Erica Stanford. Photo: RNZ / Reece Baker
More than 8000 people looked at Immigration New Zealand's webpage on working remotely yesterday - and 1500 more viewed its visitor visa and visa-waiver pages.
MPs today quizzed officials on issues they fear will dog the digital nomad visa, including skyrocketing demand for temporary housing - or travellers taking local jobs.
The visa policy change means all overseas visitors, including tourists on visa waiver (ETAs), can now work here for up to nine months.
A parliamentary scrutiny committee examined the change with INZ staff and immigration minister Erica Stanford. She told the education and workforce committee it had attracted a massive amount of interest and coverage since Monday.
"We have been missing out on a whole market of people that other countries are taking advantage of, which we have not been able to do, and it was great yesterday and the day before to see the digital nomad headlines for New Zealand on the BBC and on the New York Times. I mean that is absolutely phenomenal."
But opposition MPs questioned Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment officials earlier in the day about potential unintended consequences of the policy.
"Did you check with overseas examples or with other government agencies around the risk of the proliferation of things like Airbnb in communities where perhaps these so-called digital nomads would be concentrated?", asked Greens MP Ricardo Menéndez March about the potential for pressure on rentals and temporary housing.
When he was told no, and questioned it further, he was told without knowing the scale of the numbers of people coming, they had not been able to work out the potential effect.
Those missing estimates figured in questions about other possible consequences, such as immigration staff not usually knowing whether someone is just visiting, or also working.
Phil Twyford asked officials about migrant exploitation, and 'visitors' potentially working under the table for a New Zealand employer.
INZ said if an immigration officer had a reason to believe that someone was coming here primarily to work, or to work illegally, it would attempt to detect that as quickly as possible.
Twyford questioned how officials would know about someone working tax-free for a New Zealand employer - on an ETA or visa - or if people started selling the visa to potential new victims of exploitation and trafficking overseas.
He was told the policy work suggested there was no significant additional risk, and that the change would help clarify the rules for people working remotely while on holiday.
While Stanford was being questioned, she and Menéndez March also got into a heated exchange about the current treatment of exploited migrants - which only ended when committee chairperson Katie Nimon intervened with a reminder about comments being muttered under MPs' breath, and Hansard.
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