Plan of INZ on Skilled Migrant Category process
Junlong made this Official Information request to Iain Lees-Galloway
The request was successful.
From: Junlong
Dear Iain Lees-Galloway,
I am current in New Zealand and for verification, my location is on Chartwell Avenue, Glenfield, Auckland.
Since around July 2019, INZ has started processing SMC applications according to a number of internal prioritisation criteria. Due to this, INZ almost stopped processing applications without priority. It is said that lots of recent responses from INZ call centre indicate that the queue is still in Dec 2018, which is very much the same as the responses in around July to September.
I understand INZ prioritise some applications for national interest or some urgent occupation areas. However, every eligible SMC applicants is contributing greatly to New Zealand, there should be a long term approach to prevent most of them from waiting extremely long time while seeing the other get granted resident visa within 4 months, for example.
Therefore, I write to request:
1. Is there any plan in discussion inside Cabinet/INZ to replace / optimise current internal priority criteria to make it fairer for most of applications instead of sacrificing their interest? Personally I suggest there should be at least a maximum waiting time for applications, beyond which it should be prioritised to allocate Case Officers to or speed up the processing.
2. Will there be any changes adding to deleting on some of the internal priority criteria?
3. From Migration Data Explorer, number of Business/Skilled Apps on Hand has been increasing dramatically from July 2018, which had never been seen in history. And it is expected to be over 40,000 apps on hand by the end of 2020. What will Goverment/INZ do to mitigate this?
4. How many Case Officers are dedicated to SMC at the moment, and how many more INZ will be hiring for it?
Yours faithfully,
Junlong
From: I Lees-Galloway (MIN)
Iain Lees-Galloway
On behalf of Hon Iain Lees-Galloway, Minister of Immigration, Minister for
ACC and Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety thank you for your
email. Please consider this email as an acknowledgement.
Thank you for taking the time to write and please be assured that your
comments will be read by the Minister. However, there may be no further
response to you.
Kind regards,
Office of Hon Iain Lees-Galloway
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From: I Lees-Galloway (MIN)
Iain Lees-Galloway
Good Morning
We acknowledge receipt of your official information request dated 3 December, regarding a Plan of INZ on Skilled Migrant Category Process.
We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible and in any event no later than 23 January, being 20 working days after the day your request was received.
Please note that the days in the period between 25 December 2019 and 15 January 2020 (inclusive) are defined as non-working days in the Act. This will affect the maximum time period for providing a response to your request.
If we are unable to respond to your request within the appropriate timeframe, we will notify you of an extension of that timeframe. If your OIA request requires full or part transfer, we will contact you within the required timeframe.
Yours sincerely,
Office Hon Iain Lees-Galloway
Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety
Minister of Immigration
Minister for ACC
Deputy Leader of the House | MP for Palmerston North
P: 64 (4) 817 8713 | E: [Iain Lees-Galloway request email]
Authorised by Hon Iain Lees-Galloway, Wellington
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From: I Lees-Galloway (MIN)
Iain Lees-Galloway
Good afternoon
Please find attached a response to your correspondence from the Hon Iain Lees-Galloway.
Regards
Office Hon Iain Lees-Galloway
Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety
Minister of Immigration
Minister for ACC
Deputy Leader of the House | MP for Palmerston North
P: 64 (4) 817 8713 | E: [Iain Lees-Galloway request email]
Authorised by Hon Iain Lees-Galloway, Wellington
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To Iain Lees-Galloway by Junlong
