15 May 2023
Ghai
[FYI request #22457 email]
DOIA 2223-2353
Tēnā koe Ghai
Thank you for your email of 14 April to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)
requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following information:
”I want to know what is the timeframe for an applicant to get confirmation email that the EOI sent
under Parent resident category visa has made its way in the pool?
The application was received by the receiving center and the fee was deducted on 11 March 2023. An
automated receipt was sent with a message that once the EOI will get submitted in the pool, you will
receive a confirmation email with timeframe till when the EOI will remain valid in the pool.
It was a paper EOI application and someone has gone through it to note down the payment details and
deduct money.
1. Do the INZ not deduct money for an application after reviewing the application is completely filled
and valid to submit or not?
2. Why is there a huge gap between deducting money and providing applicant with the very basic
information that they have sent a completed application?
3. What is the timeframe to receive confirmation email whether the EOI application has been
submitted in the pool and till what time it will remain in pool?
4. What steps is the department doing to overcome these delays about communications?
5. Is there an email address you can provide where applicants can send an enquiry to INZ. There is only
phone numbers mentioned on INZ website and it takes half a day to connect to someone to talk to.
6. What steps is the department doing to overcome these delays about customer service calls?”
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Our Response
Question one
If an Expression of Interest (EOI) is assessed as meeting lodgement requirements, Immigration New
Zealand (INZ) takes the fee payment on the same day.
Question two
Once the application fee is taken, lodgement is completed, and an acknowledgement letter is sent to
the client.
During a second person check, if we pick up that the lodgement officer missed an acknowledgement
letter, we rectify this error and send the confirmation to the client. This is the likely reason for the
delay and gap experienced.
Question three
The timeframe to receive confirmation is normally within 24 to 48 hours once the submission is placed in
the pool. EOIs in the queued pool will remain in there until selected. EOIs in this queued pool are selected
based on the date the EOI was submitted into the pool, with the earliest submitted EOIs selected first. EOIs
in the ballot pool are current for a period of two years from the date of initial submission to the ballot pool,
unless no selections have occurred within those two years.
Question four
Once EOIs have been drawn and allocated to an Immigration Officer to be processed, we endeavour to
complete an initial assessment within five working days and make contact with the client regarding any
further information which may be required. We have quality checks in place to ensure that these processes
are followed correctly to avoid delays.
Question five
Our email channel is not currently available as we are concentrating all of our resources on our voice
(phone) channel at the moment. Placing a priority on our phone channels has resulted in a significant
improvement in our wait times, as described in detail below.
Question six
There are two main focus areas for the Immigration Contact Centre: recruitment and capability
building of existing staff. We had begun the process of planning and recruiting for the forecasted
increases in workload, with the re-opening of our borders post-Covid, in September 2021. We have
been in a continuous recruitment drive since January 2022, and have recruited over 100 permanent,
full-time Client Services Advisors (CSAs) to date. Our recruitment will continue for the foreseeable
future, to ensure we have a stable number of people available to respond to calls.
Due to our robust recruitment strategy, and continuous focus on building the capability of our people,
we have seen our Average Speed of Answer (ASA), or wait times, consistently drop over time.
The table below reflects the monthly data for the last six months of our performance, and I am happy
to report that our wait times in April have consistently been around 15 minutes:
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Average
Speed of
Month
Answer
October
1:11:23
November
0:57:05
December
0:24:12
January
0:20:21
February
0:24:52
March
0:17:19
April
0:15:15
Please note that the data provided in the month of April is as at 19 of April 2023.
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, please conta
ct [email address]
Nāku noa, nā
Richard Owen
General Manager (Acting)– Border & Visa Operations
Immigration New Zealand
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment
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