Did we say $75 Million???
Silly us, we meant $90.5 million.
There is no explanation as to why there is a difference.
Although I have to be honest – no matter whether this is scope creep or just a more honest number, it is probably money well worth spending. They cannot continue as they are with an antiquated system. But I doubt the increase in budget will actually end at 90.5 million.
Datacom wins the contract for the new INZ IT system
So, INZ is going to get a sparkling new IT system, which it desperately needs to replace the steam powered and carrier pigeon system it currently uses. It’s going to cost $75 million.
Datacom have won the contract to put the system in.
Which is really good – Datacom is a New Zealand owned company – whereas these contracts often go to the multinationals.
Government information technology projects the size of IGMS have usually been awarded to United States multinationals. IBM won a similar-sized deal to renovate Customs’ Cusmod computer system in June.
However, a decade of consistent, strong growth has put Datacom in contention for larger projects. The privately owned firm upped its revenues to a record $725 million last year. About half its 3800-plus staff are based in New Zealand. It also has sizeable operations in Australia and Asia.
The Wairarapa is getting popular with big names
Filed under: Life in New Zealand, NZIS & Immigration issues
It turns out that James Cameron has bought two large plots of land near lake Wairarapa, after getting consent through the Overseas Investment Office.
I have to admit to finding that a little bit exciting.
Apparently according to the article, he and his family are going to be living permanently in New Zealand after setting it up as a farm.
”James F Cameron and his family intend to reside indefinitely in New Zealand and are acquiring the property to reside on and operate as a working farm,”
I do kinda hope that doesn’t mean he’s going to give up making movies, though personally I don’t really want to see Avatar 2&3 in yet more 3D. Peter Jackson also has his main pile in the Wairarapa – near Masterton.
There are a couple of issues here – that I am sure we won’t get any answers to but here goes anyway:
1/ There’s a loud (very loud) hoo hah going on in New Zealand at the moment because a Chinese company is buying up the Crafar Farms (had to be sold as they went into receivership). It seems James Cameron alone is buying about 15% of the amount of farm land involved in that deal, and so far not a whimper about “selling New Zealand to foreigners”.
Personally I don’t think its a big deal either way – but I do dislike the hypocrisy when people scream at selling land to the Chinese, but couldn’t care less when selling it to non-Asians.
2/ Of personal interest – what are the Immigration issues – you cant just buy a farm and have the right to live in New Zealand indefinitely. It doesn’t work like that. People buying farms generally do so under a business visa, and you have to have experience in that business. Is this another investor category?
Its important because the Overseas Investment Office is nothing to do with immigration – so its a whole other ball game.
Either way, I wish them the best of luck and a warm welcome to the Wairarapa. It is a wonderful place, and I for one don’t blame anyone for wanting to live there.
Was John Banks licenced to give immigration advice to Kim “Dotcom” Shmitz?
A little gem amongst all the stuff written about Kim Shmitz (I just cant bring myself to use his ludicrous fake name), is an article about the Ex Mayor of Auckland, John Banks. Now, John Banks is currently an MP for the ACT party, famous for having a cup of tea with the PM, and being the Ex Mayor of Auckland.
While still the mayor, it seems that Mr MegaUpload paid for $500,000 worth of fireworks for the City of Auckland, and John Banks met him regarding this.
The interesting thing is a quote from Mr Banks:
“To the best of my knowledge I gave him some advice about applying for residency.
Which is illegal under the Immigration Advisers Licencing Act, unless you are exempt, or a licenced adviser.
As an MP, Mr Banks is currently exempt from needing to be licenced.
As the Mayor of Auckland, he was not.
Of course, the IAA cannot and will not do anything about it unless someone makes a formal complaint to them. Which really hacks me off.
On a similar point, New Zealand First and Labour are hassling the government on “who knew what” about how this guy got through immigration with a criminal past. Labour is conveniently forgetting that they were in charge when Michael Barrymore was let into New Zealand, and neither is asking questions about the medical issue and whether Immigration sent his medical tests to the Medical Assessors.
