2 July 2021
Christopher McPhee
By email: [FYI request #15672 email]
File No: DOIA 2021-2473
Dear Christopher McPhee
Thank you for your email of 4 June 2021, requesting the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the OIA):
1. A breakdown of how many on-shore skil ed residence applications are waiting for
allocation up-to 19th December 2019.
2. A weekly breakdown of the number of skil ed residence applications allocated to
Immigration Officers for assessment in 2021 to date.
3. A weekly breakdown of the number of skil ed residence applications completed in 2021 to
date.
4. As per your targeted time how much time it wil take to allocate all applications of skil ed
residence files to reach 19th December 2019.
Our response
1. A breakdown of how many on-shore skil ed residence applications are waiting for allocation up-to
19th December 2019.
Please see attached Table 1 detailing the number of unallocated onshore skilled residence applications
that were accepted by Immigration New Zealand (INZ) on or before 19 December 2019, broken down
by accepted date and queue, as at 22 June 2021. We have withheld application counts of five or fewer
under section 9(2)(a) of the OIA in order to protect the privacy of natural persons.
2. A weekly breakdown of the number of skil ed residence applications allocated to Immigration
Officers for assessment in 2021 to date.
Please see attached Table 2 detailing the number of skilled residence applications allocated for
assessment from 4 January 2021 to present, broken down by week and queue.
It is important to note that skil ed residence queue data is not static due to the complex nature of visa
processing operations. Applications move between queues and this needs to be taken into account
when comparing data over time. The data changes over time for reasons such as, but not limited to:
• Applicants arriving into New Zealand on critical purpose visas which results in their
applications moving from the offshore queue to one of the onshore queues;
• A change in an applicant’s circumstances resulting in their application meeting the priority
criteria and being moved to the priority queue;
• Applications being escalated via the Employment Visa Escalation (EVE) process -
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/media-centre/newsletters/korero/korero-july-
2019/employment-visa-escalations-eve; • The lodgment of an application may take several days or weeks, depending on the
completeness of the application. Applications are back-dated once lodgment requirements
are completed which can cause fluctuations in the number of applications accepted in a
particular month.
Most data used in OIA responses is pulled directly from the INZ Application Management System
(AMS), and reflects the date that the data entry relating to the application was completed in AMS. On
occasion an application is received by INZ on one date, but the data entry is not completed until a
later date. In the interest of fairness, when allocating applications the Manukau office use the date
that all information required for the acceptance of the application was actually received by INZ rather
than the date the data entry was completed – which reflects when a client will perceive their
application to have been submitted. This means that there may be differences noted in the allocation
data, which is sourced directly from the Manukau office, when compared with other statistics about
skil ed residence, including number and dates of applications in the queues.
3. A weekly breakdown of the number of skil ed residence applications completed in 2021 to date.
Please see attached Table 3, detailing
the number of skilled residence applications completed from 1
January 2021 to 22 June 2021 (inclusive), broken down by week completed.
4. As per your targeted time how much time it wil take to allocate all applications of skil ed residence
files to reach 19th December 2019.
This is not a request for Official Information, however we can advise that allocations of skilled
residence applications to immigration officers occur weekly and the number of applications that are
al ocated is dependent upon processing capacity.
INZ’s role as a regulator is to process and approve applications in line with immigration instructions
and the New Zealand Residency Programme (NZRP) planning range set by the Government of the day.
The Government is currently reviewing its approach to the NZRP. In the meantime, INZ wil continue
to process applications at the same volume and with the same level of resourcing as the previous NZRP
allowed for. This has an impact on the number of applications that can be al ocated and the timeliness
of application processing.
Any updates in regards to the allocation of applications can be found via the following link:
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/waiting-for-a-visa/how-long-it-takes-to-
process-your-visa-application/smc-and-rfw-timeframe-information
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision. 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 Anna McLachlan,
Senior Business Advisor, Operations Support a
t [email address]. Yours sincerely
Nicola Hogg
General Manager, Border and Visa Operations
Immigration New Zealand
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
link to page 4
Table 1: The number of unal ocated onshore skil ed residence (Skil ed Migrant Category and
Residence from Work) applications that were accepted by INZ on or before 19 December 2019,
broken down by accepted date and queue, as at 22 June 2021.
Month
Priority skilled residence
Onshore general (non-
applications
priority) skilled residence
applications
Oct-19
0
141
Nov-19
0
718
Dec-19
<=5
636
Table 2: Number of skil ed residence (Skil ed Migrant Category and Residence from Work)
applications al ocated by week, broken down by queue.
Count of onshore priority skilled Count of onshore general
Week beginning
residence applications al ocated (non-priority) skilled
(including approved requests
residence applications
under EVE1)
al ocated
4 January 2021
51
104
11 January 2021
18
97
18 January 2021
49
114
25 January 2021
63
92
1 February 2021
44
129
8 February 2021
17
177
15 February 2021
66
17
22 February 2021
21
49
1 March 2021
36
30
8 March 2021
52
0
15 March 2021
73
49
22 March 2021
16
118
29 March 2021
28
80
5 April 2021
47
20
12 April 2021
38
31
19 April 2021
79
4
26 April 2021
48
39
3 May 2021
41
46
10 May 2021
69
83
17 May 2021
68
101
24 May 2021
57
197
31 May 2021
43
150
7 June 2021
76
170
14 June 2021
55
150
21 June 2021
64
271
1 Employment Visa Escalation is a process to respond to escalation requests for urgent allocation for
employment related visas (and associated family members) for both Temporary Work Visas and Skil ed
Resident Visas. For more information see the INZ website here:
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-
us/media-centre/newsletters/korero/korero-july-2019/employment-visa-escalations-eve
T able 3: The number of skil ed residence (Skil ed Migrant Category and Residence from Work)
applications completed from 1 January 2021 to 22 June 2021 (inclusive), broken down by week
completed.
Week beginning
Skil ed residence applications completed
4 January 2021
140
11 January 2021
325
18 January 2021
224
25 January 2021
190
1 February 2021
142
8 February 2021
153
15 February 2021
209
22 February 2021
286
1 March 2021
98
8 March 2021
166
15 March 2021
265
22 March 2021
262
29 March 2021
181
5 April 2021
143
12 April 2021
207
19 April 2021
191
26 April 2021
204
3 May 2021
299
10 May 2021
243
17 May 2021
283
24 May 2021
238
31 May 2021
280
7 June 2021
203
14 June 2021
288
21 June 2021 (partial
60
week, to 22 June 2021)
Total
5,280
