Thousands of resident visa applicants are in limbo as they wait for a 'bug' in Immigration NZ’s processing system to be rectified – months after it was discovered
Vasti Liebenberg put her family’s application in on March 31. Her partner and daughter are in New Zealand, and two younger children are in South Africa waiting to join.
They came to New Zealand in 2019 but feel as if their lives are on hold until the visas can be granted.
“I’m a health worker and want to study further in psychology, but I can't afford the international student fees. My daughter needs to start studying for next year as she is turning 17 in November, so what are we going to do? It feels like our lives are on hold.
“It's very, very disappointing that it feels like we are really doing everything to better our new country but they’re not feeling the same about obtaining our residency to be part of this country.”
The “bug” in the system means medical assessments, including x-rays, that are required as part of the application are not being picked up, so applicants are being asked to continuously submit their medicals but even when this is done the application does not proceed to the next stage.
After being on hold for two hours to Immigration NZ's phone line Liebenberg was told she had to wait for the system to automatically pick up that the medical information was on file, and her family’s application could not be moved to next stage manually.
That was more than a month ago.
“I know at least 10 other people that have the same problem as me, and their lives are also on hold … I feel very disappointed in this whole process.”
“We haven't seen our family for almost three years. My partner's two younger daughters, he hasn't seen for three years so he's really desperate to have them be approved and for them to join us in New Zealand – we don't feel like a complete family."
She said they were terrified to leave the country without the applications approved in case the borders closed and they were shut out.
“You know how quickly the borders can lock down and then you can't come back because you're not a resident. So what are we supposed to do? Other people that I've spoken to have told me they can't wait anymore, they're just going to see their families… they’re just taking the risk.”
“I know at least 10 other people that have the same problem as me, and their lives are also on hold… I feel very disappointed in this whole process.” – Vasti Liebenberg, visa applicant.
Immigration NZ said it had implemented a “fix” to stop requests for new medicals being sent out to applicants but some continued to receive the prompt.
Lawyer Arran Hunt said three of his clients received such correspondence after the “fix” date of July 21.
He said the number of people affected would be well over 1000, despite Immigration NZ estimating that was how many had likely gone for, and paid for, unnecessary medical tests because they had been asked to do them again.
Hunt uploaded cover letters to all his clients’ applications that were waiting on medicals explaining that the information was already there.
He said the department recently told him it was looking at moving them along manually.
“We have been told that, as of yesterday morning, ImmigrationNZ has now put in place a process to escalate such applications so that someone can check the issue and move the application forward. Prior to this, the advice given was to upload a cover letter, something which helped with some, but not with others.
He urged applicants who had been stuck in limbo to try the call centre again and see if they could get their applications to shift.
For Liebenberg it was the lack of communication that was stressful, adding she knew another applicant who put though their file later than hers and it had already been approved.
Immigration NZ border and visa operations general manager Nicola Hogg said most of the resident visa applications would be processed by June 2023.
“The time an application remains at a particular stage of the assessment process can depend on many factors, such as what manual checks need to be made or whether we are waiting on further information from an applicant or another agency.”
“Decisions on applications will not necessarily be made based on when the application was released or the principal applicant’s visa expiry date. We acknowledge the uncertainty that applicants may face having to wait for a decision to be made on their application.”
The 2021 Resident Visa was a one-off visa announced in September as a simplified pathway to residence for around 165,000 migrants currently in New Zealand.
“We are providing a way forward for our migrant families who have been long disrupted by Covid-19, while ensuring businesses have the certainty they need to plan into the future and continue driving the economic recovery,” former immigration minister Kris Faafoi said at the time.
“The changes give migrants certainty about their future here, allowing them to continue putting down roots, and will help reunite many families who were separated by the border restrictions that prevent Covid-19 entering the community.”
Phase one applications for those who had already applied for residence or expressed an interest as a skilled migrant were processed under INZ’s previous system, but phase two – for all other applicants – began processing on April 1 under a new system.
Immigration NZ has committed to refunding all applicants who paid for unnecessary medical tests due to the glitch.