Which shows a marked lack of knowledge about the Immigration Process.
INZ incompetance or just plain old bribery?
This weekend the papers all over the world are full of the news that the bosses of MegaUpload have been arrested in New Zealand. MegaUpload is apparently a hub for filesharing pirated tv/movies. Which clearly is highly illegal and should be stomped on forthwith.
Kim “Dotcom” (what a bloody pretentious name), was arrested. He’s German, but has New Zealand Residency.
Now most of the news is about his nefarious dealing in the world of illegal Internet downloads, and his mega luxury lifestyle.
What I want to concentrate on is the Immigration side of this.
Because Kim “I need a silly name” Shmitz, was refused a residency visa on the grounds that he failed the good character test. Now the information in the news is a bit sketchy on this point, but quoting directly from the Dom Post At the weekend:
“his New Zealand residency initially failed the “good character” test, but was granted after he invested $10 million in government bonds”.
Any one else think heads should be rolling at INZ???? Winston Peters MP does and is asking pointed questions of the government. Which I think he needs to do. INZ hound people to breaking point over good character and health issues. Apart from the fact that this guy did have convictions for Internet Piracy and insider trading, he seems also to be way too overweight to have ever passed the BMI 35 or under test. Was he even refered to the Medical Assesors?
BMI <35? Hmmmm.
Amazing just what $10,000,000 can buy you in New Zealand if you know who to pay it to.
A quote from INZ says:
In a statement, the Immigration Service said that “Mr Dotcom made full disclosure of his previous convictions and they were taken into account in the granting of his residence. The Immigration Act allows for discretion to be exercised in certain cases. In this particular case, Immigration NZ weighed the character issue and any associated risk to New Zealand against potential benefits to New Zealand”.
I.e. we don’t actually care if your health is a cost to New Zealand and we don’t actually care if you are a criminal mastermind, as long as you give the NZ government $10,000,000 we will let you in, no problem. On the other hand, if you are a “normal” human being, with a career you have worked hard at, a family you love, and you happen to be a bit over weight – then “Bugger off because you are a danger to New Zealand and our wonderful country has to be protected from you and your filth ever costing us a cent.”
Now interestingly, in one article about this reported some questions put to John Key (Prime Minister), he is quoted as saying that INZ made this decision to accept his good character without reference to the Immigration Minister. Which means they were even slightly concerned. Which also means that they need to take full responsibility for their decision. Bet they won’t.
Another question is: does the New Zealand Government have to return the $10,000,000 in bribes investment funds as they are likely the result of “ill gotten gains”? Will those assests be frozen? Are they part of the MPAA FBI case?
Sometimes, even with my own personal animosity towards Immigration New Zealand taken into account, they manage to sicken me with their ability to make decisions based on how rich you are and ignore how you got the money.
$75 million for a new INZ IT system…
…what could possibly go wrong?
Well now, I’m not saying that it actually will go wrong – I’m just saying I don’t have a huge amount of faith is all.
The Immigration Global Management System is due to start being implemented later in 2012. (Not due for competetion till 2015 though). And let’s be clear – INZ really do need it – the system they use now is a joke, and enables a huge amount of immigration to occur that would be stopped if staff could actually see info from other offices. The system is so antiquated – INZ can’t even access records electronically and have to “Courier” documents between offices. It takes over 3 weeks to get paperwork from NZ to London. Mind you – given the state of the internet access in New Zealand – perhaps I am being unfair.
On second thoughts – no – I’m not.
This will certainly fix part of the problem – but the bottom line is that INZ staff are still a major problem – badly trained and often with bad attitudes and appalling lack of knowledge of Immigration Law and processes. No amount of shiny new IT systems is going to fix that problem .
Scarily – the Auditor General reported on this back in June 2009 and recommended a complete overhaul of the system. Now this being the very security of New Zealand’s Borders we are talking about, I would have thought that perhaps they could have sorted this out a bit sooner.
And just for kicks – Immigration New Zealand itself tells us:
Customers applying for visas will have a transformed experience
You notice they don’t say improved? 
