Dear Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment,

1. Could you please help me understand where the SMC queue allocation is at the moment (particular day).

2. On 25th March 2021, Emma (Immigration Manager) from the INZ Manukau branch has advised me that the queue will be on 1st Aug after the weekly allocation (ending on 26th March 2021), whereas in one of the OIA request (DOIA 2021-1635) MBIE had advised that as of 9th March the queue is in Aug 2019, so what dates of applications were INZ allocating from 9th March to 26th March 2021?.

3. Explain the discrepancies in point 2 (why there is such a big gap of information that is misleading, either the OIA response quoted above or Emma's Response is not right).

3. No. of Applications left in Aug from 1st Aug to 31st Aug 2019 that are pending for Allocation to a CO (each day break up).

4. Weekly allocation to CO from Feb 2021 to until when you reply to this request (Non Priority and priority queue).

5. Provide (in which week's allocation) did INZ allocated applications that were in Queue from 1st July 2019 until Aug (whatever date the queue is on in Aug 2019). For example, applications from 15th -19 July 2019 were allocated to CO on March 1st 2021, application from the 20th-25th July were allocated on 2nd March 2021 and so on.

Please don't mention any of the other generic information when you reply, as I am aware SMC and RFW are in one queue, because of covid-19 Alert it has impacted the capacity of INZ and all those sorts of stuff.

Please note I am eligible to make such a request and currently living in NZ.

Yours faithfully,

Satish

Dear Ministerial Services,

There is a slight correction in #2 in my Original Request.

2. On 25th March 2021, Emma (Immigration Manager) from the INZ Manukau
branch has advised me that the queue will be on 1st Aug after the weekly
allocation (ending on 26th March 2021), whereas in one of the OIA requests
(DOIA 2021-1478) MBIE had advised that as of 13th Feb 2021 the queue was in Aug
2019, so what dates of applications were INZ allocating from 13th Feb to 25th March 2021?.

Please add the below questions as well in the requests (additional questions/clarification).
6. Please provide the Name, Designation, Department that endorses the response to an OIA request before an OIA is made public.

7. How does MBIE's OIA team work when they provide numbers (and the whole process)?, as we have seen huge gaps and discrepancies in the allocation which is confirmed by Emma McFarland (as per her knowledge queue has reached in Auh 2019 only on 26th March) VS OIA response (DOIA 2021-1478) around allocations and numbers.

8. Does MBIE's OIA team consult with Emma McFarland before they publish the numbers, as Emma McFarland has mentioned, She is the Manager looking after SMC/RFW weekly allocations so I am assuming nobody can answer this better than Emma McFarland?.

9. If the answer to question #8 is yes, then how does the number never match up (for example as per OIA response Allocations were happening from Aug 2019 on 13th Feb, and as per Emma's response queue only reached in Aug on 26th March, there is a big gap of 6 week's allocation which Accounts for 263 application allocation in these 6 weeks.

10. if the Answer to question#8 is No, then who does the OIA team consult to publish the numbers and what's the authenticity and accuracy of the information they receive and provide it to the public/FYI website?.

11. As per another response (DOIA 2021-1632, INZ has allocated 263 Non Priority Applications after 13th Feb 2021), so from which month these applications were picked up, if not August 2019, as if it was from Aug, the queue must have been on 22nd Aug, as from 2nd Aug to 22nd there are roughly 257 Applications and kind of almost close to what OIA response has provided?.

Yours sincerely,

Satish