Dear Christoper

On behalf of the Hon Jan Tinetti, Minister of Internal Affairs, thank you for your email.

As your query partially falls within the Ministers Internal Affairs portfolio, this email is to acknowledge receipt of your correspondence which will be given to the Minister for her consideration and response.

Thank you for writing.

Ngā mihi

Jean Houlihan | Private Secretary (Internal Affairs)
Office of Hon Jan Tinetti MP, Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister for Women, Associate Minister of Education

This email communication is confidential between the sender and the recipient. The intended recipient may not distribute it without the permission of the sender. If this email is received in error, it remains confidential and you may not copy, retain or distribute it in any manner. Please notify the sender immediately and erase all copies of the message and all attachments. Thank you.

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Ref: 2122-0839

 

Dear Christopher,

 

On behalf of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment I
acknowledge your email of 01 October 2021 requesting under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following:

 

“I applied for my skilled migrant category visa which was received by
immigration on the 20th of December 2019 and have yet to be allocated to a
case officer.

 

I am writing to you to request some more information for people in my
situation. With the new immigration changes (which I believe to be a great
move) there will be a lot more applications for the immigration workers to
process from December 2021. Do you have plans to work through the whole
back-load before starting on them? As you can understand, it will be very
frustrating for me to have waited over two years for a decision on my
application to then have it further delayed so others can get
fast-tracked.

 

When I applied in Dec 2019, the average processing time was 10 months, but
my life has now been on hold for nearly 22 months waiting for a decision.
Do you have any plans to look after people in my situation like you have
for the others? After having our residency application accepted, we will
have to wait 5 years until we can become citizens. Would you consider
reducing this to 3 or 4 years for everyone that already has an application
in place with immigration due to the extra wait we have had to endure? I
should have been applying for my citizenship in 2025, but now it looks
like it will be in late 2026 or even 2027. It feels like we have had to
pay for the Covid-19 situation and backlog as the new rules benefit
everyone except us who were already on the route to making this our home.”

 

This letter is to advise you that your request has been transferred to the
Office of Hon Kris Faafoi as an Official Information Act request and to
the Office of Hon Jan Tinetti (bolded part) as a ministerial letter
response.

 

This is because your request is more closely aligned with the functions of
the Office of Hon Kris Faafoi and the Office of Hon Jan Tinetti. Section
14(b)(ii) of the Official Information Act allows me to transfer any
request that is believed to be more closely aligned with the functions of
another department, organisation or Minister of the Crown.

 

I trust you find the information helpful.  You have the right to seek an
investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision. Information
about how to make a complaint is available at
[1]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.

 

 

Nâku noa, nâ

 

Ministerial Services

 

Ngâ Pou o te Taumaru

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

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

NZBN 9429000106078

[2]www.govt.nz - your guide to finding and using New Zealand government
services

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/
2. http://www.govt.nz/

Dear Chris

Please see letter attached from Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon Jan Tinetti.

Ngā mihi

Jean Houlihan | Private Secretary (Internal Affairs)
Office of Hon Jan Tinetti MP, Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister for Women, Associate Minister of Education

This email communication is confidential between the sender and the recipient. The intended recipient may not distribute it without the permission of the sender. If this email is received in error, it remains confidential and you may not copy, retain or distribute it in any manner. Please notify the sender immediately and erase all copies of the message and all attachments. Thank you.

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