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Thursday, 26 March 2020 14:40

Temporary visa extension for dairy farm workers

Written by  Staff Reporters
Migrants make up a key group of the dairy farm workforce. Migrants make up a key group of the dairy farm workforce.

The Government has responded to a request from Federated Farmers and DairyNZ and extended temporary visas of migrant farmworkers.

Feds employment spokesman Chris Lewis says migrants make up a key group of the dairy farm workforce.

‘For many dairy farms these diligent and trained staff are vital for continued operation of their businesses and milk supply, especially when we have closed our borders to other workers coming in from overseas,” he says.

Federated Farmers and Dairy NZ last week wrote to the Minister of Immigration to ask the government to consider, as part of the response to COVID-19, extending the timeframe of temporary visas for those migrants already working in New Zealand. 

Measures announced by the Government include:

• If a worker's temporary visa expires between 2 April and 9 July 2020, it will automatically be extended to late September 2020. This will be advised by email in early April. 

• If the expiry date stated in a worker's visa is on or before 1 April 2020 they must apply for a visa online before their current visa expires. If they cannot provide information required by the online form, such as a new medical certificate, they should upload an explanation instead to complete their application. If a temporary worker applies for a visa online it is accepted automatically. This means after you apply, they will be granted an interim visa automatically when their current visa expires. An interim visa will allow them to remain lawfully in New Zealand for six months. 

• People can find their visa expiry date in their eVisa letter. 

The relevant information is available in the second part of this webpage.

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