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New Zealand Skilled Migration Visa

The General Skilled Migration category is the core to the New Zealand Immigration strategy. This visa category offers individuals the opportunity to emigrate to New Zealand by helping boost the New Zealand skilled workforce. The Skilled Migration category was designed to minimise the risk of a mismatch between the skills migrants bring and the skills New Zealand needs.
The new Skilled Migrant Category for New Zealand (previously called General Skills in 2004) has been designed to attract highly-skilled migrants to New Zealand on a new system by lodging through an application called Expression of Interest
Applying under skill categories has always been the most popular visa class for permanent residency in New Zealand. An applicant for this visa class should be able to meet the threshold of 100 points in the Points System before an Expression of Interest can be lodged with Immigration New Zealand.
If an applicant meets the above required points level then an applicant is eligible to apply with an application for Residence permit, the applicant's qualification has to be assessed by the New Zealand Qualification Authority (NZQA) assessment body before the application can be processed for Residence permit. Once the applicant meets the pass mark, NZQA then the applicant is recommended to proceed for Expression of Interest (EOI) followed by lodging the Residence permit application.
New Zealand has been encouraging skilled immigration to fill labor shortages. New Zealand's Skilled Migration Category (SMC) allows people with the skills and qualifications that New Zealand values to get residence or a permit to work. Applicants are scored against a points-based system and entered into a pool of potential migrants. Applicants are chosen every fortnight and are invitation to apply for migration to New Zealand.
This new system has been designed and comprise in two stages:

• Expression of Interest

• Invitation to Apply for Residency

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