Chef rejected by Immigration NZ despite 10 years’ experience
It seems unlikely even Gordon Ramsay would meet the criteria to work as a chef in New Zealand under Immigration NZ’s (INZ) new accredited employer work visa.
And, if Queenstown-based celebrity chef Nadia Lim was based overseas and looking to fill a much-needed position as a chef here, she, too, would likely be declined.
It’s a situation one resort employer labels ‘‘insanity’’.
Last week, Mountain Scene reported local hospo operators are at break-point due to staffing shortages, including a lack of chefs, with restaurants and cafes forced to close a couple of days a week.
Responding to criticism of the government’s new visa system on Monday morning, during an interview with The AM Show co-host Ryan Bridge, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was interested in hearing about the ‘‘personal experiences, because this was designed to be simpler and easier’’.
‘‘The thousands of job checks we’re having completed and coming through suggest to me that where there are issues, they are being ironed out, because we’re starting to see those come through.’’
Ardern says she’s seen ‘‘100 cooks’’ coming through that system — cooks, however, do not have to meet the required NZQF Level 4 standard INZ is demanding before they’ll approve chefs’ visas.
One Queenstown employer’s crying foul over that stance after a chef they were looking to hire — who has a decade of industry experience, including three years at culinary school — had his application declined this week.
“No right of appeal”
The overseas-based chef has worked, consistently, in internationally-renowned hotels for the past seven years.
After graduating culinary school, he started in the industry as a cook, had since taken on three commis chef roles, been a demi Chef de Partie and, since 2020, been Chef de Partie at two different overseas hotels.
The employer, who Scene has agreed not to name, argues that is at least the equivalent of the NZ certificate in cookery Level 4.
Promo material on the year-long full-time course says it’s designed for ‘‘aspiring chefs’’, and includes health and safety, communications and standard operating procedures standards units, as well as applying ‘‘fundamental cookery skills in a commercial kitchen’’.
But after the business applied to NZQA for an international qualifications assessment, to measure the chef’s qualifications and experience against the NZ unit standard, the chef was assessed at ‘certificate at level 3’, meaning he doesn’t qualify for entry as a chef.
INZ subsequently advised the employer on Tuesday the application’s been rejected.
The letter says INZ also considered if there were any special circumstances warranting an exception, ‘‘but cannot find any reason’’ to do so.
And there’s ‘‘no right of appeal or reconsideration’’.
The Queenstown employer says the decision defies belief.
‘‘This guy’s worked for eight-and-a-half years in kitchens, at a Chef de Partie level, at international hotel chains, and he’s not allowed in.
‘‘Forget about any kind of qualifications, that is insanity.’’
‘The whole F&B industry will be wiped out’
While frustrated, the employer says their overriding concern is for the future of the food and beverage industry which, unless immigration settings are dealt with, will be ‘‘wiped out’’ in the next couple of years.
That’s because it appears as though the government wants to fill kitchen roles with working holiday visa-holders — who are only in NZ for
about six months.
‘‘That means there’s no chance to develop these people … how does [Ardern] expect to get expertise in the kitchen if we don’t have people we can keep and train to a higher level?
‘‘You’re going to hire a $1 million Gordon Ramsay at the top, but he’s going to have a whole bunch of kids that are chopping carrots today because they want to go skiing tonight.
‘‘This is a trained skill that you need time [to develop].
‘‘The question I really have is how [does the government] expect the culinary side to survive if you’re only feeding it with working holiday visa-holders?’’
Hospitality NZ regional manager Darelle Jenkins says this story’s not an unfamiliar one amongst members as they attempt to recruit in the ‘‘tough climate’’.
‘‘We are actively engaging with MBIE [Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment] and INZ to relay the issues our members are encountering and offering pragmatic solutions, including offering work experience as an alternative to the qualification requirement, like
other job roles.’’
