By October 2022, everyone eligible to enter New Zealand will be welcome
Venkat Raman
Auckland, February 3, 2022
After several months of discussions, procrastination and protests, the government has decided to open its international borders which, beginning with travellers from Australia on February 27, 2022, will lead up to October 2022 when everyone with a valid visa can enter New Zealand from across the world.
Following is the Timetable announced by Jacinda Ardern first at the BusinessNZ breakfast in Wellington.
Ms Ardern said that the MIQ system will be disbanded for all travellers who are fully vaccinated but they must self-isolate in their homes for up to ten days on their arrival.
However, high-risk travellers including unvaccinated people must undergo MIQ.
The Timeframe rationale
“The gap of two weeks between each of the steps has been made at the request of public health advisors to give time for our systems to adjust for the likelihood of more cases in our community, and for our border systems to keep scaling up in the safest way possible. Health workers, farm managers, horticultural workers, tech sector professionals, those working for accounting services, in education and construction, will all be eligible to enter New Zealand, self-isolate for a short period and then go about their business,” Ms Ardern said.
According to her, more than 17,000 critical workers have come to New Zealand since the borders closed almost two years ago.
The maximum impact of the opening of borders will occur on or before July 1, 2022. This stage (Four), will allow Australians, business travellers and all other visitors who can normally enter New Zealand without a visa.
“This stage is likely to begin when we have much larger case numbers than we have now. For planning, we anticipate this stage will begin no later than July. I want to place a strong emphasis on this being the latest we expect this to begin. There is a high likelihood of this date coming forward as we progress through the next stage of the pandemic,” Ms Ardern said.
Accredited Employer Work Visa
The new Accredited Employer Work Visa will be open from July 1, 2022.
Available only to those whose earnings will be more than the median wage, this is stated to be a part of the ‘Rebalance Changes’ of Immigration New Zealand.
We await a detailed statement from Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi.
“While we will no longer require people to enter managed isolation, at this stage, travellers will be asked to follow broadly the same requirements that we have in New Zealand for close contacts at the time of their travel. That is because, as travellers, it is highly likely that they will come in contact with the highly transmissible Omicron variant on their journey, a fact that can be seen in the current numbers at the border, even with pre-departure testing in place. That means New Zealanders must self-isolate for 10 days. But as the isolation period drops for close contacts here in New Zealand, as it does in phase two of our Omicron response, so too will returnees only need to isolate for seven days,” Ms Ardern said.
Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs)
All arriving passengers must take home three Rapid Antigen Tests on arrival at the port of arrival. These will be used on the day of arrival, the second on the fifth or sixth day and one as a backup, extra.
“If a positive result is returned at any point, returnees will be asked to get a follow-up Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR Test) at a Community Testing Station. This will help us to monitor any possible variants that may emerge. It will also help us assess when it is safe to lift self-isolation requirements. Overall, opening back up in this managed way balances inflows of travellers so that people can reunite and fill our workforce shortages, while also ensuring our healthcare system can manage an increase in cases. After all, our strategy with Omicron is to slow the spread,” Ms Ardern said.
The MIQ dismissal
With the restricted use of MIQ, many hotels and motels thus far providing accommodation facilities will return to their traditional task of catering to travellers, international tourists and others. The New Zealand Defence Force will begin the process of withdrawal from MIQ.
Ms Ardern said that a core quarantine capacity will be maintained that can be scaled up as required, which will form the basis of a future National Quarantine Service.
“We have been able to build our defences to (1) become one of the most vaccinated countries in the world (2) set up public health measures that we know work (3) get our children vaccinated and our adults boosted (4) keep our economy strong (5) see people stay in work with unemployment at a record low of 3.2% (6) return growth to pre-Covid levels and a return to surplus three years ahead of forecast (7) have debt well below many of the countries, using the IMF measure of 24.1% in 2024, compared to Australia at over 44%, the UK at more than 98% and the Euro Area at 80%,” she said.
