Immigration New Zealand’s dirty little secret

Why do some applications get left behind?

INZ has always used risk profiling to decide how closely it looks at applications.

An employer applying for accreditation under the Accredited Employer Work Visa policy could be approved in less than 2 hours if they correctly answer INZ’s questions on the online form.

My client – a hardworking construction company – has been an INZ accredited employer since 2021, under the old rules for accreditation which were replaced this May by new requirements.

The fact that the company is already accredited likely means INZ has put it in a queue for ‘verification’ (which usually means ‘closer inspection’). INZ wants to check that the company has followed the rules since it was accredited last year.

Fair enough, but what’s frustrating is that once an application has exceeded the 10-working days advertised processing time, INZ takes as long as it likes to deal with it.

Nearly 2 months after I lodged the employer accreditation application, INZ confirmed that it had not even allocated the application to a case officer for processing.

Meanwhile, the employer desperately needs skilled workers to fill customer orders. New Zealanders aren’t available, and he can’t hire a non-New Zealander on an Accredited Employer Work Visa because INZ hasn’t processed his company’s accreditation application.

Queues within queues within queues

In my experience, Immigration New Zealand is the most inefficient Government department you are likely to deal with. I’ve dealt with other Government departments, and INZ is the worst for consistency of decision-making, timeliness, customer experience and not learning from its mistakes.

Queue No 1: Lodge an application with INZ … it will be queued for days until someone in INZ’s documentation team checks to see whether it can be accepted for processing (because the required documents have been provided).

Queue No 2: Waiting for a case officer to be allocated. More than 2 months in my client’s case, more than 2 years if you applied under the Skilled Migrant Category.

Queue No 3: Case officer gets allocated, assesses application, writes to a client asking for more evidence. Gives client 1-2 weeks to respond … then takes several weeks to look at the evidence once the client has submitted it.

Queue No 4: Case officer makes a decision, which often has to be checked by a colleague. The queue for ‘second-person checks’ can be 6 weeks long!

I guarantee you that most applications sit in queues for more than 90% of INZ’s ‘processing’ time.

You think I’m making this up?

How do I know? Ask INZ for a copy of your application … the application notes show exactly what work has occurred on that application. You can see how little time INZ has spent on it and how long it has spent in queues.

Don’t believe senior INZ managers when they tell you that some applications take longer because of ‘verification’. The time INZ spends actually verifying an application is a small fraction of the time it wastes holding on to applications, doing nothing.

Sorry if I sound frustrated. It’s just that the Government last month replaced its main work visa category – Essential Skills – with the new Accredited Employer category, which now requires three applications:

• Employer accreditation
• Job check, where accredited employers prove that no New Zealanders are available for the position they are offering to a migrant worker
• Accredited Employer Work Visa application by the migrant worker

While INZ is deciding 81% of employer accreditation applications within 2 weeks, only 20% of job check applications are being decided within that target timeframe, according to National’s immigration spokesperson, Erica Stanford. Job checks require more work … hence the queues are longer.

Little wonder that in the first month since the Accredited Employer Work Visa was introduced, only one person has been approved a work visa.

My client, who runs a construction company, will wait (3 months? 4 months?) for INZ to approve his accreditation application, then has to join the back of INZ’s queue for a job check application. Only after the employer’s job check has been approved can a worker from overseas apply for a work visa.

My emails to INZ on behalf of this employer haven’t received a response after nearly 2 weeks. INZ staff are required to respond to queries within 48 hours. I can only wait and hope.

My advice to employers: Expect delays, and apply as soon as possible for your INZ accreditation and the job check which follows.