9 June 2023
Jaskaran Walia
[FYI request #22027 email]
DOIA 2223-1983
Tēnā koe Jaskaran
Thank you for your email of 7 March 2023 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following:
1) At the time of response, can you please provide stats below in an excel format if possible for
the last 2 quarterly EOI selection from the queued pool.
Tab 1 - Nov'22 Selection - 370
-
Number of EOI selected from pool
-
Number of Applications representing the EOI
-
Number of EOI declined
-
Number of EOI Withdrawn
-
Number of ITA Sent
-
Number of EOI where further information requested and still waiting
-
Number of Applications submitted from ITA
-
Number of approved application i.e. parent residency granted after application submitted
-
Number of declined applications i.e. parent residency declined after application submitted
-
Number of application still being assessed after application submitted the application.
-
Drop off rate for Nov'22 selection
Tab 2 - Feb'23 Selection - 1100
-
Number of EOI selected from pool
-
Number of Applications representing the EOI
-
Number of EOI declined Number of EOI Withdrawn
-
Number of ITA Sent
-
Number of EOI where further information requested and still waiting
-
Number of Applications submitted from ITA
-
Number of approved application i.e. parent residency granted after application submitted
-
Number of declined applications i.e. parent residency declined after application submitted
-
Number of application still being assessed after application submitted the application.
-
Drop off rate for Feb'23 selection
2) If INZ is still awaiting information from Nov'22 selection from candidates after 4 months, what
is the cut off time! How long INZ just keep waiting on requesting more information for EOI and
also once ITA is sent. Is there any targets in terms of timeline that INZ have to ensure all EOI
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selected from a quarterly selection are processed within that timeline i.e. 90 days from EOI
selection till application received and 30 days to make application decision. What I am after is
targets and current real numbers for last 2 quarterly selections from queued pool.
3) From the Policy announcement on parent category,
"Annual limit to number of resident visas available under the Parent Category
1) The number of resident visas that can be granted under the Parent Category is limited
to 2,500 people for each year ending 30 June.
2) Until the Queued Pool of EOI is cleared, 2000 visas per year are allocated for the
people with EOIs submitted in the Queued Pool, and from July 2023, 500 visas per year
will be allocated to those whose EOIs are in the Ballot Pool."
As till 30th June 2023, the only selection is from Queued Pool and no selection is to be made from
Ballot pool. Can you confirm that total visa for year ending 30 June 2023 will be 2500 visas from
Queue pool? If not, than why are we wasting 500 visas for year ending 30 June 2023?
For next year i.e. 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024, 2000 visas from queued pool and 500 from ballot
pool?
Our Response
We sincerely apologise for the delay in providing this information.
Question one
Please see table one for the requested data on Parent Category Expressions of Interest (EOI), as at
15 May 2023, broken down by selection date.
Table One
EOI selection date
November 2022
February 2023
Number of EOIs selected
370
1,100
Number of applicants represented by the EOI
598
1,782
Number of EOIs declined
129
166
Number of EOIs withdrawn
59
154
Number of Invitations to Apply (ITA) sent
181
738
Number of EOIs where further information
0
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has been requested
Drop off rate
16%
14%
We have interpreted the drop off rate to be asking for the percentage of EOIs which have been
withdrawn after selection from the pool.
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Please see table two for the requested data on Parent Category visa applications, as at 8 May 2023,
broken down by EOI selection date.
Table two
EOI selection date
November 2022
February 2023
Number of applications submitted from ITA
152
243
Number of approved applications
14
5
Number of declined applications
43
33
Number of applications still being assessed
95
205
Question two
If mandatory documents in an EOI are missing, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) will contact an applicant
giving the applicant two working days (from contact) to provide the missing documents. The EOI
lodgement at this stage is deferred until the requested information is provided. If additional information
is not received by INZ within two working days, INZ will Return Failed Lodgement (RFL) the EOI on the
third working day.
If an EOI is selected from the pool and issued an Invitation to Apply (ITA), the applicant will need to lodge
a resident visa application under the Parent Category within four months of the date of the ITA letter
being issued to them. If no application is received within that timeframe the ITA will be lapsed.
Please see table three for the timeframes between ITAs being issued and applications being received
since the 14 November 2022 EOI selection, as at 8 May 2023.
Table Three
Median Number of days
90% of applications received in
40 weekdays
80 weekdays
Please see table four for the timeframes between applications received and being decided since the 14
November 2022 selection, as at 8 May 2023.
Table four
Median Number of days
90% of applications completed in
4 weekdays
26 weekdays
Question three
The annual cap until June 2023 is 2,000 visas. The initial recommendations were for EOIs from the queue
to be selected in sufficient quantity to grant 2,000 visas per year from the start of the 2023/24 financial
year until the whole queue was gone. However, this would mean that people expressing interest after
12 October 2022 would not have the opportunity to be selected for several years. In order to remedy
this, a quota of 500 was added for selection of new EOIs, and these 500 places will be added to the
annual cap from August 2023 when the first ballot draw takes place.
We expected there to be processing challenges in meeting the cap for EOIs from the queue for the first
year or so for two reasons: 1) because of the age of the first EOIs in the queue, with many submitted
around ten years ago; and 2) it takes time from the first EOI selection to receive all of the visa
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applications (noting that applicants have four months from their invitation to apply to submit their
application). As such, INZ adjusts the number of EOIs selected from the queue prior to selections in order
to reach the target of 2,000 visas.
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
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802
602.
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request or this response, or if you require any further assistance,
please contac
t [email address]
Ngā mihi nui
Richard Owen
General Manager (Acting), Border and Visa Operations
Immigration New Zealand
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