Ref: 2021-2488

 

Dear Grant,

 

On behalf of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment I
acknowledge your email of Sunday 6^th June requesting under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following:

 

“I would like to request information regarding the duration of Immigration
New Zealand visa processing under the Skilled Stream of residency, from
the time the visa application was allocated to a case officer until a
decision was reached on that visa application.

Please provide this data on a monthly basis for the last five years.

For each month, please divide the data based on the following categories:

1.  Skilled Migrant Category (SMC), non-priority applications

2.  Skilled Migrant Category (SMC), priority applications

3.  Residence from Work (RFW) Category, non-priority applications

4.  Residence from Work (RFW) Category, priority applications

For each of the categories for each of the months, please provide the
following information:

1. The number of residency applications in that category that were
allocated to a case officer in that month

2.  The length of time, in days, from the application being allocated to a
case offer until a decision was reached on that application, for 50% of
those applications

3.  The length of time, in days, from the application being allocated to a
case offer until a decision was reached on that application, for 75% of
those applications

4.  The length of time, in days, from the application being allocated to a
case offer until a decision was reached on that application, for 90% of
those applications

5.  The length of time, in days, from the application being allocated to a
case offer until a decision was reached on that application, for 95% of
those applications

6.  The length of time, in days, from the application being allocated to a
case offer until a decision was reached on that application, for 100% of
those applications”

 

Your request is being processed in accordance with the Act and a response
will be sent to you in due course.

 

If you have any enquiries regarding your request, or its urgency, feel
free to contact us via email at [1][MBIE request email].

 

Nâku noa, nâ

MINISTERIAL SERVICES

            

Corporate, Governance and Information

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Level 4, 15 Stout Street, PO Box 1473, Wellington 6140

NZBN 9429000106078

 

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Hi Grant,

 

We have received your request for official information below and before we
can proceed I am seeking clarification from you in order for us to provide
you with the correct information you are looking for.

 

Firstly it’s important to note that Immigration New Zealand (INZ) measure
average processing times in calendar days from the time an application is
accepted for processing, to when the application has been finalised and
completed in the Immigration Application Management System. Once
applications are moved from a holding queue (such as priority and
non-priority) and allocated to a case officer for processing, the queue
information is no longer held.

 

We therefore can only provide the average time taken to process SMC and
RFW application categories in calendar days from the time the application
was accepted, to when the application was finalised, broken down by
percentiles (50%, 75%, 90%, 95%, and 100%) for applications completed in
the last five years (Jan 2016 – Jan 2021). As noted earlier, this
information cannot be broken down into queues the applications originated
from, as queue information would no longer be held once allocated to a
case officer.

 

Please confirm if the information we can provide above is what you are
looking for, or if you wish to re-scope, narrow or clarify your request.

 

 

Kind Regards,

Lautalie Leausa Vaa
SENIOR BUSINESS ADVISOR

Operations Support, Border & Visa Operations, Immigration New Zealand
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment

[1][email address] | Telephone: +64 (0)4  896 5342
Level 1, 15 Stout Street, PO Box 1473, Wellington 6140, New Zealand

 

 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Grant Johnson <[FOI #15689 email]>
Sent: Sunday, 6 June 2021 6:25 AM
To: *OIA <[email address]>
Subject: Official Information request - Skilled Stream Visa Processing
Times (from allocation, not lodgement)

 

Dear Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment,

 

I would like to request information regarding the duration of Immigration
New Zealand visa processing under the Skilled Stream of residency, from
the time the visa application was allocated to a case officer until a
decision was reached on that visa application.

 

Please provide this data on a monthly basis for the last five years.

 

For each month, please divide the data based on the following categories:

1.  Skilled Migrant Category (SMC), non-priority applications 2.  Skilled
Migrant Category (SMC), priority applications 3.  Residence from Work
(RFW) Category, non-priority applications 4.  Residence from Work (RFW)
Category, priority applications

 

For each of the categories for each of the months, please provide the
following information:

1. The number of residency applications in that category that were
allocated to a case officer in that month 2.  The length of time, in days,
from the application being allocated to a case offer until a decision was
reached on that application, for 50% of those applications 3.  The length
of time, in days, from the application being allocated to a case offer
until a decision was reached on that application, for 75% of those
applications 4.  The length of time, in days, from the application being
allocated to a case offer until a decision was reached on that
application, for 90% of those applications 5.  The length of time, in
days, from the application being allocated to a case offer until a
decision was reached on that application, for 95% of those applications
6.  The length of time, in days, from the application being allocated to a
case offer until a decision was reached on that application, for 100% of
those applications

 

Thank you for your time in gathering this information.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Grant Johnson

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

This is an Official Information request made via the FYI website.

 

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[2][FOI #15689 email]

 

Is [3][MBIE request email] the wrong address for Official Information requests
to Ministry of Business, Innovation &amp; Employment? If so, please
contact us using this form:

[4]https://fyi.org.nz/change_request/new?bo...

 

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page.

 

 

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Hi Grant,

 

The allocation date of an application is information that is not held in
INZ’s Application Management System in a reportable format. Therefore
processing times from the allocation date of an application is information
that would not be retrievable.