I was trying to find out who was going to be responsible for putting the system in – but all I could find anywhere was cut-and paste reporting of the press release from the immigration minister. Hubby has discovered that as of early December, the decision had not been made about who had the contract to put this system in. Can’t say I envy them!
For the IT people out there – EDS are responsible for the current pile of shite masquerading as an IT system.
Immigration agent / adviser / lawyer or none of the above.
I came across a particularly unhelpful and badly written article about an Immigration Adviser up on forgery charges, who is due to be taken to court next September. No hurry then. The article doesn’t say much to be honest, except that apparently he wasn’t licensed, but had been asking for fees as if he was licensed. And there’s a line at the bottom that says people should check the register of the Law Society to find out if a lawyer has a current practicing certificate.
So what gives?
Well, as much as I can find out (which is little) Richard Martin (Of Richard Martin Immigration) was a lawyer. As such he would have been exempt from needing to be a licensed adviser as lawyers are in the exempt category. He is no longer a lawyer, though there doesn’t seem to be any information as to why – whether he retired, was refused a practicing certificate or what.
(Note to Law Soc – the IAA actually keeps lists of whose licensed expired vs who was refused or cancelled – it’s a good idea!)
The company website is down “being updated” but thanks to the magic of the Internet and the WayBack machine, I found an old cache of the website. Not that’s its a good one – but it does confirm that he was in fact an immigration lawyer at some point, and had previously worked at Malcolm Pacific – one of the biggest agencies.
The NZAMI the New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment -(“the professional association for New Zealand migration advisers and the people who use their services” – um and we need a second agency why exactly – there’s only 502 agents for crying out loud – one agency is too many!) – has Richard Martin listed as being an ex-member whose membership was terminated in October 2009. They also make the note specifically that he is not legally allowed to give immigration advise.
The IAA say nothing about him, but then he was never registered.
But I have to ask – WHY aren’t immigrants looking for this information. If you are going to pay thousands of dollars for immigration “advice” – wouldn’t you at least take 5 minutes to do a google search? No one who has done so would have gone near this guy. If you are thinking of using him – do yourself a favour – GOOGLE. In fact – ANY agent you want to pay thousands too – do a thorough internet search. It’s a lot of money – why wouldn’t you?
And to be clear – checking the IAA register would not have helped because as a lawyer he didn’t have to be registered with them, and they have no mention of him or of the issue. Google however has plenty to say about why no one should have used this guys business.
Turns out he was also the lawyer who got Michael Barrymore into New Zealand despite the guy being in no way capable of passing a good character test but being famous – which is much more important in New Zealand.
Anyway – bottom line – he’s up for the mystical $100,000 fine or 7 years in jail. And his criminal behaviour is apparently like me giving advice for free to people I meet via a blog or forum. Utter bleeping bullshit law!
CHARGES
· 34 Crimes Act charges of forgery.
· 34 Immigration Act charges of providing false and misleading information.
· 11 charges for asking/receiving fees when unlicensed.
· 9 charges for giving unlicensed immigration advice.
· 3 other immigration-related charges.
New Zealand has a new Immigration Minister
With the election over and the results finalised, we have a second National government. Which means a re-jig of the government posts. Jonathan Coleman has been moved from Immigration and will now be the Defence Minister. I hope he actually does something in that role, because he doesn’t seem to have actually done much in Immigration to be honest.
Your new minister is Nathan Guy.
Good luck to him. Immigration has to be one of the most thankless tasks in Government to be honest: most of your own country think you are way too soft, and the immigrants think you are heartless and brutal. It can’t be an easy job to navigate.
Immigration Updates.
Filed under: Getting to New Zealand, Immigration Advisers, NZIS & Immigration issues
There’s actually been quite a lot happening on the immigration front here – I’e just been too lazy (and too depressed by it all) to blog about it. So Instead of writing an stream of rather sad and depressing posts – I decided to do it in one short sharp shock, and write an update instead.
1/ Immigration New Zealand being idiotic over relationship statuses.
