Satish
[FYI request #15350 email]
10 June 2021
Ref: DOIA 2021-2212
Dear Satish,
I refer to your email of 4 May 2021 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (the
Ministry), requesting under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
1. “No. of EOI Selected from the Pool from Jan 2019 up to March 2021.”
2. “No of ITA issued to all the successful selection from the Pool”
3. “out of all the ITA issued from Jan 2019 up to March 2021, how many people
have actually applied under SMC (e.g. say 100 ITAs were issued but only 80
people proceeded and applied under SMC).”
Our Response
Question One
As you are aware, due to the COVID 19 response, the Expression of Interest (EOI) selection process
was suspended for the Parent Category and Skilled Migrant Category (SMC). Following that
suspension, selection of EOIs from SMC EOI were deferred for a further six months in October 2020,
and continue to be suspended.
The continued deferrals are a temporary measure and allow Immigration New Zealand to focus on
processing applications for those who are eligible to travel here, while border restrictions are in place.
Between 1 January 2019 and 31 March 2021, 18,564 SMC EOIs were selected.
Question Two
18,564 Invitations to Apply (ITA) were issued after the corresponding SMC EOIs were selected
(between 1 Jan 2019 and 31 Mar 2021).
Question Three
Out of all the ITA issued from 1 January 2019 up to 31 March 2021, 17,471 applications were
submitted in our internal system (AMS).
1
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 this response, please email
[email address].
Yours sincerely
Nicola Hogg
General Manager – Border & Visa Operations
Immigration New Zealand
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
2