21 April 2021
Rachel
[FYI request #14981 email]
Ref: DOIA 2021-1868
Dear Rachel,
Thank you for your email of 23 March 2021 requesting under the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA),
the following information:
Could you please provide information in regards to the following?
In respect to Character requirements contained at A5 of the Operations Manual.
Could we please have the statistics for the past 3 years (financial July/June) 2018-2019,
2019-2020, 2020-2021:
1. The total number of applicants who were granted a character waiver in relation to a
drink driving conviction as part of a residence application.
2. The total number of applicants who were declined a character waiver in relation to a
drink driving conviction as part of a residence application.
3. The total number of applicants who were granted a character waiver in relation to a
drink driving conviction as part of a Temporary visa application.
4. The total number of applicants who were declined a character waiver in relation to a
drink driving conviction as part of a Temporary visa application.
Our Response
Table one below shows the total number of residence and temporary visa applications that were approved
and declined between 1 July 2018 and 7 April 2021 (inclusive):
Residence Applications
Temporary Applications
(Financial year completed)
(Financial year completed)
Decision
2020/21
2020/21
2018/19
2019/20
2018/19
2019/20
(Partial year)
(Partial year)
Approved
30,938
28,738
30,318
973,185
713,316
248,528
Declined
2,024
1,480
1,526
66,220
50,824
5,827
Unfortunately, a further breakdown to show the number of applications that were approved or declined
a character waiver in relation to a drink driving conviction, is information not held in a reportable format.
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) records the final decision in the Immigration Application Management
1
System (AMS) as approved or declined. In order to obtain the level of information you have requested
would require a staff member to manually review each individual application in table one, to identify the
applications that would fall within scope of your request.
This task would remove Ministry staff from their core duties and therefore the greater public interest
would not be served. I have considered whether the Ministry would be able to respond to your request
given extra time or the ability to charge for the information requested but I have concluded, in both cases,
the Ministry’s ability to undertake its work would still be prejudiced.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of the decision to refuse
parts of your request. 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 Lautalie Leausa
Vaa, Senior Business Advisor, Operations Support, Immigration New Zealand at
[email address]. Yours sincerely,
Nicola Hogg
General Manager - Border and Visa Operations
Immigration New Zealand
2
