recognised as a degree in electronic engineering by NZIS.

[jo-and-jeff]

I'm sure it is not merely a scheme to get more money from migrants. Based on the multitude of reports on this forum from people who claimed bonus points only to be told later that their qualifications were not valid for bonus points, I'm guessing that an internal statistical review at NZIS showed that their staff were expending a huge amount of time on ITAs which were then rejected because of incorrectly calculated point totals.

It's a huge pain and expense for migrants, but I can see why NZIS would feel the need to institute this. And really, it would be better for migrants to know up front that their credentials don't qualify for bonus points than to go through all of the hassle with medicals and then find out; at that point the clock is ticking on their ITA, giving them very little time to get a job offer to make up the difference.

Jo

[pintpot]

Would a change in the process help whereby the qualification is checked at the EOI stage, therefore people know that they will or won't have the bonus points and can proceed accordingly. This would be an extra cost but it would save a lot of hassle. I don't know if I will get 115 or 130 points until I submit the EOI. Knowing that my qualification will count I could go for the full 130 with confidence (though nothing is certain!).

When you read the news that NZ is crying out for "skilled" migrants, they then add this new policy making it more difficult to get the points. As many people have said before somebody with years of experience gets rejected because either they don't have a qualification or don't have the relevant qualification. It's mad. What does "skilled" mean anyway and how many people actually use the stuff they learned on their course?! Plus courses change over time and add/remove stuff so is a course that was done in 1990 less relevant than a course done in 2000 and does the NZQA take this into account?

Phew.....deep breath!

Paul

[thezorbster]

Does anyone know whether this is still the case if the ITA was issued before 10th December? We received our ITA beginning of Nov and submitted it 19th Dec without NZQA assessment - there was no mention of this requirement on our ITA letter.

Thanks for drawing this to our attention Trigirl as we hadn't read it before but this could really delay our application if we now have to get this done.

[Trigirl]

i've no idea what would happen if you are one of the ones that recieved your OTA before the new policy but submitted it afterwards?

i completely agree with jo - this is an area which comes up again and again on these forums and must take up huge amounts of NZISs time. and yes - there are a few people who have a degree in "computer science" for an IT job etc - but loads more who have related degrees where its just impossible to tell from the title whether the content is relevant or not.

[stu70]

Look at it this way: Do you really want to go to a foreign land with all kinds of money, time and energy invested only to realize that you do not have skills that will fetch you money to support you/your family? Is it not far better to ensure one is qualified to not only enter the country(i.e. good character, health, education) but also is "employable"? I think NZIS owe it to their country to ensure the SMC is serving its purpose; letting in those folks who are going to succeed as new residents. It also is good for potential immigrants. Regards,

[renew]

NZQA does not seem to differentiate between what it does need( and charge for) to do where institutions are not on the recognised qualifications list and when they are. I do understand the need for checking qualifications from some unkown institutions but to subject leading universities from various contries to the same degree of rigour seems like overkill. Another point would be that this information has only been posted on the london website - nowhere else that i can find any reference to this. No ammendment circular etc...

[bob1]

I'd certainly be interested to know if anyone NOT going through London has been requested to do this?

I have a degee in Computer Science from a recognised uni, and like renew, find it overkill to spend $500 for NZQA to state that my degree in Computer Science is indeed a degree in Computer Science.

[jess]

Regardless of whether they should or shouldn't be requiring this, I find it strange that it's not mentioned more prominently. I can't find anything on other branch pages or in the amendments to the operational manual.

And the section the London branch refers to when they say "If you have claimed bonus points for a qualification and or work experience in an area of absolute shortage and have not sent your full NZQA assessment with your application INZ will not accept the application for processing. This is because you will not have met the mandatory lodgement requirements which are detailed in our Operational Manual (R2.40 (a) (viii)." That section of the operational manual just says:
R2.40
(a)...
(viii) any other information, evidence and submissions that the
principal applicant considers show fully that they are eligible to
be issued with a residence visa or granted a residence permit in
terms of the applicable Government residence policy.
Which is an odd basis for rejection since that wording leaves discretion for what additional items to include with the ITA up to the principal applicant.

