Immigration (Enhanced Risk Management) Amendment Bill

The Bill has 3 objectives:

• increase the effectiveness of immigration compliance and enforcement,
• Improve the integrity of the refugee and protection system, and
• Improve the operation of the wider immigration system.

Read more about the bill:

Immigration (Enhanced Risk Management) Amendment Bill(external link) — New Zealand Legislation

Overview of the Bill’s amendments:

Read the Minister’s press release:

Immigration (Enhanced Risk Management) Amendment Bill to hold people to account for serious offending(external link) — Beehive.govt.nz

A brief description of each amendment is provided below.

Changes to deportation liability

• Extending potential deportation liability up to 20 years after a residence class visa was first held, for serious criminal offending where an individual is sentenced to imprisonment of 10 years’ or more.
• Extending the lower ‘tiers’ of the deportation liability framework for residence class visa holders, so deportation liability is a more likely outcome for lower-level criminal offending, as follows:
  
  • for offending punishable by 3 months’ imprisonment or more, the deportation liability window extends from 2 years to 5 years after residence is first held
  • for offending punishable by 2 years’ imprisonment or more, the deportation liability window extends from 5 years to 10 years after residence is first held.
  • for offending resulting in a sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment or more, deportation liability is extended from 10 years to 15 years.
• Setting out factors, including the severity of the crime and the impact on the victim/s, that the Immigration and Protection Tribunal (IPT) must consider when determining appeals against deportation liability.
• Making minor changes to clarify existing deportation liability settings around false and misleading information, historical offending, when deportation liability resets after extended periods overseas, and visas granted unlawfully under the Act.
• Enabling victims of serious offences to submit on their offender’s deportation proceedings, regardless of whether the offence against them directly triggered the migrant’s liability for deportation.

More information about the proposals:

Changes relating to migrant exploitation and non-compliant employers

• Increasing the maximum sentence for migrant exploitation offending, from 7 to 10 years’ imprisonment.
• Extending the time that MBIE has to issue infringement notices (fines) for certain employer infringement offences).
• Introducing new infringement offences, to cover:
  
  • employers having provided incorrect and /or incomplete information, and
  • employers failing to provide employment-related documents when requested under section 277 of the Act.

More information about these proposals is available:

Changes relating to appeal rights and more efficient compliance activity

• Making it easier for an immigration officer to request identifying information when they have good cause to suspect someone may be unlawfully in New Zealand or breaching their visa conditions.
• Removing the right to appeal against deportation on humanitarian grounds to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal (IPT) for temporary class visa holders who commit a crime, and for all visitor visa holders.
• Enabling holders of deemed entry permission who are found to be inadmissible to enter New Zealand (for instances due to smuggling drugs or other contraband) to be turned around at the border.

More information about these proposals is available:

Changes to strengthen the integrity of the refugee and protection system

• Changing decision-making around Residence and Reporting Requirements Agreements (RRRAs) from being at the “absolute discretion” to the “discretion” of immigration officers.
  • This change implements the final legislative recommendation of Victoria Casey KQ’s review of the immigration system:

• Removing the ability of a claimant for asylum or protected person status to apply for other visa types, while they remain in New Zealand, if they withdraw their asylum claim.

More information about these proposals is available:

Changes to improve the operation of the wider immigration system

• Allow residence class visa applicants to benefit when visa settings change after they have submitted an application.
• Enable the electronic service of deportation liability notices where a physical address cannot be located.
• Make it easier for immigration information to be shared with other agencies in support of their functions, aligning the Act with other comparable systems, and enhance privacy protections.
• Make it clear that the Act enables the use of immigration information for digital credentials.

More information about these proposals is available:

Additional changes to be incorporated in the Bill in the future

In addition to the changes already in the Bill, the Minister has tabled a Parliamentary Paper outlining 7 additional amendments to protect the integrity of the refugee and protection system and support efficient processing of claims. The intention is that these proposals will be included in the Bill at a later stage.

The proposed amendments are:

• Enable a Refugee and Protection Officer to determine an asylum claim without further information where the claimant has failed to engage with the biometric process without good reason.
• Provide that, where a claimant has acted otherwise than in good faith but has a genuine protection need, the Refugee and Protection Officer may refuse to consider the refugee claim, but must consider the protection claim. It will also enable the Immigration and Protection Tribunal to make a decision on the substance of the claim where the claimant has acted in bad faith.
• Provide the Immigration and Protection Tribunal with jurisdiction to consider acts of bad faith that occur at any point.
• Remove the ability to bring late appeals to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal.
• Allow the Immigration and Protection Tribunal to decline an appeal against a decline of a second or subsequent claim on the grounds that the claimant’s circumstances have not significantly changed.
• Enable people who commit serious non-political crimes between entry to New Zealand and status determination to be excluded from refugee status (but not protection status).
• Create an authorisation to accept a claimant-initiated withdrawal of a refugee and protection claim.

More information is available:

Proposed policy additions to the Immigration (Enhanced Risk Management) Amendment Bill J.24(external link) — New Zealand Parliament

The Minister is also intending to incorporate changes at a later stage to clarify the use of the power at section 58(6) of the Act to decline a residence application, where the application includes false, misleading or withheld information.

Next steps

The Immigration (Enhanced Risk Management) Amendment Bill was introduced on 18 March 2026 and is now going through the parliamentary process. Updates will be provided as the Bill progresses.

Proactively released documents

Go to all Immigration (Enhanced Risk Management) Amendment Bill proactive releases