Media Release

24 July 2009

The Apia, Nuku’alofa, Suva and Manukau office of Immigration New Zealand invites successful Samoa Quota (SQ) and Pacific Access Category (PAC) ballotees to come forward and made contact with their nearest branch for individual consultations.

Each branch will host one-on-one discussions or a workshop for successful ballotees. This approach is consistent with last year where successful ballotees were invited to have the opportunity to meet with Immigration New Zealand staff about their application and to talk about how to put their residence applications together.

Immigration New Zealand Acting Director Pacific Division Mr Ross Grigg says adopting a customised service approach seems to be working well and each client will be assigned a case manager. “These officers will be responsible for seeing clients individually to go through the process of applying for residence and to complete their English assessments”.

Immigration New Zealand will also help to compile a professional profile of successful individuals for New Zealand employers coming to the Pacific to recruit. “It is critical, especially for those who did not fill in the Skills Section of their registration form to attend these meetings that are organised to prepare personal profiles for the employers”. Mr Grigg says it’s important to understand that professional profiles are about people’s skills. 

“We encourage people to give us as much information as possible. Some people have valuable skills such as caring for family and the roles and responsibilities they play in church and community events”, says Mr Grigg.   

Immigration New Zealand is currently talking with employers able to offer jobs to those who were successful in the 2009 ballot. “We urge all successful ballotees to get in touch early with their branch if they need assistance with obtaining a job offer and not to wait until the last minute” adds Mr Grigg.

This year 845 successful ballotees were registered as ‘principal registrants’ under Samoa Quota and the Pacific Access Category which made a total of 2206 successful registrants when families are added.  Principal registrants are the main applicants for each family.

ENDS.