Dear New Zealand Police,

I would like to request for the following information under the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA).

1. As per checking on the NZ Police website today, 21 December 2021 1:39pm, the processing timeframe states "As at 13/12/2021, the Police Vetting Service is processing 99.7% of vetting requests within 20 working days."

Question: What is the most current processing time performance on the police vetting service?

2. Can I request for the number of police vetting service requests made by Immigration New Zealand from 1 December 2021 until present? Of these, how many have been completed by NZ Police Vetting service (by "Completed", I mean those where you have supplied Immigration New Zealand with a result of the police vetting)? Example:

1 December 2021
# of police vetting service requests made by Immigration New Zealand = x
# of police vetting service requests made by Immigration New Zealand and were completed by the NZ police vetting service = y

2 December 2021
# of police vetting service requests made by Immigration New Zealand = a
# of police vetting service requests made by Immigration New Zealand and were completed by the NZ police vetting service = b

3. Immigration New Zealand previously announced a one-off residency visa called the 2021 Resident Visa and has commenced since 1 December 2021; the second phase scheduled in March 2022. Part of the assessment of applications for such a visa is that “INZ will undertake New Zealand Police checks for all 2021 Resident Visa applicants aged 17 years or older, regardless of how long they have been in New Zealand.” (quoted from the Immigration New Zealand website). Has the performance of NZ Police Vetting service surged since 1 December 2021 and if yes, has that surge affected its processing timeframes? Does the NZ Police Vetting service anticipate a further impact on the processing timeframes in view of the March 2022 cohort of 2021 Resident Visa applicants? How has the NZ Police Vetting service prepared for this eventuality?

Yours faithfully,

Julius Cardillo