Immigration Processing and Travel Officer

Tēnei tūranga – About the role

The Immigration Processing and Travel Officer will bring their strategic business understanding and perspective to work in partnership with their manager and other staff in the Refugee Quota Programme Team, broader INZ staff, international partners (IOM), New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, international border control as well as other interagency stakeholders in-country.

The role leads the delivery of the approved Refugee Quota by strategically engaging in planning regional composition, projecting quota needs and recommending missions planning. The IPTO, in alignment with the refugee quota and complementary pathways program, will negotiate and coordinate logistics with offshore authorities across all departure countries.

The Immigration Processing and Travel Officer is responsible for the collection of refugee biometric data when partaking in refugee selection missions. Biometric Data is collected in line with immigration law, policy and procedures to support quality decisions that manage immigration risk and contribute to immigration outcomes.

The Immigration Processing and Travel Officer is responsible for ensuring quality and consistency of technical advice and practices in relation to their contribution to the teams' work.

Ngā herenga – Requirements of the role

Personal specifications

• Excellent organizational skills, with an ability to prioritise and manage high workloads in sometimes challenging situations and to meet deadlines.
• Demonstrate a strong technical understanding and expertise of data integration.
• Previous experience dealing with internal and external agencies for organising travel and medical arrangements.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal a requirement.
• Proven experience in a role requiring accuracy and attention to detail.
• Strong analytical skills and a demonstrated ability to exercise sound, reasoned judgement, and problem-solving ability.
• Sensitivity to individual, gender and cultural differences in colleagues and clients.
• Proven experience in a role requiring a high level of service.
• Proven experience in delivery of service to a wide range of stakeholders and working collaboratively.
• Ability to discreetly deal with confidential information.
• Robust computer skills with proven working knowledge of: Word, Excel, Outlook, Access.
• Cultural competency and effective communication across a variety of cultural groups.
• Manages workload effectively to ensure all allocated cases are decided in a timely manner.
• Communicates effectively with external and internal stakeholders.

Qualification

• A general educational background with some tertiary study and/or relevant equivalent experience working in a government environment preferred

Knowledge

• Knowledge of immigration law, policy and procedures is an advantage
• Understands United Nations Refugee Convention and relevant protocols and UNHCR Resettlement Guidelines
• Knowledge and understanding of confidentiality provisions of the Immigration Act 2009, the Privacy Act 1993, and the Official Information Act 1982

Requirements

• Must be a NZ Citizen or permanent resident.

Takohanga tuhinga o mua – Key accountabilities and deliverables

Relationship Management

• Build and maintain relationships with external stakeholders such as UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and their respective field officers and medical clinics in departure countries.
• Build and maintain relationships with partner agencies such as AUT NZRAS, OCS and the health team onsite, travel providers and other government agencies such IRD, MSD and MFAT.
• Build and maintain internal relationships within Refugee Quota and the broader Refugee and Migrant Services branch where required.

In-take Planning and Advisory

• Provide quality service to clients and stakeholders through the provision of accurate and timely specialist advice and information on procedures relating to the Refugee Quota Programme.
• Dissemination of intake information and updates to the MRRC agencies within agreed timeframes and acts as point of contact for intake enquires from a range of stakeholders.
• Development and implementation of contingency planning to ensure all refugee quota intakes meet required targets and within agreed timeframes.
• Proactively support Immigration Manager to identify cases for refugee quota intakes in line with projected intake composition plan by nationality/ethnicity taking account of all relevant factors such as family links in New Zealand, exit permit timeframes from country of asylum and validity of medical results.
• Support Refugee Quota programme delivery by leading collaborative and consultative planning session on intakes.
• Provide oversight and act as a “secondary check” of IPTO shared documentation and work processes.
• Work alongside the Operations Manager in developing, decision making, monitoring, and tracking refugee intakes.
• Continuous improvement of SOPs by identifying best practice in collaboration with the operations manager.

Pre-Selection Mission

• Liaise with the International Organisation for Migration to complete offshore health assessments and provides completed assessments to Quota Selection Officers
• Liaises with the designated Mission Leader to book and manage all travel arrangements for selection missions including international travel, hotels, and travel within country.

On Selection Mission (offshore)

• Undertake biometric enrolment for all clients and process responses from Five Country Partners (M5) to ensure all clients satisfy identity requirements, liaising with ICT if required to undertake troubleshooting.