It’s an annoyance that never seems to go away – but another couple are being harassed my INZ over the fact that INZ don’t believe their relationship is real. They have a baby together, and they are in fact married – but that is not enough for the bean counters and paper shufflers at INZ.
Despite him being married and with a child on the way, Immigration NZ visa services manager Jan Clark said proof of a shared home, finances, belongings and household chores were required to prove they were a genuine couple.
Marriage certificate and – dare I say it – an advanced pregnancy – isn’t enough???? A few years ago, I came across a poster on a forum who had to go through this farce despite being married for 40 years. Before joint bank accounts were common. At the end of the day lack of knowledge on the part of immigration staff does not constitute a lack of relationship on an immigrants part. So this isn’t a one-off situation.
Joint Bank Accounts and bills. It’s a necessity if you don’t want to have to deal with this kind of crap.
2/ More Kiwi’s employ slave immigrant labour.
This it has to be said, affects mostly ethnic minority or pacific islander immigrants, who seem to be less confident and knowledgeable about their rights and the law. That is not to say that western immigrants don’t get similar treatment, but it tends to be of a lesser scale (paid considerably less, conned into taking 2 year work visa positions and forced to do a job that differs markedly from that applied for or you lose your visa- that sort of thing).
In this case – a Wellington “businesswoman” – whose identity is protected by name suppression laws, employed 2 Fijians, did not pay them the minimum wage, and did not pay them holiday pay. She also employed them illegally while they were here on visitors visas.
3/ Immigration Adviser holds on to a passport for over a year.
This is a bit of an odd one, as I can’t find the adviser listed at the IAA, even under past licence holders. So hopefully this guy, Piliki Talanoa, will be prosecuted under the Immigration Advisers Licencing Act. His client, a hairdresser by trade, gave him the passport last September in order to get a work visa renewal. The agent apparetly closed his office down last month, at which point the police managed to get the passport back.
Mr Talanoa says Mr Cohen changed his mind about which category visa he wanted to apply for and that caused the delay, a claim Mr Cohen strongly denies.
A hairdresser by trade, Mr Cohen says he’s pleased to have his passport back and hopes to have a new work permit approved by Immigration New Zealand. But the delays have cost him the chance to apply for residency, he says.
“I have to apply for a work permit from the beginning.”
His advice to other people seeking work permits is to deal directly with Immigration New Zealand.
Mr Talanoa wouldn’t discuss why he abandoned his former office in Otahuhu so suddenly.
But property manager Johan Ackerman says Mr Talanoa had already left the property when the owners showed up to evict him.
Hmmm, there’s a story there – including why he doesn’t appear to have ever held an Immigration Advisers licence. Of course the IAA has no authority to read this article and act on its contents unless someone makes a complaint. The police haven’t charged Mr Talanoa with anything. Question is: why not?
4/ A good news story – 102 year old bypasses the system.
I say good news – as it undoubtedly is for the lady who has been given a 3 year visitor visa instead of the normal 6 months, and for her daughter. It’s not so good though for the hundreds if not thousands of people who refused help or consideration from the Immigration Ministry. So on the one hand I am chuffed to bits about this one, on the other hand it annoys me considerably.
The details are that Louise Sydes UK rest home was being closed, and rather than be relocated, she wanted to move to be with her daughter in Auckland. They contacted the Immigration Minsiter’s office and appear to have just asked them to let her stay. Ive read 2 articles about this – neither of them mention anything about going via Immigration New Zealand, or applying for residency via the family stream, or indeed having to pass the stringent medical tests.
Speaking from New Zealand her daughter Sue Pearson said she was ‘excited’.
She said: ‘Usually family members are only allowed to come for six months but we wrote to the minister of immigration who granted us permission for her to come and live with us.
Given the desperate needs of some people I have come across to get a visa to live in New Zealand, and the crap they have to go through to get it – IF they get it (often they don’t)- I cant help but be a little angry about this. It does kinda make a mockery out of the pain of other families who are refused the right to live together.
5/ Another Indian family facing deportation.
