20 June 2023
Ziyun(Evan) Wang
[email address]
DOIA 2223-2602 and 2223-2604
Tēnā koe Evan,
Thank you for your email of 9 May 2023 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following:
Request one – DOIA 2223-2602
I am writing to kindly seek the below updated information associated with Green list Tier 1(STR)
applications:
1. Most Recent STR approvals, declines, withdrawn numbers;
2. Most recent average processing time for STR applications;
3. The Top 10 industries migrant workers applied for STR applications- please provide the most
recent number of visa approvals under each industry (and breakdown by occupations); and
4. The Top 10 nationalities applied for STR applications - please provide number of visa approval
under each nationality.
Request two – DOIA 2223 2604
Given the below 4 periods:
• From 1 April 2019 until 31 Mar 2020
• From 1 April 2020 until 31 March 2021
• From 1 April 2021 until 31 March 2022
• From 1 April 2022 until 31 March 2023
1. Please advise how many Partnership-based Work Visa applications – Partner of a Worker
applications that Immigration New Zealand has received, approved, declined, and withdrawn
under these 4 periods above?
2. Please advise how many Partnership-based Work Visa – Partner of a Student applications that
Immigration New Zealand has received, approved, declined, and withdrawn under these 4
periods above?
3. Please advise how many Working Holiday Visa applications INZ has received, approved, declined,
and withdrawn under these 4 periods above?
4. What are the top 10 nationalities that have their Working Holiday Visa approved – please
provide the approval numbers for each nationality?
Our Response
On 7 June 2023 we advised you that due to the substantial collation of information required to respond to
your requests, we needed to extend the due date to 20 June 2023. We are now in a position to be able to
provide a response to the two requests detailed above.
Please refer to the attached appendices for the information that you have requested. You have indicated
in your requests for data to be broken down by industry. Immigration New Zealand data is not categorised
by industry, instead it is categorised by two sector levels. As our two levels of sector categorisation may not
correspond with your definition of industry, we have sought to provide you with complete occupation data
on the understanding that you will be able to extract the data you require.
The data is provided as at 31 May 2023, and encompasses all data since the categories in question came
into existence.
Information included in the appendices are as following:
Appendix one – Straight to Residence (STR) visa application data
• Contains tables one, two, three and four.
Appendix two – Partnership-based Work Visa application data
• Contains tables five, six and seven.
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, or if you require any further assistance,
please contac
t [email address]
Ngā mihi nui
Richard Owen
General Manager (Acting), Border and Visa Operations
Immigration New Zealand
Appendix one – Straight to residence (STR) visa application data
Table one
The number of STR visa applications approved, declined and withdrawn as at 31 May 2023
Decision
Number of Applications
Approved
1,571
Declined
12
Withdrawn
17
Total
1,600
Table two
Processing times (in weekdays, excluding public holidays) of completed STR visa applications, as at 31
May 2023.
Median number of
Number of days to
Maximum number of
days to complete
complete 90% of
days to complete
applications
applications
application
33
75
162
Table three
STR approved visa information broken down by sector, occupation, the number of applications
submitted, and the number of visas approved as at 31 May 2023
Sector
Number of visas
Occupation
Level 1
Level 2
approved
Not recorded
26
Construction
Construction
Civil Engineer
70
Civil Engineering Technician
103
Construction Project Manager
36
Electrical Engineer
21
Electrical Engineering Technician
4
Electronic Engineering Technician
11
Engineering Professionals nec*
22
Geotechnical Engineer
12
Industrial Engineer
3
Mechanical Engineer
27
Mechanical Engineering
0
Draftsperson
Production or Plant Engineer
11
Project Builder
16
Quantity Surveyor
54
Structural Engineer
20
Surveyor
8
Health
Care
Registered Nurse (Aged Care)
111
Workforce
Anaesthetic Technician
0
Health
Anaesthetist
11
Professional
Audiologist
0
Cardiologist
1
Cardiothoracic Surgeon
1
Chiropractor
0
Clinical Psychologist
8
Dental Therapist
0
Dentist
0
Dermatologist
2
Diagnostic and Interventional
8
Radiologist
Educational Psychologist
2
Emergency Medicine Specialist
4
Enrolled Nurse
1
Gastroenterologist
1