 

For skilled residence applications, in order to track the progress on the
general queues, Manukau office manually record the number of skilled
residence applications that are allocated each week and from which
recorded general queue. This manual record we can provide however is only
limited to the total number of applications allocated each week, and from
which queue (onshore non priority and priority queues). We are unable to
break this data down further to identify application types and the
specific application numbers.

 

Therefore in terms of calculating the average processing timeframes for a
specific application category, INZ measure this from the time an
application is accepted for processing, to when the application has been
finalised and completed in the system.

 

Regarding your second point regarding a breakdown by remuneration
threshold. As we have previously mentioned, we can provide the number of
skilled residence applications that are currently unallocated in the
onshore non priority queue, as well as the number of those that meet the
criteria and are in the priority queue pending allocation. Priority queue
applications are normally allocated within 2 weeks of them joining the
queue and once they are allocated the queue information they came from is
no longer held in a reportable format in order to retrieve data on. While
we are able to provide the number of skilled residence applications that
are currently on hand and have been allocated to case officers, we would
not be able to break this down by remuneration. Due to the complexities in
how Residence from Work and Skilled Migrant Category application salary
and remuneration information is stored within INZ’s Application Management
System, in order to break this down to obtain an accurate number of
applications on hand that have been allocated to a case officer where the
principle applicant earns over NZD $51 per hour or NZD $106,080 per year
or held registration, would require a staff member to manually review each
individual skilled residence application on hand to identify those that
are within scope of your request.

 

 

I hope this provides some clarity, please confirm the information you are
looking for or if you wish to re-scope, narrow or clarify your request
further.

 

 

Kind Regards,

Lautalie Leausa Vaa
SENIOR BUSINESS ADVISOR

Operations Support, Border & Visa Operations, Immigration New Zealand
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment

[1][email address] | Telephone: +64 (0)4  896 5342
Level 1, 15 Stout Street, PO Box 1473, Wellington 6140, New Zealand

 

 

-----Original Message-----

From: Grant Johnson <[FOI #15689 email]>

Sent: Tuesday, 15 June 2021 4:22 PM

To: Lautalie Leausa Vaa <[email address]>

Subject: Re: DOIA 2021-2488 - Grant Johnson - Clarification of request
[IN-CONFIDENCE:RELEASE EXTERNAL]

 

Dear Lautalie Leausa Vaa,

 

Thank you for your assistance in this request.

 

First, regarding your comment about the processing times, do you mean to
imply that the date of allocation is not recorded, and thus it will not be
possible to provide the time of processing from allocation to decision? Or
was that point just a precursor to your main point about the queue that
the application originated from not being saved?  In this request, I
really am after the time from allocation to decision, as the time spent
from when the application was lodged (which I believe is what you mean by
"when the application was accepted") has been the subject of many other
OIA requests. Is it possible to provide this information?

 

Secondly, I understand that the information about which queue the
application originated from is not saved and thus cannot be provided. In
that case, is it possible to extract information from the applications to
see which would have met the priority criteria (salary twice the median
wage or higher or occupations requiring registration)?  See for example
https://fyi.org.nz/request/15273-eoi-sel...
where a similar process was applied to the current EOI pool as a
proxy/estimation of how many of the EOIs might qualify for the priority
queue.  If it is possible to divide the applications in this way, please
do so. If not, then it is sufficient to provide the information without
differentiation between priority and non-priority.

 

Thanks again for your help in this matter.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Grant Johnson

 

-----Original Message-----

 

Hi Grant,

 

 

 

We have received your request for official information below and before
we  can proceed I am seeking clarification from you in order for us to
provide  you with the correct information you are looking for.

 

 

 

Firstly it’s important to note that Immigration New Zealand (INZ) measure 
average processing times in calendar days from the time an application is 
accepted for processing, to when the application has been finalised and 
completed in the Immigration Application Management System. Once 
applications are moved from a holding queue (such as priority and

non-priority) and allocated to a case officer for processing, the queue 
information is no longer held.

 

 

 

We therefore can only provide the average time taken to process SMC and 
RFW application categories in calendar days from the time the application 
was accepted, to when the application was finalised, broken down by 
percentiles (50%, 75%, 90%, 95%, and 100%) for applications completed in 
the last five years (Jan 2016 – Jan 2021). As noted earlier, this 
information cannot be broken down into queues the applications originated 
from, as queue information would no longer be held once allocated to a 
case officer.

 

 

 

Please confirm if the information we can provide above is what you are 
looking for, or if you wish to re-scope, narrow or clarify your request.

 

 

 

 

 

Kind Regards,

 

Lautalie Leausa Vaa

SENIOR BUSINESS ADVISOR

 

Operations Support, Border & Visa Operations, Immigration New Zealand 
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment

 

[1][email address] | Telephone: +64 (0)4  896 5342  Level 1, 15 Stout
Street, PO Box 1473, Wellington 6140, New Zealand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[FOI #15689 email]

 

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:

https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers

 

If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please
ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA
page.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

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services

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any opinions expressed in this message are not necessarily those of the
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. This message and any
files transmitted with it are confidential and solely for the use of the
intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient or the person
responsible for delivery to the intended recipient, be advised that you
have received this message in error and that any use is strictly
prohibited. Please contact the sender and delete the message and any
attachment from your computer.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

References

Visible links
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