Dunedin lawyer Teresa Chan said she had noticed significant delays in visa processing times in the past six months for people across a spectrum of visa application types.
She said her clients going through delays included businesses trying to hire people, students who had finished their studies and were trying to get a work visa, as well as workers unable to work while they waited for a visa.
‘‘Businesses that employ overseas workers ... if they can’t have the worker working because the visa’s not processed, the business can’t operate properly,’’ she said.
She cited a recent example of a client she was trying to help.
‘‘Basically, there is a restaurant that can’t open because the chef hasn’t got a visa.
‘‘The chef is ready to go and at the moment is currently unemployed because he can’t start the job.
‘‘Both the employer and employee are affected. The shop can’t open [and] the rent still has to be paid.’’
She said it was not the fault of a particular person or policy at Immigration New Zealand, but that it seemed to stem from a lack of resourcing.
‘‘We sit there and wait.
‘‘It’s very hard to plan. It’s also very hard to get a commitment out of Immigration NZ.
‘‘The system is ... under-resourced basically.’’
Ms Chan also spoke of one of her clients who was stuck after completing two years of study here and could not begin work due to a security check requirement.
‘‘We waited for a long, long time and it was very hard to get anything out of Immigration NZ as to what the story is, how long it’s going to take.
‘‘It’s not like he’s from overseas and they needed to check him up before he came here. He’s been studying here and then all of a sudden they need to do a security check on him ... this didn’t quite make sense to us.’’
She said her client, from the Middle East, went through a very hard time because he could not earn any income nor return to his country of birth due to private circumstances.
‘‘There were a few job offers that went by that he couldn’t accept.
‘‘He eventually got it after a long, long time ... it’s a very unsatisfactory process, really.’’
Ms Chan said she wanted to see more resourcing put into Immigration NZ to try to improve its processing times.
She said Immigration NZ seemed to struggle with major events and policy changes, such as the coronavirus outbreak or the reversal of guidance to staff that made it harder for people in arranged marriages to get visas here.
‘‘Those things all have significant implications for Immigration NZ staffing.
‘‘That really needs to be addressed because it’s affecting quite a lot of businesses and a lot of people.’’
The Otago Southland Employers Association said it had been told Immigration NZ’s office in Beijing had been closed and staff there were reassigned from processing visa applications.
‘‘Wait times for work visas and others are anticipated to increase given that resource has been removed,’’ the association chief executive Virginia Nicholls said.
‘‘We appreciate that the closure of the Beijing office will create extra pressure on processing.
‘‘It is important, though, that businesses are still able to get the skills they need, and it becomes more important given uncertain economic times for some industries.’’
Ms Nicholls said Otago and Southland employers felt there were steps in the visa processes that could be removed.
‘‘We understand that there needs to be a balance between welcoming migrants to come and work in our region, and protecting New Zealand,’’ Ms Nicholls said.
‘‘However, the time that it is taking to consider these applications is too long, and we are losing some very good candidates.’’
She said the Government did have plans to make the immigration system simpler and more responsible, which would be welcomed by businesses and migrants.
Immigration NZ border and visa operations general manager Nicola Hogg said higher than expected application volumes, increased fraud cases and the ‘‘increasing complexity of applications’’ affected the standard visa processing times of many application types.
She said the recent closure of the Beijing visa processing office, where 50% of all temporary visa applications were processed every year, was likely to cause further delays.
Immigration NZ would try to mitigate these delays by moving temporary and student visa processing to officers in New Zealand, but delays were still likely.
‘‘However, regardless of what actions INZ [Immigration NZ] takes, it is likely that processing times for visitor, student and work visa applications will increase in the coming weeks due to the drop in immigration officers available to process visas.’’
She said the nature of some of the applications meant they took longer.
‘‘As a regulator, INZ needs to balance facilitation and risk and so it is critical that the right level of scrutiny is applied to ensure the right decisions are made for New Zealand.’’