Pooja Kapila, whose husband Satinder is in Waikeria Prison awaiting deportation, was so desperate to avoid what she says is the death sentence of being returned to the slums of the Punjab that she refused to sign the documents presented to her at their Te Puke home on October 21.
They have been living here in New Zealand for 10 years. They have three children, one of them is a New Zealand citizen by birth, having been born here just one year after they arrived. This was before the loophole allowing this to happen was closed. Now I’m probably going to come over as heartless and cold on this – but I really think in case like this we cannot keep holding INZ to blame. Often from reading these kinds of articles, I find I end up making a judgement (based on very little information) about whether I feel the families should be allowed to stay or not. I really cant work out why in other cases I feel compassion, but in this one I don’t. Perhaps it’s because the third child was born so soon after arriving, perhaps it’s because after 10 years of living in New Zealand Mrs Kapila needs an interpreter. Perhaps it’s because once again “celebrity” Immigration Adviser Tuariki Delamere is involved.
As is often the case with these articles – they are full of emotion, and short on facts. As is also often the case, the comments with the article are somewhat enlightening.
Immigration equality
Since April 2011 British immigration rules have tightened up. Kiwi’s, Aussies and other Commonwealth countries that have previously enjoyed very favourable immigration status in the UK, are being put on a more measured footing. While as Brits emigrating to NZ or Australia there’s a limit on the number of places, we have to demonstrate our worth and in most instances have a job to come to (or stacks of cash), the same hasn’t been the case if you were a kiwi heading to the UK.
So what’s different if you’re heading to the UK?
Well, for a few years now you’ve needed to apply for a visa anyhow. It’s not been granted ‘as of right’ when you show up at a UK airport fresh off the long flight. At the time, the requirement to get a photo taken for your new visa was predicted to kill off all and any OE’s & working holidays to the UK. Only it didn’t. And the new rules will have a similar effect, people will just work with them.
Existing visa’s granted on the basis of ancestry are unaffected. It’s just those people coming to the UK who wont be on a temporary (albeit two year long) working holiday visa, will now have to jump through similar hoops that Brits coming to NZ do.
So now, prospective kiwi’s wanting to spend 2+ years in the UK working will have to have skills. Plus a job offer from a legitimate company for a job that is in high demand in the UK. And they’ll need to apply early as there’s an annual cap of approx 20,000 places available. And the job will probably have to have been advertised across the entirety of Europe for anyone there to apply ahead of you.
Sounding familiar?
Now, there’s a lot of Kiwi & Aussie interests who are crying foul about this. Yet, I don’t see an issue with it. Although this sort of system is never going to solve the domestic problems the UK has due to immigration – with 350 million+ Europeans having the right to enter the UK and apply for any job, limiting the potential for 25 million Aussies+Kiwi’s to enter the UK isn’t going to prevent an overwhelming flood.
Sure it means Kiwi’s & Aussies might be more likely to only stay for two years. Surely that’s a good thing though?
NZ & Australian Govts. spend a lot of time and money encouraging ex-pat kiwi’s & Aussies to return home. They have skills the home country needs, there’s loads of jobs etc. So while these people have gained valuable European working experience, <rant on> which somehow never translates into better salaries once you return home mind you because none of that is suddenly apparently relevant to the home market <rant off>, suddenly bringing these people home to share their skills & experience is an unfair thing?
Compared with the UK, neither NZ or Australia have a significant unemployment problem. Sure there are certainly groups in all societies who have higher unemployment than average. The social engineering that is UK immigration policy is much bigger than simply unemployment.
Compare & contrast; in Wellington we have a few dozen people peacefully camped out as part of the ‘Occupy’ movement. While in London a few months ago you had thousands of people rioting and pillaging for nights on end. While there’s no excuse to steal stuff from the One Pound shop (read $2 shop), it reflected discontent, inequality, general grievances with the ‘system’ and the Government. And at last count there were hundreds of people camped out in front of St Paul’s cathedral in the heart of London.
We’ve got it good. We don’t really appreciate how good. Whether that’s in NZ, or as Kiwi’s heading to the UK even under the new immigration rules. Let’s just get on and make the most of what we’ve got.
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