Immigration experts are warning New Zealand must become a study destination immigration agents and students “can trust” if the country’s education sector were to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.
Visa delays and rejections are making it “even more challenging” for Indian students to study in New Zealand, immigration advisors and experts have told The Indian Weekender.
Left to right: Bharat Chawla, Andrea McLeod-Karim and Teji Kaur
Last year, when the Immigration Department announced the rebalancing of the immigration system, changes were outlined for various sectors, including education. One significant change was that post-study work visas are now only granted to students pursuing qualifications listed on the “list of eligible qualifications for post-study work visas.”
This alteration has had a significant impact on New Zealand’s education sector, as these post-study work visas were a major attraction for international students.
Andrea McLeod-Karim of Quality NZ Education says, “New Zealand used to receive significant student numbers for Hospitality and Culinary Arts courses that are taught at Diploma level. After the policy change linking sub-degree study rights to the green list, students studying in these areas will no longer receive a post-study work visa. It’s natural for students to wish to gain work experience in the country they’ve studied in, and as a result, New Zealand has become a less attractive study destination for these subject areas.”
“Delays with INZ processing have also impacted the market; some students who were studying online during the pandemic could not get their visas on time to enrol in February 2023 and ended up needing to drop a semester. In order to be an attractive destination, New Zealand needs to be a study destination that agents and students can trust. If there is no guarantee that a student visa decision will be made within two or three months of applying, then students would prefer to choose another destination where there is not as much uncertainty,” McLeod-Karim says.
Commenting on delays, Teji Kaur of Kaur Migrations, Christchurch says, “I have come across many clients whose visas have been declined mainly due to bonafide, or applicants were interviewed 2-3 times on different occasions by the visa officers.”
“The NZ’s education sector has lost its shine because post-study work visa was the main attraction for many international students. However, delays and visa declines are making it even more challenging,” Kaur says.
INZ faces the challenge of prioritising visa categories and determining which courses or institutions should receive processing priority. Without efficient visa processing, “a backlog accumulates, putting individuals in a state of uncertainty. For instance, if students miss the July intake of universities, they have to wait until February, losing six months of their study period,” Bharat Chawla of RBS Intellect adds.
McLeod-Karim, who is based in Mumbai, India, says, “Earlier, the majority of student visas from both India and around the world used to be processed by the Mumbai INZ office. The staff there were both experienced and customer service focused, and that ensured that application processing could happen efficiently. In closing the offshore offices, INZ lost experienced staff and institutional knowledge. As a previous Immigration Manager, I can attest that it’s not easy for new staff to interpret Indian financial documents and that newer staff tend to be more cautious about risk and, therefore, slower in their processing. It takes time for Immigration Officers to build up enough experience to be able to conduct a quick analysis of these documents and come to their decisions.”
“Setting up offshore offices, proper training, and clear guidelines will really help INZ speed up the visa processing,” Chawla adds.
INZ also faces multiple other constraints, including concerns about inadequate resources to handle the volume of applications. Due to the prioritisation of visa categories, staff members are frequently reassigned to different teams to meet specific expectations. “This happened in the case of the special 2021 Resident Visa or the Cyclone Gabrielle recovery visa. There needs to be sufficient staffing as well as low staff turnover maintained to ensure that the processing of other visa categories is not affected if officers need to be reassigned to a priority category,” McLeod-Karim says.
“INZ should have ample of the right people with the right experience to do the important job of an INZ visa officer at the right time,” Chawla adds.
“Immigration New Zealand also struggles with staff turnovers which cause delays,” Kaur says.
India-based education agents who drive the enrollment of Indian students in New Zealand have moved on to promoting alternative destinations due to the uncertainty involved in NZ visa processing which has led to a loss of experienced New Zealand counsellors.
“New Zealand is still not as attractive a study destination as the USA, UK, Canada or Australia for Indian students, with a lower level of awareness of educational opportunities and the benefits of studying here. It takes time to build up a reputation, and the right type of reputation, and the prolonged closure of New Zealand’s borders has provided a setback to the progress previously made,” McLeod-Karim says.
Commenting on the visa delays, Kaur says, “It seems that the Immigration officers have the general mindset that the students will not leave the country after their studies, but this situation can happen on any temporary visa. People who tend to breach the visa conditions will breach it anyways irrespective if they are students or not.”
The New Zealand government needs to recognise the global competition for the best students and understand that the current value proposition may not be strong enough to attract top students from India.
McLeod-Karim wants the government’s messaging to change which “continues to define ‘high value’ students as those who wish to leave New Zealand and return to their home countries at the end of their studies. It gives the wrong message to students who may be interested in studying high-value Bachelor or Masters programmes in areas of skill shortages that New Zealand does not want them to remain afterwards and contribute their skills here.”