If the question is being asked in the context of Essential Skills work visa policy for New Zealand, then you need to be certain that the role will be accepted as a medium skilled role by Immigration New Zealand. IN order to determine if your job offer meets the requirements for a Medium Skilled work visa, the following factors need to be considered for a grant three-year work visa:
1. Does the job description match one of the occupations on the ANZSCO list?
The role needs to match one of the ANZSCO occupation codes which are at Skill Level 1,2 or 3. This means that INZ will need to be satisfied that the role is actually at the same level as per ANZSCO. It is important to notice that just having a matching job description is no longer sufficient to convince INZ that the role matches ANZSCO. INZ visa officer may conduct further investigations to establish if the duties mentioned in the job description will actually be performed. Generally, most store manager roles are mapped to Retail Manager 142111.
2. What is the salary for the role?
You need to be earning a salary which meets the policy requirements for being considered as a medium skilled worker. Here is a link on the Immigration New Zealand website which talks about the salary requirements. You need to be earning a minimum of $21.25 per hour to be considered as a medium skilled worker. You also need to make sure that the role meets the market rate for that of a Retail Manager. This may be more than the basic minimum of $21.25 per hour based on the location of your employment. You can also check out the market rate for the occupation of Retail Manager here:
3. Is it a franchise or an independently run organization?
Immigration New Zealand will consider if the organization you are working for is an independently run store or a part of a franchise group/network. If it is a franchise, you should get an Immigration Adviser to evaluate your particular Franchise-Franchisor agreement reviewed to ensure that the role is comparable to that of a Skill Level 1,2 or 3 occupations.
4. What is the scale of the operations?
Immigration New Zealand will evaluate the business in its entirety. How big is the entire team, how many hours the store remains open, how much is the annual turn over? How many full-time equivalent team members work in the organization? These factors will be used to establish if the role is comparable to that of a Retail Manager as per the ANZSCO description.
5. Organization chart
Immigration New Zealand will ask for Organisation Charts to establish if there appears to be a need of a manager. A typical example is a store with three total team members – one assistant manager, one manager, and one part-timer. This type of set up will mean that Immigration New Zealand visa officer is likely to conduct an in-depth analysis of the company operations before approving the work visa for three years.
Summary:
The answer is Yes, if the above-mentioned points are addressed and you are able to satisfy Immigration New Zealand that your job/offer meets all the requirements, you may be granted a three-year work visa.
Kind regards,
Malkiat Singh
Licensed Immigration Adviser
IAA#201400142
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