Turner Hopkins Immigration

22/10/2026

Apparently, we might need to start testing whether migrants share New Zealand's values.

Sounds reasonable enough. Until someone asks the rather awkward question of what those values actually are, and who gets to decide.

Ask ten New Zealanders what it means to be a Kiwi and you'll probably get twelve different answers. We can't always agree on what constitutes a fair go, let alone a national identity.

Yet here we are, heading into another election, debating what people should believe before they're allowed to call New Zealand home.

Meanwhile, thousands of New Zealanders are heading overseas. Presumably, they haven't left their Kiwi values at the departure gate.

There are legitimate reasons to expect migrants to respect our laws, understand our society and contribute to our communities. But there's a difference between sharing democratic principles and being expected to share the same opinions.

In my latest article, I take a look at the proposed Kiwi values statement, the political theatre surrounding immigration, and a question I think deserves considerably more attention.

Perhaps the real test isn't whether migrants share our values, but whether we're living up to them ourselves.

Interested to hear what others think. Who should decide what constitutes a New Zealand value?

https://www.turnerhopkinsimmigration.co.nz/news/valuable-values

I owe the inspiration for this article to an industry colleague, who discussed this same topic on LinkedIn recently and it really did get me thinking. There is something wonderfully predictable about immigration becoming a political talking point in an election year and there is enormous entertainme

20/10/2026

Welcome to the team Darrell Enright.

Darrell joined us this week, brining a wealth of experience in the NZ immigration space.

Having lived and worked in Asia for 17 years, Darrell fully appreciates what it takes to make an international move, and brings that experience to his interactions with clients.

Darrell is fully licensed and holds a Commerce degree from the University of Auckland.

Darrell recognises the contribution migrants are making to making New Zealand a positive place to live and raise a family and this helps drive him to help make the journey less anxious.

We look forward to having you as part of the Turner Hopkins Immigration Specialists team Darrell and again, welcome aboard.

15/10/2026

It's not just the Rolling Stones who famously struggled with getting some satisfaction (and yes that song is now in your head). New Zealand visa applicants often face the same problem, although the consequences can be considerably more significant.

Throughout New Zealand's immigration rules, officers are required to be "satisfied" that applicants meet certain criteria. That sounds fair enough, until you consider that what satisfies one officer might not satisfy another.

Subjective assessments are an unavoidable part of immigration decision-making, but they also create opportunities for inconsistency, particularly when assessing genuine intentions, relationships and personal circumstances.

The bigger issue is the quality of the explanations provided when an application is declined. Simply stating that an officer is "not satisfied" doesn't necessarily explain what went wrong, what evidence was lacking or why the evidence provided wasn't convincing (enough).

Applicants have a responsibility to prove their case, but INZ has an equally important responsibility to assess that case fairly and explain its decisions properly.

In our latest article, the Turner Hopkins Immigration Specialists team look at the problem with subjective decision-making, why better explanations matter and how applicants can build a stronger case from the outset.

Because discretion is one thing. Accountability is another.

https://www.turnerhopkinsimmigration.co.nz/news/i-cant-get-no-satisfaction

The Rolling Stones famously complained about their inability to get satisfaction and having read that line, you now probably have that song in your head. For many New Zealand visa applicants, that frustration will sound remarkably familiar to the tune, although the source of their dissatisfaction is

14/10/2026

Quite proud of the team for this one.

The feedback refers to me, but this process is never just about one person, especially with cases like this.

Partnership visas are often seen as a bit of a "walk in the park" but in reality they are rarely simple exercises. Each partnership is different and this one was particularly unique given the medical conditions involved.

What stands out for me though is the fact that most applicants understand the process is challenging and can be complex, and yet keeping them updated, responding quickly and accurately and telling them what they need to know are the key things to ensuring the right outcome.

The one thing I bang on about a bit here, is responding on time, every time. Clients expect and deserve to know what is happening and more importantly what they need to do, to achieve the outcome they are looking for.

If you are considering a move here, get in touch with the team at Turner Hopkins Immigration Specialists today ([email protected] or [email protected] or DM me).

12/10/2026

I have been a commentator on all things NZ immigration for a long time, and I have seen plenty of iterations of policy in all its various forms over nearly two and half decades in the industry.

One thing, in amongst all of those changes has remained constant - New Zealand, as a small island nation needs skills and investment. Regardless of our situation, New Zealand simply cannot fill all the gaps we have and we cannot produce enough of those skills locally. That also encompasses investment and entrepreneurial skill - we need people who can bring their talents and/or their funds to do and produce good outcomes here.

However, while the core need has remained the same, the way we achieve it has changed dramatically over time, and the trend, starting to show, both in how we process visas and the rules that govern the process, is a shift towards less thinking and judgement and more automation and tick boxes.

The recent SMC changes are a great example of this. Our SMC has always had a degree of "tick box" about it. You have certain credentials or a claim to specific points, and you qualify. However some of those things, still required a degree of judgement on behalf of the officer processing the application.

More modern policy design is attempting to quantify as much of the process as possible, with an aim to take the thinking out of the process and to essentially reduce eligibility down to a series of check boxes and lists. If you meet these specific requirements and have these specific documents, you qualify.

The problem is, so much of the process remains judgement based and in attempting to narrow it all down to a concise list, good quality applicants are being left out of the equation. A simple example is the removal of self-employed experience under the two new SMC pathways. The rationale for not allowing self-employed experience? It is apparently too hard to verify.

