New Zealand’s government has provided detailed information regarding the estimated processing times as well as delays for visa applications for this year.
Through a statement, the government has estimated the following processing times as of August 2022:
- 20 days or more for visitor visas
- 19 to 39 days for work visa types
- 77 to five months for Permanent Resident visas
- 36 months to 44 months for skilled migrant visas
In addition, the government of New Zealand has stressed that delays are expected to happen as a result of the increased number of applications submitted after the country reopened borders following strict restrictions that have been kept in place in order to contain the further spread of the Coronavirus and its new variants, VisaGuide.World reports.
“The government of New Zealand introduced new time estimates for processing immigration documents and visas. According to the government announcement, these processing times may be adjusted due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased processing demands of Permanent Resident Visas and the issuance of new passports,” the statement provided by Corporate Immigration Partners reads.
According to the figures provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), a total of 1,772 016 people have contracted the Coronavirus in New Zealand since the beginning of the pandemic, while a total of 3,070 people lost their lives during the same period.
The figures provided by WHO also reveal that as of September 16, there have been a total of 11,746,117 vaccine doses administered in this country.
Despite the fact that the country kept in place strict entry rules for arrivals from other countries, on April 12, authorities in this country announced that they decided to ease the entry rules for all international students who have completed their immunization process against the virus.
After estimating that the epidemiological situation in the country has eased, authorities in New Zealand further facilitated the entry rules for all internationals planning to enter the country.
However, the spread of the virus caused profound damage to many industries in this country. Thus, previously, authorities in New Zealand announced that they applied new changes to the immigration rules in order to bring to the country a large number of international workers.
In this regard, Immigration Minister, Michael Wood, said that the new changes to the immigration rules could benefit thousands of extra workers.
The new rules came following the significant increase in unemployment rates, which revealed the shortages in many sectors like tourism and hospitality.
In addition, the government of New Zealand also published new changes to the working holiday visas to increase access for holiday makers already working in this country.
In addition, authorities in New Zealand also announced the new Active Investor Plus visa, designed to build successful businesses in the country.