Post-selection Mission

• Produces Certificates of Identity (COI), Intake Lists, and Permanent Residence Visas.
• Delivers information session to quota refugees about COI and PR letters before departure of each intake, to ensure understanding of the importance of these travel documents and associated timeframes.
• Provides overall technical advice to relevant RQP teams on all refugee cases (Case composition, medicals, travel and biodata corrections).
• Decision making around contingencies of deferred cases exiting countries of conflict
• Pro-actively engage respective Government Border Authorities in registering the INZ COI and securing safe passage.
• Where needed, engage with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to escalate/liaise with respective Government authorities in securing travel of Refugee families (Permanent Resident Visa holders) to New Zealand.
• Strategically contribute to the reviewing of pipeline cases and providing feedback in alignment with the Quota needs.
• Collating case reports, special reports and copies of COIs and distributes copies of all these documents to relevant onsite agencies in a timely manner such as Issuing visas for those approved under the quota.
• Coordinates refugee quota intake arrivals and communication of arrival, details, and updates to all MRRC agencies, and provides updates on the composition in arrivals at MRRC weekly operations meetings.
• Coordinates biodata correction process for quota refugees’ post-arrival and updates stakeholders as required.
• Arranges refugees’ domestic travel bookings to resettlement regions.
• Uploading biometrics for Quota refugees liaising with identity services where required (with the exception of those requiring biometrics at the airport).
• Liaises with IOM, Quota Selection Officers, and INZ Medical Assessors where required to support the determination of client’s health status in line with immigration instructions.

Wellbeing, health and safety

• Displays commitment through actively supporting all safety and wellbeing initiatives.
• Ensures own and others safety at all times.
• Complies with relevant safety and wellbeing policies, procedures, safe systems of work and event reporting.
• Reports all incidents/accidents, including near misses in a timely fashion.
• Is involved in health and safety through participation and consultation.

Tō tūranga i roto i te Manatū – Your place in the Ministry

The Immigration Processing and Travel Officer position reports into the Manager Operations, in the Refugee Quota team in Refugee and Migrant Services branch. The branch sits within Immigration New Zealand group.

More information about MBIE’s structure

To mātou aronga – What we do for Aotearoa New Zealand

Hīkina Whakatutuki is the te reo Māori name for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Hīkina means to uplift. Whakatutuki means to move forward, to make successful. Our name speaks to our purpose, Grow Aotearoa New Zealand for All.

To Grow Aotearoa New Zealand for All, we put people at the heart of our mahi. Based on the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi / The Treaty of Waitangi, we are committed to upholding authentic partnerships with Māori.

As agile public service leaders, we use our breadth and experience to navigate the ever-changing world. We are service providers, policy makers, investors and regulators. We engage with diverse communities, businesses and regions. Our work touches on the daily lives of New Zealanders. We grow opportunities (Puāwai), guard and protect (Kaihāpai) and innovate and navigate towards a better future (Auaha).

Ngā matatau – Our competencies

Cultivates innovation We create new and better ways for the organisation to be successful by challenging the status quo generating new and creative ideas and translating them into workable solutions.

Nimble learning We are curious and actively learn through experimentation when tackling new problems by learning as we go when facing new situations and challenges.

Customer focus We build strong customer relationships and deliver customer-centric solutions by listening and gaining insights into the needs of the communities we serve and actively seeking and responding to feedback.

Decision quality We make quality and timely decisions that shape the future for our communities and keep the organisation moving forward by relying on an appropriate mix of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgement to make valid and reliable decisions.

Action oriented We step up, taking on new opportunities and tough challenges with purpose, urgency and discipline by taking responsibility, ownership and action on challenges, and being accountable for the results.

Collaborates We connect, working together to build partnerships with our communities, working collaboratively to meet shared objectives by gaining trust and support of others; actively seeking the views, experiences, and opinions of others and by working co-operatively with others across MBIE, the public sector and external stakeholder groups.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi

As an agency of the public service, MBIE has a responsibility to contribute to the Crown meeting its obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Te Tiriti). Meeting our commitment to Te Tiriti will contribute towards us realising the overall aims of Te Ara Amiorangi – Our Path, Our Direction, and achieve the outcome of Growing New Zealand for All. The principles of Te Tiriti - including partnership, good faith, and active protection – are at the core of our work. MBIE is committed to delivering on our obligations as a Treaty partner with authenticity and integrity and to enable Māori interests. We are committed to ensuring that MBIE is well placed to meet our obligations under the Public Service Act 2020 (Te Ao Tūmatanui) to support the Crown in strengthening the Māori/Crown Relationship under the Treaty and to build MBIE’s capability, capacity and cultural intelligence to deliver this.

Mahi i roto i te Ratonga Tūmatanui – Working in the public service

Ka mahitahi mātou o te ratonga tūmatanui kia hei painga mō ngā tāngata o Aotearoa i āianei, ā, hei ngā rā ki tua hoki. He kawenga tino whaitake tā mātou hei tautoko i te Karauna i runga i āna hononga ki a ngāi Māori i raro i te Tiriti o Waitangi. Ka tautoko mātou i te kāwanatanga manapori. Ka whakakotahingia mātou e te wairua whakarato ki ō mātou hapori, ā, e arahina ana mātou e ngā mātāpono me ngā tikanga matua o te ratonga tūmatanui i roto i ā mātou mahi.

In the public service we work collectively to make a meaningful difference for New Zealanders now and in the future. We have an important role in supporting the Crown in its relationships with Māori under the Treaty of Waitangi. We support democratic government. We are unified by a spirit of service to our communities and guided by the core principles and values of the public service in our work.

What does it mean to work in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Public Service?(external link) — Te Kawa Mataaho The Public Service Commission