17 September 2021
Exporter MIQ Allocation Pilot
The Government has announced an Exporter MIQ Allocation pilot, which will enable a small number of export representatives to gain access to MIQ places in November and December, to be administered by NZTE.
This will allow 50 export representatives to secure MIQ places, 25 each in November and December, without having to go through the general public MIQ booking process.
An online registration form will be available from Monday, September 20, until 5pm on Wednesday, 29 September. Applications for both November and December will be assessed together. All applications will be assessed after the closing date & there is no priority allocated to time of receipt – in other words, there is no rush for you to submit your application.
The pilot is part of the Government’s Trade Recovery Strategy and has been approved as part of the MIQ group allocations, which are decided by the Border Exception Ministerial Group, led by the Minister of Immigration. It will allow an assessment to be made about this approach, and whether it should become part of the Re-Connect New Zealand strategy. It is an acknowledgment of the needs of exporters and the difficulties you are operating under.
However, it’s important to emphasise this is only a pilot scheme, with an extremely limited number of MIQ positions available. As such, we expect that demand will significantly outstrip supply for this pilot phase. The focus for the pilot is therefore to test the approach and process.