General Practitioner
23
Hospital Pharmacist
0
Medical Diagnostic Radiographer
0
Medical Laboratory Scientist
10
Medical Laboratory Technician
1
Medical Practitioners nec*
8
Midwife
6
Neurologist
1
Neurosurgeon
1
Obstetrician and Gynaecologist
5
Occupational Therapist
0
Ophthalmologist
3
Organisational Psychologist
1
Orthopaedic Surgeon
3
Otorhinolaryngologist
1
Paediatrician
2
Pathologist
5
Physicist
0
Physiotherapist
1
Psychiatrist
12
Psychologists nec*
3
Psychotherapist
1
Registered Nurse (Child and
9
Family Health)
Registered Nurse (Community
3
Health)
Registered Nurse (Critical Care
69
and Emergency)
Registered Nurse (Disability and
10
Rehabilitation)
Registered Nurse (Medical
5
Practice)
Registered Nurse (Medical)
140
Registered Nurse (Mental Health)
17
Registered Nurse (Paediatric)
22
Registered Nurse (Perioperative)
48
Registered Nurse (Surgical)
51
Registered Nurses nec*
5
Renal Medicine Specialist
1
Resident Medical Officer
71
Rheumatologist
0
Sonographer
0
Social Worker
0
Specialist Physician (General
5
Medicine)
Specialist Physicians nec*
7
Speech Pathologist (Aus)/Speech
0
Language Therapist (NZ)
Surgeon (General)
2
Vascular Surgeon
1
ICT
ICT
Analyst Programmer
6
Chief Information Officer
1
Developer Programmer
36
ICT Managers nec*
26
ICT Project Manager
38
ICT Security Specialist
26
Multimedia Specialist
37
Software Engineer
145
Software Tester
12
Software and Applications
3
Programmers nec*
Telecommunications Engineer
1
Telecommunications Network
2
Engineer
Other
Professional
Chemical Engineer
8
Electronics Engineer
3
Environmental Research Scientist
27
External Auditor
0
Food Technologist
20
Information Officer
1
Internal Auditor
0
Materials Engineer
1
Other Spatial Scientist
4
Primary
Agriculture
Environmental Engineer
3
Industry
Veterinarian
24
Total
1,571
* not elsewhere classified
Table four The top ten nationalities of applicants applying for STR visa applications, and the associated number
of applications submitted, and visas approved* as at 31 May 2023
Nationality
Number of applications submitted
Number of applications approved
India
667
408
China
335
5
Philippines
245
198
Great Britain
195
152
South Africa
192
149
United States of America
163
126
Sri Lanka
110
103
Fiji
51
35
Iran
40
0
Malaysia
38
28
*Please note application processing timeframes for different nationalities will vary. This can be due to
a number of factors including third party checks and, in some cases, waiting for information from an
applicant.
Appendix two – Partnership-based Work Visa application data
Please note this data is broken down into the following four periods:
• From 1 April 2019 until 31 March 2020
• From 1 April 2020 until 31 March 2021
• From 1 April 2021 until 31 March 2022
• From 1 April 2022 until 31 March 2023
Table five
Partnership-based Work Visa applications submitted, approved, declined and withdrawn, broken
down by partner of a student, and partner of a worker visa types, as at 31 May 2023
Number of applications
Decision year
Visa type
Submitted Approved
Declined
Withdrawn
Visa, Work, Partner of Student
3,554
2,782
279
87
2019/20
Visa, Work, Partner of a worker
26,836
24,682
926
360
Visa, Work, Partner of Student
1,858
1,476
10
21
2020/21
Visa, Work, Partner of a worker
16,366
14,815
181
361
Visa, Work, Partner of Student
1,109
1,005
15
19
2021/22
Visa, Work, Partner of a worker
18,861
17,730
143
441
Visa, Work, Partner of Student
2,776
2,114
189
42
2022/23
Visa, Work, Partner of a worker
18,210
15,671
250
399
Table six
The number of Working Holiday Visa applications submitted, approved, declined and withdrawn as
at 31 May 2023
Decision
Number of applications
Year
Submitted Approved Declined Withdrawn
2019/20
65,310
61,739
1,705
899
2020/21
9,241
5,816
114
243
2021/22
22,900
21,884
32
109
2022/23
63,630
62,258
838
614
Table seven
The top ten nationalities of applicants applying for a Working Holiday Visa each year, and the
associated number of visas approved as at 31 May 2023.
Nationality
2019/20
Great Britain
11,075
Germany
9,960
France
8,875
United States of America
4,034
Canada
2,939
South Korea
2,911
Japan
2,660
Italy
2,135
Malaysia
1,931
Ireland
1,735
Nationality
2020/21
Great Britain
1,763
Canada
457
France
433
Malaysia
386
Argentina
356
Chile
273
Italy
270
Germany
244
Czech Republic
230
Japan
217
Nationality
2021/22
Great Britain
3,126
France
2,499
Malaysia
2,162
United States of America
1,819
Germany
1,695
South Korea
1,297
Czech Republic
1,139
Japan
1,131
Canada
865
Italy
802
Nationality
2022/23
Great Britain
8,797
France
7,449
Germany
6,678
United States of America
4,724
Malaysia
2,948
South Korea
2,875
Japan
2,699
China
2,371
Argentina
2,342
Canada
2,314
