20 January 2021
M S Medina
[FYI request #14229 email]
Ref: DOIA 2021-1117
Dear M S Medina,
Thank you for your email of 1 December 2020 requesting under the Official Information Act 1982 (the
OIA), the following information:
“I would like to request a data on a monthly basis the no. of onshore resident visa
applications lodged up to 31.03.2020 that are yet to be allocated to case officers.
I also would like to request a data on the no. of applications that were allocated weekly to
case officers from August 2020 to the date you respond to this request showing the
lodgement date of each application, categorised as to priority and non-priority queue.”
Our Response
We have interpreted your request to be in relation to onshore Skilled Residence visa applications in the
priority and non-priority queues. Skilled residence applications include two categories, the Skilled
Migrant Category (SMC) and Residence from Work (RFW) category that are both processed in the
Manukau office.
Question 1:
Please see Table 1 below which provides the number of onshore SMC and RFW applications accepted for
processing up to, and including 31 March 2020, and as at 5 January 2021 are yet to be allocated to a case
officer, broken down by the application accepted month.
Table 1:
Month
Number of
Accepted
applications
Jun-18
0
Aug-18
0
Sep-18
0
Oct-18
0
Nov-18
0
Dec-18
0
Jan-19
0
Feb-19
0
Mar-19
0
Apr-19
0
1
May-19
0
Jun-19
88
Jul-19
648
Aug-19
571
Sep-19
620
Oct-19
742
Nov-19
867
Dec-19
903
Jan-20
734
Feb-20
971
Mar-20
1,295
Total
7,439
Question 2:
Please see Table 2 below which provides the number of SMC and RFW applications that were allocated
weekly to a case officer during the period 3 August 2020 to 5 January 2021, broken down by onshore
priority and non-priority queue.
Your request for a further breakdown to include the date of lodgement for each application has been
refused under s18(f) of the OIA, because this information cannot be made available without substantial
collation or research.
The date of allocation and which queue an application is pulled from is not held in a reportable format,
therefore Table 2 is based off internal manual reporting that is limited to the number of applications
allocated per week from the priority and non-priority queue. To obtain a further breakdown on the
lodgement date for each application would require a staff member to manually check each individual
application in the Immigration Application Management system. This would remove Ministry staff from
their core duties and therefore the greater public interest would not be served. I have considered
whether the Ministry would be able to respond to your request given extra time or the ability to charge
for the information requested but I have concluded, in both cases, the Ministry’s ability to undertake its
work would stil be prejudiced.
Table 2:
Date of
Number of
Priority
Non-
allocation
applications
Queue
Priority
Queue
3-Aug-20
204
154
50
10-Aug-20
208
168
40
17-Aug-20
172
165
7
24-Aug-20
266
116
150
31-Aug-20
141
19
122
7-Sep-20
225
45
180
14-Sep-20
177
77
100
21-Sep-20
190
63
127
28-Sep-20
160
49
111
5-Oct-20
210
58
152
12-Oct-20
141
82
59
19-Oct-20
191
44
147
26-Oct-20
178
8
170
2
2-Nov-20
191
16
175
9-Nov-20
246
67
179
16-Nov-20
252
68
184
23-Nov-20
252
40
212
30-Nov-20
227
70
157
7-Dec-20
198
52
146
14-Dec-20
228
57
171
21-Dec-20
129
50
79
29 Dec 20
122
0
122
5 Jan 21
155
47
108
Any updates in regards to the allocation of applications can be found via the following link:
www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/media-centre/news-notifications/how-we-prioritise-resident-visa-
applications/smc-and-rfw-timeframe-information
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of the decision to refuse
parts of your request. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request or this response, please contact Lautalie Leausa Vaa,
Senior Business Advisor, Operations Support, Immigration New Zealand at
[email address].
Yours sincerely,
Nicola Hogg
General Manager - Border and Visa Operations
Immigration New Zealand
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