Waiting for a visa decision can be stressful, especially when the processing time takes longer than expected. Delays in visa processing can cause stress and uncertainty, especially if you have plans or deadlines that depend on your visa approval.
Reportedly, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) is taking longer than usual to process student visa applications, raising questions about marketing NZ as an education destination for international students. These delays have affected many full-fee-paying international students stuck in limbo while waiting for visa decisions.
Giving her view on the issue, licenced immigration advisor Vandana Rai of Immigration Advisers NZ Ltd says, “The delay in student visa processing is having a detrimental impact on the student's academic pursuit by putting them behind their peers . These applicants select New Zealand as their study destination after a lot of research and also after both education providers and Education New Zealand have invested a lot of time and money promoting New Zealand as a study destination . Sadly, New Zealand may also loose a lot of these international students to other countries if they miss their intake due to processing delays . I fail to understand why INZ did not anticipate that there would be a lot more student visa applications coming in since the borders have opened up and deployed enough resources to deal with it”.
According to immigration lawyer Aaron Martin of Immigration Law Limited, these delays are symptomatic of a Government agency in crisis that needs to be addressed as it is affecting visa applications across the board. He points out, “Given this is often the first interface people from outside NZ have with a government agency, it sets their expectations and impressions of government administration in NZ, and it damages the government's reputation accordingly when they cannot process on time. Also, it makes us look a very poor cousin to the likes of Australia and the UK, which process much faster than NZ.”
Immigration lawyer Alastair Alastair believes that the blame lies with the Government. He says, “INZ, like most NZ employers, are suffering labour shortages. Employers, separated families, tourism, and international education are desperate for fast and efficient visa processing, but INZ doesn't have the capacity. Primarily the blame lies with the government for pursuing an ideologically driven "immigration reset" amid an economic and health crisis which demanded consolidation, efficiencies and resources to meet demand.”
Bharat Chawla, an industry veteran who runs Uniqway, a tech-focused education start-up that helps international students find the best university and career pathway, is not too happy with the current situation. He says, “If we want NZ to attract the right students and be at the top of a sought-after destination for international study, INZ needs to process applications quickly. There needs to be close coordination between Education NZ, INZ and other relevant government departments if we want to attract more students.”
Even tertiary education experts and providers feel that INZ needs to buck up.
Tertiary Education Consultant Paramdip Singh says, “Lot of students are waiting for the last three years (due to Covid-19) to come to NZ, and education agents also waited three years to start the promotion of NZ. Some students are quite worried about missing out on Feb 23 intake due to delays in their visa application processing. On top of this, some programmes don't have July intake, so those students have to wait till Feb 24. Closing the NZ Visa processing Centre in Mumbai was not a good decision. Centralising everything in NZ proved difficult in the current labour shortage environment.”
Luka Crosbie, Director of International and Special Projects, Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT), opines that ensuring the visa application process is user-friendly and timely for international students is a vital part of NZ being an attractive place to learn. “Resourcing and benchmarking a turnaround time of 20 to 30 days for applications would be very helpful to providers. Currently, we are hearing applicants are experiencing longer wait times. Many countries are reopening to International learners after travel restrictions due to Covid-19. Reducing wait times on visa applications is important to NZ remaining competitive as a destination,” says Crosbie.
Immigration Response
When Indian Weekender contacted INZ to respond to the same, Nicola Hogg, General Manager of Border and Visa Operations, said, "Student visa processing has been steady since the reopening of the borders in August 2022. As of Feb 6, around 32,000 applications for international students had been received, and nearly 24,000 applications have been completed. We are currently processing complete, straightforward student visa applications in 19 working days. However, some applications can take longer to process, such as applications requiring additional verification or missing key documents or information.”
Hogg also revealed that INZ works closely with sector peak bodies and has maintained strong engagement with the international education sector. “In late 2022, students and agents were advised to have their applications in around eight weeks ahead of intended travel to facilitate timely processing for course start dates in 2023. In general, applications are prioritised in date order with consideration given to course start dates,” explains Hogg.
According to her, student processing remains INZ’s key focus, and it has implemented initiatives to help facilitate students as quickly as possible while protecting the integrity of the immigration system.
“Some of these initiatives include additional processing staff and the addition of a second student visa processing site, regular updates to the checklists so that students know what information to provide with their application and working with the education sector to try and forecast how many offers of place they have issued so that we can more accurately forecast potential visa applications.
“While these strategies have assisted, there are likely to be some applications that need to be processed in time for the student to commence their programme of study. This occurs every year and depends a lot on how late the application was submitted and whether any information needs to be included.
We appreciate that the visa application process can be stressful for students, and we strive to deliver a good customer experience,” she signs off.
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