Even proving employed experience is creating a significant amount of confusion amongst applicants and INZ - because, there is no one-size-fits-all checklist that will cover it.

From my perspective, the wrong questions are being asked. It shouldn't boil down to the specific type of documents you have, we should be focusing on having officers with enough skill to determine which applicants present the right factors. How you prove, your work experience, as an example, is less important than proving it in the first place.

The irony in all of this, is that in attempting to simplify it all for officers and in a peripheral way, applicants, the process has become significantly more complicated for those applicants. Applying without having the right documents, even if your skills are valuable and you clearly meet the overall objective, may result in the wrong outcome.

For those looking to apply, whilst the systems might appear simpler, the potential to get it wrong has increased significantly and having the right advice has never been more important.

08/10/2026

Dear Minister, whoever you might be after the November election, I have a small request. Well, actually, it's quite a big one.

Immigration policy has become increasingly tied to election cycles, political priorities and short-term thinking. Yet the decisions we make about who can come to New Zealand, who can stay and what skills we value have consequences that extend well beyond voting day.

As a country, we need to collectively ask ourselves whether the criteria we use to select migrants - particularly wages and qualifications - are actually identifying the people New Zealand needs, or simply those who fit neatly into an administrative framework.

In this week's article, I've written an open letter to whoever takes on the Immigration portfolio after the election. It's not a plea to stop changing immigration policy. Sometimes change is absolutely necessary.

It's a request to start making those changes with a much longer-term view.

Because a country can't build a ten-year immigration strategy if it keeps starting again every three years.

https://www.turnerhopkinsimmigration.co.nz/news/dear-minister

Dear Future Minister of Immigration I do not know who you are yet. You may be the current Minister, still occupying the office after November election or you may be her replacement. You may come from National, Labour, ACT, New Zealand First, the Greens, or whoever else might end up in the political

07/10/2026

The process of moving countries is complex, can often be frustrating and will test even the strongest of people. Having done this for well over twenty years, and having moved skilled professionals, investors, family members and almost everything in between, the notion of trust is something I see as crucial in terms of the relationship between an adviser and their client.

Trust doesn't mean, telling prospective migrants what they want to hear, however it does mean presenting all of the issues, challenges and obstacles, along with the potential solutions that might be available.

Trust means, being able to respond in a timely manner, and with advice that counts, and thinking not just about the question being asked then and there, but all the questions that might follow on from that.

The feedback we received yesterday from this family reminded me of how important trust is in this process and how hard it is to maintain but how important it is to have.

I assisted this family seven years ago with their move and then more recently with the application for their parents. The came back to me, to assist with that second application because they trusted me to do it. That is something I take very seriously and also appreciate it isn't built right away.

For those who engage with us for the first time, we don't spend a lot of time explaining the complexity of the process (most people would never remember the details anyway), but we do work hard to build that trust, and to demonstrate that not only do we know what we are doing, but that we take the client's move as seriously as they do.

For advice on your visa process, whether you are just starting out, or already here, get in touch with the team today: [email protected] | web: www.turnerhopkinsimmigration.co.nz

01/10/2026

There is no point pretending the New Zealand job market is easy right now. It isn’t.

Unemployment is up, competition for roles is fierce and plenty of very capable migrants are finding that a strong CV and years of overseas experience do not necessarily translate into a quick job offer.

But the picture is not entirely bleak either. Job advertising is starting to recover, filled jobs are edging upwards and there are clear signs that parts of the labour market are beginning to move again.

For migrants, the challenge is slightly more complicated because finding any job is not always enough. The job also needs to make sense from an immigration perspective.

In our latest article, we look at what the current labour market numbers actually show, where the opportunities may be, and why migrants need to think about employment and immigration strategy together.

https://www.turnerhopkinsimmigration.co.nz/news/the-nz-job-market

If you are currently looking for a job in New Zealand, you probably do not need an economist or a subscription to the New Zealand Herald, to tell you that the labour market has been difficult. You already know how challenging it is. You know because you have probably applied for jobs and heard noth

28/09/2026

An interesting weekend indeed...mostly due to the Stuff article discussing how our industry works and some of the players within it (https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/361038335/mouth-foamers-professor-hits-back-over-his-official-sounding-immigration-bodies).

The article does raise some really valid points in relation to how migrants and employers who might be involved in the visa process, are marketed to and whether that marketing is doing our industry damage.

My personal take is that it is and it isn't about one individual necessarily, but a much bigger issue, that plagues most professional services. In our space, the creation of pseudo-licenses and bogus credentials, do nothing to strengthen the trust that clients should be afforded, when they are moving from one country to another.

In this video, I explain my commentary from the article a bit more and add some context to the topic - one that I am very passionate about.

25/09/2026

Most people would not buy a house after a two-week holiday, yet plenty of people move countries on roughly the same level of research.

New Zealand’s remote working and tax settings now give some prospective migrants a far more sensible option: come here, live here for a while, keep working offshore and find out whether the reality matches the idea before making the bigger move.

Our latest article looks at how that can work, where the limits sit, and why migration planning may be better when it starts with life rather than a visa.

Read the article here: https://www.turnerhopkinsimmigration.co.nz/news/try-before-you-buy

Moving countries, lock, stock and barrel is a fairly ridiculous way to find out whether you like somewhere. People sell houses, resign from jobs, pull children out of schools, say goodbye to family and ship the contents of their homes halfway around the world, often on the strength of social media c