Dear Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment,

I see from https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zeal... that there are currently just over 3,000 unallocated applications in the Skilled Residency Stream Queue. It is likely that by the time this request is processed the numbers will have gone down.

Can you please provide:
1. What is the number of unallocated applications in the Skilled Residency Stream Queue, as of the date of your response?

2. Of those applications, how many applications are there, in which the primary applicant for the Skilled Residency Stream Application (SMC or RFW) is represented in a One-Off 2021 Resident Visa (RV21), either as the primary applicant of the RV21 application or as the secondary applicant/partner?

3. Of the remaining number of applications in the Skilled Residency Stream queue who are not represented in a RV21 application (i.e. answer to question 1 less the answer to question 2), how many applications are there in which the primary applicant was present in New Zealand on September 29, 2021 on visa that qualifies for the RV21 (INZ Operational Manual section S6.10.1) and who also met the "Settled" criteria (described in INZ Operational Manual section S6.15.1) of the RV21?

4. Of the remaining number of applications in the Skilled Residency Stream queue who are not represented in a RV21 application and do not meet the settled criteria for RV21 (i.e. the answer to question 1 minus the answer to questions 2 and 3), how many of them were present in New Zealand on September 29, 2021 on a visa that qualifies for the RV21? For this last group, can you please break the numbers down by the visa type they held on that day?

Thank you for your help in finding these numbers.

Yours faithfully,

Grant Johnson

Dear INZ OIAs,

Thank you for your help in providing this information.

There is a discrepancy between the information you provided and the information that was displayed on INZ's website. I was hoping you could offer some clarification about which of the information is correct.

In the document, you said: "As at 19 April 2022 there were 4,634 unallocated skilled residence applications on hand."

However, on INZ's website, on the page entitled "Skilled Migrant Category and Residence from Work processing times" <https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zeal...>, during the same time interval, the following figures were displayed:

The total number of unallocated skilled residence applications as of 11 April 2022 was 2,607 in the General Queue and 6 in the Priority Queue.

The total number of unallocated skilled residence applications as of 25 April 2022 was 2,373 in the General Queue and 0 in the Priority Queue.

Which of these figures (those in the document you sent me, or those on the INZ website) was correct? I assume the queue did not jump from 2,613 on 11 April, then to 4,634 on 19 April, and then back down to 2,373 on 25 April. Can you explain the reason for the discrepancy?

Yours sincerely,

Grant Johnson