Review of the Immigration Profiling Branch

Joshua Grainger made this Official Information request to Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment

The request was partially successful.

From: Joshua Grainger

Dear Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment,

I would like to request under the Official Information Act any information relating to a review or proposed review of the Immigration Profiling Branch. Such a briefing was mentioned in a briefing to the Minister of Immigration on 24/03/13.

To be specific, I would like to request all information related to any review planned or carried out between 2012 and now of the Immigration Profiling Branch (IPB), including, but not limited to:

* terms of reference for a review
* any documents detailing the conclusions and/or outcomes of any review
* any draft terms of reference for a review
* any Cabinet papers or minutes relating to any review or planned review
* any documents that have been to a Minister for approval or advice about a review or planned review

I am not at this stage interested in any operational information made during the review, just in the documents about the review itself. This is in an attempt to refine the scope of my request.

In the case that any information is to be withheld I would request that redaction be made instead of withholding any documents in full, or failing that, the titles and dates of the withheld documents be released.

Please contact me if you wish me to clarify my request.

Yours faithfully,
Joshua Grainger

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From: Joshua Grainger

Dear Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment,

My apologies, I wish to add one further thing that I wish to request under my OIA request. This is:

* which organizations, Ministries, or Departments were involved in the review or are planned to be involved in the review? How were they involved?

Yours faithfully,

Joshua Grainger

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From: *OIA
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment


Attachment OIA 0303 Joshua Grainger Acknowledgement Letter 26.08.14.pdf
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Dear Mr Grainger,

 

Please find attached an acknowledgement letter in regards to your recent
Official Information Act request.

 

Regards,

 

David Baird

Ministerial Services

Organisational Strategy and Support, Ministry of Business, Innovation and
Employment

 

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From: Katarina McNaught
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment


Attachment 5.09.14 Signed Extension Letter Joshua Grainger.pdf
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Dear Mr Grainger

 

Please find an extension letter for your OIA request.

 

Kind Regards, Kat

 

Katarina McNaught

SENIOR BUSINESS ADVISOR

 

Operations Support, Visa Services, Immigration New Zealand

Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment

 

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From: Susan Jones
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment

Dear Joshua Grainger,

 

With regard to your request under the Official Information Act about the
review of the Immigration Profiling Office. I regret to inform you that we
will not be able to respond today as we had anticipated. The reason for
the delay is due to ongoing consultation. We will endeavour to provide you
with the information as soon as we can, I hope it will be next week.

 

Kind regards

Susan

 

 

Susan Jones (I work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday)

Senior Business Advisor

Operations Support

Immigration New Zealand

PO Box 3705 - Wellington

[1][email address]

 

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From: Susan Jones
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment

Dear Mr Grainger,

 

Just to update you on your OIA request. We are still in the process of
consultation and it is unlikely a response will be ready this week. We
will respond as soon as possible.

 

Apologies for the delay.

 

Kind regards

Susan

 

 

Susan Jones (I work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday)

Senior Business Advisor

Operations Support

Immigration New Zealand

PO Box 3705 - Wellington

DDI: + 64 4 896 5372

[1][email address]

 

From: Susan Jones
Sent: Tuesday, 21 October 2014 4:58 p.m.
To: '[OIA #1954 email]'
Subject: OIA 2014/08/03433 - Review of the Immigration Profiling Branch
[UNCLASSIFIED]

 

Dear Joshua Grainger,

 

With regard to your request under the Official Information Act about the
review of the Immigration Profiling Office. I regret to inform you that we
will not be able to respond today as we had anticipated. The reason for
the delay is due to ongoing consultation. We will endeavour to provide you
with the information as soon as we can, I hope it will be next week.

 

Kind regards

Susan

 

 

Susan Jones (I work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday)

Senior Business Advisor

Operations Support

Immigration New Zealand

PO Box 3705 - Wellington

[2][email address]

 

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From: Joshua Grainger

Dear Susan Jones,

Thank you very much for keeping me up to date, but please do ensure that this information is released early next week. There was an extension of an entire month asked for, and that extension has expired. A further week was asked for, but apparently now this extended deadline is not going to be met.

If I have not received this information by the end of next week I will be considering a complaint to the Ombudsman.

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Grainger

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From: Susan Jones
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment

Hi there,

 

I am out of the office.

 

My usual work days are Mon-Weds.

 

If the matter is urgent please email INZ-.OpsStudent&[email address]

 

Thanks

Susan

 

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From: Luke Paynter


Attachment OIA Response Letter Joshua Grainger 2014 08 03433.pdf
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Attachment Released Information Joshua Grainger 2014 08 03 03433.pdf
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Dear Mr Grainger,

 

Please find attached a letter responding to your OIA request regarding the
IPB review as well as the information you requested.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Luke Paynter

Business Advisor

Operations Support, Visa Services

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Level 1 | 15 Stout Street | Wellington 6011

PO Box 1473 | Wellington 6140| New Zealand

Tel: +64 4 896 5407 | Fax: +64 4 915 6278

 

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Joshua Grainger left an annotation ()

There are some very interesting things in here. It's probably the most information about IPB that has ever been released. From a brief look here's my takeaways.

* IPB is a tool for reputational risk - not national security
* Criteria previously? 30 country list. Criteria now? Unknown
* Cost is 6x as much for a IPB decision as a regular decision - $600 per decision compared to $100
* IPB is 100% funded from fee payers
* Of 3643 applicants referred only 23 (0.63%) were declined on grounds of reputational risk
* There is comparison to other 'five eye' countries. Profiling is dealt with as a 'pseudo national security' tool
* IPB decisions are slow: median is 49 for IPB compared to 4 for non-IPB
* There are two different categories of country assessment: see annexes A and B on page 31
* One of the reasons why IPB is slow is that application need to be physically transported to NZ to be considered. Have INZ not heard of the internet?

Follow up questions:
* Is the new criteria for referral subjective or objective?
* What's IGMS? (page 28)
* What's the role of the GCSB? See reference to Minister for GCSB in 31
* IPG was split into two groups in 2010. An unknown group, and IPB. Where did the other half of IPG go?
* A big role for IPB is supposed 'counter-proliferation' applications. These are separate from reputational issues. What exactly is the criteria for a counter-proliferation application? Student visas from Iran?
* 'Branches may refer applications directly to the [redacted] if they consider there are reputational issues'. What's this secret organisation that applications are referred to? Is this what the other half of IPG turned into?

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From: *OIA
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment


Attachment OIA 0626 Joshua Grainger Response.pdf
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Dear Mr Grainger,

 

Please find attached a response in regards to your recent Official
Information Act request dated 7 November 2014.

 

Regards,

 

David Baird

Ministerial Services

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

 

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Joshua Grainger left an annotation ()

The second response was a response to this OIA request: https://fyi.org.nz/request/2157-document...

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Things to do with this request

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