23 August 2023
Ranjit
[email address]
DOIA 2324 - 0159
Tēnā koe Ranjit
Thank you for your correspondence of 26 July 2023, to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and
Employment (MBIE) requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following
information:
“Re the partnership residence category.
1. What date applications are currently (Date you reply this request) being allocated to an Immigration Officer in the
Hamilton branch?
2. How many applications (daily numbers if possible or weekly will be fine) were received between 1 May 2023 and 30
June 2023.
3. Do partnership residence visa applications get processed in your Hamilton branch only or are other branches also
allocated some applications?
4. Is there any specific day in a week to allocate the partnership residence applications to an Immigration Officer or
can the allocation be done on random days?
5. If a partnership residence visa applicant is currently working in a green list role (fulfilling all requirements of the
role), is there any policy or immigration instruction to fast track such applications? This is considering New Zealand is
currently facing a massive shortage of roles listed in green list.
6. How many applications under the partnership residence category are currently sitting with Immigration New
Zealand which have crossed the 14month processing time.
7. What is the total number of applications Immigration New Zealand received in the calendar year 1 January 2022 to
31 December 2022 and how many applications have been decided in the above calendar year timeframe”
Our response
Question One – As at 22 August 2023, online partnership residence applications from 14 May 2023 and
paper partnership residence applications from 17 April 2023 were being allocated to immigration officers
in INZ’s Hamilton office.
Question Two – The information you have requested is provided in the Appendix.
Question Three – The majority of partnership residence applications are processed in INZ’s Hamilton
office, with a small number processed in Porirua and the Pacific.
Question Four –Partnership residence applications tend to be allocated early in the week. Additional
applications may be allocated on any day throughout the week.
Question Five - There is currently no immigration instruction to fast-track partnership resident visa
applications where the applicant is working in a green list role. Partnership resident visa applications are
generally processed in the submitted date order. Applicants can make a request for prioritisation if they
feel there are exceptional circumstances warranting the early allocation of their application.
Question Six – As at 22 August 2023, there were
222 partnership residence visa applications in progress
that were submitted more than 14 months ago.
Question Seven – Between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2022, Immigration New Zealand received a
total of
7,647 partnership residence visa applications. Between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2022,
7,892 partnership residence visa applications were decided.
I trust you find this information useful. 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
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 iti nei, nā
Jock Gilray
Director Visa
Chief Operating Officer Branch
Immigration New Zealand
Appendix
The number of partnership resident visa applications submitted per day between 1 May 2023 and 30 June
2023. The data provided is as at 7 August 2023
Date
Number of applications
submitted
1 May 2023
19
2 May 2023
22
3 May 2023
34
4 May 2023
21
5 May 2023
21
6 May 2023
16
7 May 2023
12
8 May 2023
33
9 May 2023
27
10 May 2023
28
11 May 2023
18
12 May 2023
23
13 May 2023
10
14 May 2023
13
15 May 2023
30
16 May 2023
25
17 May 2023
25
18 May 2023
21
19 May 2023
24
20 May 2023
20
21 May 2023
17
22 May 2023
19
23 May 2023
32
24 May 2023
23
25 May 2023
15
26 May 2023
23
27 May 2023
11
28 May 2023
11
29 May 2023
32
30 May 2023
24
31 May 2023
34
1 June 2023
28
2 Jun 2023
20
3 June 2023
13
4 June 2023
10
5 Jun 2023
15
6 June 2023
21
7 June 2023
32
8 June 2023
29
9 June 2023
23
10 June 2023 11
11 June 2023 16
12 June 2023 29
13 June 2023 26
14 June 2023 23
15 June 2023 31
16 June 2023 26
17 June 2023 9
18 June 2023 17
19 June 2023 23
20 June 2023 36
21 June 2023 33
22 June 2023 38
23 June 2023 26
24 June 2023 12
25 June2023
12
26 June 2023 30
27 June 2023 23
28 June 2023 35
29 June 2023 35
30 June 2023 28
Total
1,393
