New Zealand shows the way to Australia “again”… NZ’s SVP is an improvement on OZ’s SVP…

New Zealand has just launched its own version of Streamline Visa Processing for students and has called it Industry Partner Program or IPP. The advantage of having studied what Australia initiated is evident from the fact that it is a clear improvement and hence open to less critique.

Improvement 1: An institution can choose the student to whom it wants the IPP to be applied. (With Australia, all students who have offers from the participating institutions are applied SVP and so even if the institution has not been able to ascertain to its satisfaction on the financial documentation or claims, the SVP is still applied. )

Improvement 2: Institutions have been selected from all the sectors: Universities, Polytechnics and Private Providers and the sole criteria is the track record. (With Australia, only the Universities were invited in the first round and now it is being extended to a few non-Universities but only for select degree programs).

Improvement 3: Institutions selected can apply SVP for all the programs that it offers and this makes sense. (With Australia, only the Bachelors or the Masters degree programs are covered under SVP even of the selected institutions. It makes little sense that a Post Graduate Diploma student may have more difficulty with evidence of funds than a Masters or a Bachelors student).

Improvement 4: Though a pilot at this time, the scheme has no “hidden ammunitions” in the hand of visa officers. (With Australia, the institutions are to do the GTE check (Genuine Temporary Entrant) and still the visa officers retain the right to apply the same check on the student from their own perspective and then without a recourse to cross check with the University under SVP on why the application was made and offer, the visa can still be refused.)

However, the key salient points for SVP and IPP remain identical…

Industry partnerships are designed to help the export education sector grow by offering shared benefits to education providers, international students and INZ.

These benefits could include:

• first time students seeking to enrol at high quality providers offered faster, lower intervention visa processing

• immigration industry partners given a marketing advantage and the opportunity to play a greater role in the immigration application process

• education providers incentivised to strive for high education standards, enhancing students’ experiences and New Zealand’s international reputation as a high quality study destination, and

• education providers encouraged to select students carefully and take more responsibility for their students achieving good immigration outcomes.