10 May 2021
Soni
By email: [FYI request #15039 email]
File No: DOIA 2021-1959
Dear Soni
Thank you for your email of 31 March 2021, requesting the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the OIA):
How many SMC files are still waiting for allocation till November 2019?
Approximately How much time it will take for allocation of November 2019 SMC files?
How many files are allocates to each case officers weekly basis and how many they
processing weekly?
Thank you for clarifying your request on 12 April 2021 as follows:
1. The number of skil ed residence applications accepted on or before 30 November 2019
(inclusive) that are stil awaiting allocation to an Immigration Officer.
2. A weekly breakdown of the number of skil ed residence applications allocated to
Immigration Officers for assessment in 2021 to date.
3. A weekly breakdown of the number of skil ed residence applications completed in 2021 to
date.
4. As per your targeted time how much time it will take to allocate November 2019 skilled
residence files.
5. What month skil ed residence files is Immigration allocating at the date of your response?
Our response
1. The number of skil ed residence applications accepted on or before 30 November 2019 (inclusive)
that are stil awaiting allocation to an Immigration Officer.
There are 3,017 skil ed residence applications that were accepted on or before 30 November 2019
that are awaiting allocation to an Immigration Officer. Note that this includes 901 skilled residence
applications where the applicant is offshore. Visa processing for overseas applicants is still on hold.
This is because INZ is not able to legally grant a visa to people who are unlikely to meet the entry
requirements. Processing of these offshore applications will resume when the border re-opens. There
may however be some offshore applicants based in a quarantine-free travel zone who wil meet entry
requirements. Once their eligibility to travel to New Zealand is confirmed, these applications will also
be processed.
2. A weekly breakdown of the number of skil ed residence applications allocated to Immigration
Officers for assessment in 2021 to date.
Please refer to Table One attached.
Skil ed residence queue data is not static due to the complex nature of visa processing operations.
Applications move between queues and this needs to be taken into account when comparing data
over time. The data changes over time for reasons such as but not limited to:
• Applicants arriving into New Zealand on critical purpose visas result in their applications
moving from the offshore queue to one of the onshore queues;
• A change in an applicant’s circumstances resulting in their application meeting the priority
criteria and being moved to the priority queue;
• Applications being escalated via the Employment Visa Escalation (EVE) process -
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/media-centre/newsletters/korero/korero-july-
2019/employment-visa-escalations-eve;
• Applications selected to be used in training new Immigration Officers.
Most data used in OIA responses is pulled directly from the INZ Application Management System
(AMS), and reflects the date that the data entry relating to the application was completed in AMS. On
occasion an application is received by INZ on one date, but the data entry is not completed until a
later date. In the interest of fairness, when allocating applications the Manukau office use the date
that all information required for the acceptance of the application was actually received by INZ rather
than the date the data entry was completed – which reflects when a client will perceive their
application to have been submitted. This means that there may be differences noted in the allocation
data, which is sourced directly from the Manukau office, when compared with other statistics about
skil ed residence, including number and dates of applications in the queues.
3. A weekly breakdown of the number of skil ed residence applications completed in 2021 to date.
Please refer to Table Two attached.
4. As per your targeted time how much time it wil take to allocate November 2019 skil ed residence
files.
This is not a request for Official Information as you are asking for a prediction of future information.
We can advise that as at 10 May 2021 the oldest application in the onshore non-priority skilled
residence queue was accepted on 13 August 2019.
5. What month skil ed residence files is Immigration allocating at the date of your response?
INZ are currently allocating applications accepted in August 2019 from the onshore non-priority skilled
residence queue.
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request or this response, please contact Anna McLachlan,
Business Advisor, Operations Support, Immigration New Zealand
at [email address]. Yours sincerely
Nicola Hogg
General Manager
Border and Visa Operations
Immigration New Zealand
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
link to page 4
T able One - Allocation information relating to skilled residence (Skilled Migrant Category and
Residence from Work) applications
Week commencing
Priority skilled
Non-priority skil ed
Applications
residence
residence applications
al ocated via the
applications
al ocated
employment visa
al ocated
escalation (EVE)
process1
4 January 2021
47
104
4
11 January 2021
16
97
2
18 January 2021
49
114
0
25 January 2021
58
92
5
1 February 2021
41
129
3
9 February 2021
17
177
0
16 February 2021
60
17
6
22 February 2021
21
49
0
1 March 2021
35
30
1
8 March 2021
52
0
0
15 March 2021
73
49
0
22 March 2021
16
118
0
29 March 2021
26
80
2
5 April 2021
47
20
0
12 April 2021
37
31
1
19 April 2021
79
4
0
26 April 2021
45
39
3
3 May 2021
41
46
0
1
Employment Visa Escalation is a process to respond to escalation requests for urgent allocation for
employment related visas (and associated family members) for both Temporary Work Visas and Skil ed
Resident Visas. For more information see the INZ website here:
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-
us/media-centre/newsletters/korero/korero-july-2019/employment-visa-escalations-eve
T able Two - Number of skil ed residence applications completed in 2021 to date broken down by
week completed
Year and week
Completed Applications
2021 W01
110
2021 W02
273
2021 W03
182
2021 W04
163
2021 W05
123
2021 W06
134
2021 W07
195
2021 W08
248
2021 W09
98
2021 W10
155
2021 W11
226
2021 W12
217
2021 W13
162
2021 W14
110
2021 W15
156
2021 W16
152
