You are receiving this email because you currently have an application in the managed queue with Immigration New Zealand London Area Office. If you have recently been allocated to an immigration officer, please ignore this email.
We are writing to advise you of some recent changes to the management of resident visa applications and how this may affect allocation timeframes. We now operate in a self-allocation system of application management. That means immigration officers will select an application where they have no further actionable work on hand. While this may mean your application is not allocated as quickly as you expected, it will result in a more efficient and responsive service once you are assigned to an immigration officer. A key aspect of this strategy is caseload sizes being lower than was previously the norm, which has meant that some allocations have been delayed while caseloads are managed down and older files are progressed towards a decision.
As we transition through these changes, we are taking longer than normal to allocate a application, and this timeframe will differ from what we have stated in previous communications to you. We apologise for any frustration and inconvenience may cause.
The follow is an approximate guideline to timeframes that you can expect depending on what category your application falls into (note that if you have previously had an immigration officer who has left INZ London, then your application is classed as ‘re-allocated’):
Skilled Migrant Category
1. Re-allocated Job offers – 3-6 weeks
2. New Job offers – 4-6 weeks
3. Re-allocated 2nd tiers (non-job-offers) – 2-4 months
4. New 2nd tiers – 4-6 months
Family Residence
1. Partner of an Expatriate – 1-2 weeks
2. Humanitarian – 4-12 weeks
3. Partnership/Dependent Child – 1-3 weeks
4. Parent Category Tier 1 – 1-4 months
5. Old parent Category/Sibling/Adult Child 3-6 months
We acknowledge that these timeframes may come as a surprise and sincerely apologise for these unexpected delays. However it is a necessary to create capacity so that we are able to provide a more prompt and responsive service once your application is allocated to an immigration officer. We stress that these timeframes are a guide only, and may not necessarily reflect the experience of every applicant.
Where applicable, we will begin pre-assessing applications where further information is required in order to make a decision, this may include medical information, relationship evidence, work experience information etc. This will help streamline the assessment process for an even quicker decision once your application has been allocated.
In most cases if there is an urgent need to be in New Zealand, you will need to apply for a temporary entry (work, study, visitor etc.) visa. We are not able to consider requests for urgency other than in the most exceptional cases. We anticipate that these situations will be rare.
If you need to update us about your situation, or would like to check on the status of your application, then please contact the Immigration Contact Centre on 0508 885 558 (within New Zealand), or +64 9914 4100 (overseas), the line is open 24/7. Remember to have your application and/or client number ready when you call.
We are grateful for your continued patience while we work hard to improve our service to all customers and continue towards our goal of being a world class immigration service.
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