Immigration New Zealand has announced that it will prioritise processing of eligible 2021 Resident Visa applications from those separated from offshore partners and/or dependent children.
This comes as the Government has made a decision to extend the 2021 Resident Visa processing timeframe from 12 to 18 months.
Prioritisation criteria
Criteria for prioritisation includes:
- the family member must be overseas
- the relationship must have been established before COVID-19 restrictions were introduced in 2020
- the application is at the Under assessment or a later stage.
Applications may progress to the Under assessment stage only after police, character and other key checks are completed. These checks must be completed before INZ can action any requests for urgent processing.
Prioritisation process
Eligible applicants can email requests to: EmploymentVisaEscalations@mbie.govt.nz
Please include in the email:
- full name and date of birth
- the details of anyone included in the application, like a partner or dependent child
- passport number
- application number
- INZ client number, if known
- an explanation of why the processing of the application should be escalated.