The New Zealand Government has introduced a Bill to temporarily amend immigration legislation to support the quick and efficient management of visa changes during COVID-19.
The Bill will enable the government to amend visa conditions for groups of people, extend visas of groups of people for varying periods of time (enabling processing to be staggered), stop people overseas from making applications while it is not possible to travel to New Zealand due to border restrictions, and refuse entry to people entering New Zealand.
It does so by introducing eight time-limited powers:
- the power to impose, vary or cancel conditions for classes of temporary entry class visa holders
- the power to vary or cancel conditions for classes of resident class visa holders
- the power to extend the expiry dates of visas for classes of people
- the power to grant visas to individuals and classes of people in the absence of an application
- the power to waive any regulatory requirements for certain classes of application
- the power to waive the requirement to obtain a transit visa
- the power to suspend the ability to make applications for visas or submit Expressions of Interest in applying for visas by classes of people, and
- the power to revoke the entry permission of people who arrive either on private aircraft or marine vessels (to align them with people who arrive on commercial flights, who can already be refused entry).
For more information about this process, click here.
Visa processing update
The movement to COVID-19 Alert Level 3 is increasing processing capacity across INZ.
All offshore offices remain closed and all onshore offices will be open next week, with limited staff numbers due to COVID-19 guidelines and the requirement to work from home when possible.
A number of technological solutions have also been implemented so that more visa processing can be done.
At Alert Level 4, INZ’s limited processing capacity was focused on applications directly related to the COVID-19 response. INZ also implemented the Epidemic Management Notice, processes for people who have a critical purpose for coming to New Zealand and are seeking an exception to the current New Zealand border restrictions and for essential services employers who wish to use their workforce more flexibly.
In recent weeks INZ has also been processing some visa categories for applicants who are already in New Zealand, including temporary visas for victims of domestic violence, Partnership category temporary visas (including reassessments), full fee paying student visas and post study work visas.
Note that INZ is not currently processing any applications from people who are offshore unless they meet the strict criteria to be granted an exception to the Border closure.
For more FAQs about INZ response on COVID19, click here.