I'll be interested to hear if anyone learns more about this or hears back from another branch about whether they also require this...

[thezorbster]

This may help people like us, whose ITA was received before the date of the new requirement. We e-mailed them to find out whether we were required to do this and this is the reply we had....

"The requirement of having to submit a full NZQA Assessment
applies only to those applications that have been selected from the pool from December 2006. As you were selected from the pool well before this date, your application is not affected."

[thezorbster]

Just mailed the news to OH at work and he mailed back to say "Yippeeeeee!!!!", but instead of replying to me he's mailed NZIS! :laugh Hopefully they'll be so impressed with his enthusiasm that they'll put us to the top of the pile for processing!

[Ana&Steve]

Just mailed the news to OH at work and he mailed back to say "Yippeeeeee!!!!", but instead of replying to me he's mailed NZIS! :laugh Hopefully they'll be so impressed with his enthusiasm that they'll put us to the top of the pile for processing!
:laugh

[jess]

Zorbster - Thanks for writing and for posting that this begins with EOIs selected in December! Glad you don't have to deal with it!! :)

I guess the future ITA letters will outline that this needs to be done for the folks who are selected from the pool in December and beyond, so they will know exactly what's required.

[johnandbethcox]

Double Thanks to Zorbster!!! We submitted our ITA on 20 October 2006, and I have been panicking since we didn't submit a full NZQA. Both OH and I went to US universities covered by the accreditation boards, so we didn't make the NZQA request. I was worried that we'd get the 'sorry, but rejected' response because of the lack of paperwork.

[dbonnett]

This may help people like us, whose ITA was received before the date of the new requirement. We e-mailed them to find out whether we were required to do this and this is the reply we had....

"The requirement of having to submit a full NZQA Assessment
applies only to those applications that have been selected from the pool from December 2006. As you were selected from the pool well before this date, your application is not affected."

Thank you Thank you Thank you! :clap :clap :clap This removes a HUGE load from my mind... (I was beginning to think NZIS had it in for us ) :laugh

[hels1977]

Edit:

http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=9610

Here we go.


Oh, just read this.

Yes I can see why they've done it, I too have seen a lot of threads around the subject. Has anyone been through this process yet? I've been to the NZQA website hunting for the link that says "I have no idea what I'm doing but I need to get my degree certified by you guys, how do I do that?" but so far I've not found it.

Cany anyone shed any light on the paper process for me?
Thanks :nice1

[Trigirl]

helensy - i can't help with the process but i noticed you asked on the other thread if you both needed to get your degree certified or not?

the secondary applicant doesn't need their degree certifying at all.

the primary applicant only needs to have their degree certified if they are claiming bonus points for work experience or qualifications in an area of skills shortage. if they are only claiming the 50 points for a relevant qualification it doesn't need to go to NZQA.

Edit: I just read another of your posts and see that your partner is claiming bonus points. so yes he needs NZQA certification. but you don't.

[hels1977]

helensy - i can't help with the process but i noticed you asked on the other thread if you both needed to get your degree certified or not?

the secondary applicant doesn't need their degree certifying at all.

the primary applicant only needs to have their degree certified if they are claiming bonus points for work experience or qualifications in an area of skills shortage. if they are only claiming the 50 points for a relevant qualification it doesn't need to go to NZQA.

Edit: I just read another of your posts and see that your partner is claiming bonus points. so yes he needs NZQA certification. but you don't.

Thank you. Yes he is claiming points for an area of absolute skills shortage so we'll get the paperwork and see if the uni will give us a module break down on headed paper to help the process. I've still not found how to apply on the NZQA site, I keep thinking I'm getting close to it and then the link goes off somewhere else, but having read a few threads on the NZQA part of this forum, no one else seems to have the problem, so perhaps I've just not done enough home work yet.

[sfordjasiri]

In the US, you simply as the university for an "official transcript". It contains a list of all the courses you took and the grades you got. This should be enough for NZQA I would assume.

My EOI was selected on Nov 22, 2006 so I am assuming I don't need to get my bachelor's degree in computer science "vetted" by NZQA, although I will send my transcript and diploma with my ITA anyway.