Is the INZ misleading migrants?

Please note:
I am not a licensed immigration adviser and the following is intended to be general discussion and commentary. It is not immigration advice and should not be used as such.

EOI selection 27th April 2010

I’m sure everyone reading this will be used to the acronyms, but just in case you’re not: an EOI (Expression of Interest) is the first step along the process to Residency. Each fortnight the INZ select a number of applications for processing towards the next stage which is an Invitation to Apply (ITA).

I have been watching the selections for a long time looking for patterns to give an indication on INZ policy. This selection is interesting for a few reasons:

Back to the norm (for 2010)
Selections through 2010 have (with the exception of the last selection) been almost identical and low. Only 4,432 applications have been selected so far in 2010 compared to 6,267 through the same period in 2009: a drop of over 29 percent.

Also unlike previous years the INZ is creaming only the highest scoring applications. In this selection:

• 86 percent of applications include points for a job offer;
• 80 percent of applications were made by people in New Zealand;
• 56 percent of the selection are in NZ with over 140 points and a job offer;

EOIs selected
(Click for enlargement)

The fact that there are so many high scoring applications available for this selection suggests that the job market, seriously hard for migrants in recent months, is opening up. It’s also pretty clear that most of the successful applicants are having to gamble everything in coming to New Zealand with no guarantees.

Fix this broken system
I call on the Immigration Minister (again) to review this system which is placing so thousands of people in highly vulnerable positions to have any chance of gaining Residency. A better system would see pre-qualified high value migrants gaining Resdency before leaving their home country.

A major problem at the moment is the vague, outdated and often conflicting information being given by the Immigration department which is pushing people towards licensed immigration advisers who charge heavy fees. If the Immigration department was giving clear and high quality information (as they were pre 2009) there would be virtually no need for immigration advisers at all!

EOIs left in the pool
(Click for enlargement)

A rising bottleneck
The increasing number of applications left in the pool (see graph aside) confirms there is a serious problem with the current policy. This worrying accumulation represents the hopes and dreams of over a thousand families and to me suggests either:

1. the INZ is saving these applications up for a rainy day; or
2. the INZ has taken over $470,000 off applicants who are unlikely to ever be accepted due to unpublished changes in policy.

Of course the latter must be impossible as it would mean that the Immigration department was potentially misleading hundreds of applicants by taking their money without informing them of the significantly reduced liklihood of selection.

Comments from the INZ would be most welcome to confirm that this is not the case.