Yes, the announcement from the Minster of Immigration on 30 September 2021 regarding the One-off residence visa is very welcome and massively important news!

It however only solves the issues relating to the backlog from INZ noting that this backlog is NOT due to Covid 19, it did already exist before the outbreak of Covid 19. Residence applications were in the queue for allocation for well over 6 to 12 months while the final decsion would be from 1 year to well over 16 months.

But what about the issue of the split families? The issue that partners are separated from ththeirved ones since this Covid 19 outbreak.

This is a continuing saga that really needs preferential treatment from the Government.

The excuse that we do not have MIQ facilities is an issue that can be solved; how many hotels, motels and the like would dearly have an income that replaces their lost income from the tourists that are not coming now?

I would suggest that the Government missed an opportunity here!

Together with the one-off residence visa, the issue of the split families and temporary workers cought out overseas, could have been given a similar solution as the solution of this One-off residence visa now given to some 165,000 migrants

A possible solution could be that all direct family members from temporary workers would be allowed to travel into New Zealand and stay for two weeks in mandatory quarantine.

The second and following group would be temporary workers themselves. The level of salary would be the deciding factor if you would be in the first, second, third, and so on group.

And just a thought, what would happen with the rental prices and house prices?