17 March 2022
Muhammad
[FYI request #21833 email]
DOIA 2223 – 1777
Tēnā koe Muhammad
Thank you for your correspondence of 14 February 2023 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and
Employment (MBIE) requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following
information:
1. How many SMC applications are still pending for a decision that was lodged before 20-March-2020?
a. How many immigration officers are working on all SMC applications at the moment?
2. INZ received an internal advice in mid-2022 to conduct the third-party checks (NSC) again for paper based
SMC visa applications that were submitted before Covid lockdown and are still waiting for a decision.
a. How long usually a NSC check is valid for?
b. How INZ is going to treat those SMC visa applications who are suffered from this advice. Those SMC
applicants are already waiting for a long time, in some cases 3 years or more, to get a decision on
their application. It was the sole responsibility of INZ to process those applications on time which
they clearly failed to do so. This new advice has added additional 6-12 months to the processing
time because of delay in NSC checks at the moment. These SMC applicants are suffering more and
waiting in a limbo because of overnight policy changes and RV21 despite paying more application
fees compared to RV21 and other applications. INZ failed to allocate adequate resources to these
SMC visa applications to ensure timely processing. Now, new policy changes and advice come along
the way that are clearly affecting these applications.
c.
What steps will INZ take to ensure that they treat these applications fairly and it was worth waiting
for this long for the applicants? Will these applicants get permanent residency or residence visa
without any travel conditions? Most of SMC applicants are already onshore since their application
lodgement and waiting for 3 years and more.
3. What is current processing time of third party checks, especially NSC. In a response on 7 Nov 2022, NZSIS
claimed that average processing time was 50 days. It seems that this time has increased many fold recently
because many applicants are waiting from 6-12 months for third party checks (evidence from social media
posts). Has NZSIS taken any steps to reduce this time without compromising the security and integrity of the
process?
4. It is also evident that immigration officers are not supposed to follow up or escalate the third-party checks
before six months. NZSIS claimed 50 days then why immigration officers need to wait for 6 months to request
escalation/follow up?
On 23 February 2023, the Ministry advised you that question three of your request would be transferred
to New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) in accordance with section 14(b)(i) of the Act, which
allows the transfer of any request where the information is not held, but is believed to be held by another
department, organisation or Minister of the Crown.
Our response
Questions 1 and 1(a)
As at 2 March 2023, there were 620 Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) applications lodged prior to 20 March
2020 that had not yet been decided. As at 6 March 2023, a total of 27 immigration officers were assigned
to process these applications.
Questions 2(a), (b) and (c)
During COVID-19, the processing of all paper based applications was suspended for an extended period of
time due to office and border closures. Over such a long period, an individual’s circumstances may have
changed and updated information is requested to ensure assessment of an application is based on current
information. Included in this is an update of the information required for a National Security Check (NSC).
As such the NSCs are not deemed to be invalid, but just need updated information for assessment. Once a
NSC assessment has been completed, NZSIS provides advice to Immigration New Zealand (INZ) which is
then taken into account as part of the overall visa application assessment.
All applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis and an immigration officer must be satisfied that all
applicants included in a visa application meet all of the relevant immigration instructions. Applicants
approved residence under SMC will be issued a resident visa with travel conditions. The application
category does not allow for the immediate grant of a permanent resident visa or a resident visa without
travel conditions.
Question 4
NSCs are third-party checks carried out independently of INZ and as stated above in question 2, INZ refers
them to the NZSIS for advice and waits for the response. Timeframes vary and INZ cannot provide comment
on your statement in regards to information released by the NZSIS.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of the Ministry’s response to
your request, in accordance with section 28(3) of the Act. Information about how to make a complaint is
available a
t www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request or this response, please conta
ct [email address] Nāku iti nei, nā
Richard Owen
Acting General Manager, Border and Visa Operations
Immigration New Zealand
