Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey is expected to be a big hit this winter. Closer to home, Kiwis may want to discover another perilous journey: that of at least 80,000 foreign neighbours, through cumbersome bureaucracy, to reach these shores across the wine-dark Tasman Sea.

Tell us, O muse, of what it takes to acquire an Accredited Employer Work Visa!

As the name suggests, the journey begins with a firm applying for ‘accreditation’. If a firm decides that an international applicant is the best person for the job during their job advertisement, then ‘accreditation’ allows the firm to apply for a ‘job check’.

A successful ‘job check’ application enables the firm to send a migrant a job offer and a ‘job token’, a specialised online link from Immigration New Zealand through which the hopeful migrant can apply for the AEWV.

Simply put, the firm must apply for the right to apply for government approval for the migrant to apply for a visa.

With their veritable minotaur’s labyrinth of applications, INZ has perfected a way to quash the motivation of both firms and prospective migrants. Move over Lotus Eaters, you’ve got company.

Even if the migrant and the firm muster the requisite will, daunting challenges remain.

While Odysseus was away, his wife, Penelope, was harassed by uncouth suitors. Similarly, Kiwi firms must fend off INZ bureaucrats. For example, when the Initiative applied for accreditation, INZ asked the Initiative to obtain the identification information of everyone on its Board!

But perhaps INZ is more like Poseidon, seeking vengeance on migrants who actually manage to submit AEWV applications. After submitting, a prospective migrant must wait for an INZ letter requesting a medical examination. They use it to make an appointment with an approved physician in their home country.

Alas! As I learned when I applied for an AEWV, approved physicians are few and far between. There is only one approved office in the entire Washington, D.C. metro area. As if stuck on Calypso’s Island, I had to wait two weeks and pay $500 USD for the equivalent of an annual checkup.

If all these steps are completed, then the immigrant’s odyssey is at an end, having snuck into New Zealand on the belly of a sheep.