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Thread: Co assigned with no notice, is that normal now?

  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Default Co assigned with no notice, is that normal now?

    Hi everyone,

    New to the forum, but can tell that you guys are friendly and nice.

    Just sharing some recent experience dealing with INZ. I am not complaining here, but I don't think I am treated fairly by INZ.

    By the time my case was lodged September the last year, an immigration office sent me a confirmation email. A few months later, just before the Christmas, the same officer emailed me, asking for some documents as an initial asscessment. I thought the officer would be my CO, but the officer mentioned in the email that I have not been assigned to a CO yet. Alright, 3 months wait, there was still no one processing my application. I was soooo upset about it, but I understand that no people would like to work during the Christmas and New Year, so I waited another month to phone INZ.

    Surprisingly, the lady from call center told me that I have been assigned a CO. She can tell my CO and I have emailed each other a few times. I was so happy I finally got a CO that I forgot to ask the call cenrer lady to double check the email content. And then I was told I am waiting for NSC.

    Checked my application status early this month, the SAME officer replied it is still waiting for NSC. However, the officer never said that I was assigned to anyone. And by now, no employment check was conducted neither to my employer nor to me. Gee...It has been 5 months now since the lodgement day, and it feels like I am not moving forward at all. So upset...

    There should be something a little more serious about it, like a confirmation email that I have been assigned to a CO? Or I just got lucky that I will pass with no other verification? Finger crossed.

    What's your opinion? Just let me know. Sharing is caring~Thanks.

  2. #2
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    Everything you have mentioned is entirely normal, so please don't be upset or anxious about it. What follows will probably not be all welcome news, but at least I hope you will have a clearer view of the reality of the situation.

    First, everything at INZ works by managed queues. When your ITA was received, it would join the end of the queue of other ITAs, according to the date order. Each Case Officer has a certain workload - a number of cases that are theirs to deal with. The newly arrived ITAs have to wait till one of the COs has finished with some of their cases, and can take on some more. When an ITA is eventually assigned to a CO, it will again join the back of THAT queue for the CO's attention, as s/he takes the top file, does what s/he can actively do, puts that file to the back, works everything s/he can on that case, goes to the next, and so on.

    There is no way to tell how many other people's ITAs were in the queue to be assigned already, on the day yours arrived. There is no way to tell how easy or difficult the cases already being worked in the office are turning out to be, which affects the time passing until COs are ready to take more files into their personal allocation. So it is normal that time passes before anyone starts working your case.

    It is also normal that a CO doesn't announce themself when a file is allocated to them. Some do, but not many. As just mentioned, there will be a wait before the file works its way up the queue and gets its first turn for the CO's attention, so there is no point in the applicant expecting anything to happen for some time. In any case, the CO's first actions will be to send out queries to other people about the evidence, and that won't involve the applicant at all. Bear in mind, it is normal for long periods to pass without contact. INZ COs will contact you IF they need more information, or IF they have something to tell you, but otherwise, not.

    However, someone in the INZ office usually looks over the new ITAs, to check that it LOOKS AS THOUGH the evidence submitted proves the claims made on the form - this is without checking that the documents are genuine, just going on appearance. At that stage, if it is obvious something more will be required, it can be requested, so it will be there waiting when the case is allocated to a CO in its turn. This is POSSIBLY what happened in your case. And it is POSSIBLE that the official had not at the time of the first contact been allocated your case to work, but later was... but I doubt it, because those doing the initial assessment are normally clerks, not qualified COs.

    Also, you should notice that the INZ telephone answerers are not trained immigration officials, just a human FAQ system working from a database. What they get from when they look at the computer depends partly on how they search, how good they are at interpreting what is or is not relevant, etc., and unfortunately, it has been shown many times that a person can call and ask the same question three times on the same day, and get three different answers. So being told that you have a CO, if the person you were emailing with told you outright that they were NOT your CO, is no proof of anything. I know it's confusing and unfortunate.

    Another complication in your case is that an NSC check is being required. See this old post https://www.enz.org/forum/showthread...848#post495848 explaining what we know about this procedure. It is done by a separate organization, and INZ cannot do anything except wait till NSC sends an "all clear" about the applicant. Everybody in NZ is waiting for the foreign government to answer, and cannot influence when a reply will come back.

    As I said in that post, a CO is not able to recommend grant of a visa until NSC says it is satisfied about the applicant. Many COs, if one has been allocated, do not begin doing the normal verification of evidence to process the application until AFTER they get the okay from NSC.

  3. #3
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    Thank you JandM, that's tons of useful information.

    Just found out my CO is not as patient as I am because S/he has resigned!

    I am imagining my case is going from hopefully somewhere in the middle of the queue to the bottom of another queue

  4. #4
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    When a CO leaves, his/her cases are all reassigned to other COs straight away, without having to go back into the queue waiting for allocation. So if that person you emailed with was indeed your CO, you won't have lost much ground. Anything done already on the case will have been noted in the system, so the new CO won't have to start again from zero.

  5. #5
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    frankie225: If you are worried you can send an email to your new CO directly asking if there's anything that they might need. From what i've seen if it's been a long time since lodgement then confirming you are still with the same employer and providing proof of that through your IRD documents would be useful.

  6. #6
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    To Jandm:

    Thank you for your reply. You are always so helpful.

    To Nzs:

    Thank you mate, I agree with you. It feels like INZ just did the minimum work to ensure that I am still qualified, otherwise they would just turn down my application. BTW, my CO resigned without giving me any notice, just like S/he didn't give me any notice when assigned. I only got the news because I happen to know someone who's CO was the same person. And that someone had been assigned to a new CO already while I am still waiting for update. So I highly doubt that my case has been left unattended since Sep the last year. At this momoent, it seems I am running out of options but waiting since I haven't got a new CO. Well, I know the "case by case" theory, but it's still painful and frustrating to do nothing but wait. I mean, INZ could at least do a employment check first before my NSC is clear.

    Just checked INZ website, it says application under SMC always takes 6 months. It has been 5 months since my lodgement day. Instead of just wait and see how it goes, maybe I should make a complaint or a suggestion to get someone's attention that they should take my case a littel more seriously?

  7. #7
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    Any timings on the INZ website are NEVER a promise, only a guess based on averages from before that page was written, not nowadays. Basically, they're meaningless. "Always takes six months"... no. Last year, INZ were telling everybody to expect any answer for a residence application to take 12 months at least: SOME people were luckier and got a pleasant surprise, but at least if people accepted that this was going to be a long haul, they wouldn't fret themselves into an anxiety-state by uselessly expecting something on every passing DAY. And that was for ordinary cases, not ones with an NSC requirement involved.

    You don't know your case hasn't been allocated to a new CO. As at the beginning of working a case, a CO does not have to announce themself, and many just get on with things. They only HAVE to communicate if they want to ask you something.

    Nobody likes the silent waiting which ALWAYS happens when you have an application in to INZ. About half the active threads on this forum are about how unhappy or nervous people are because they don't know anything, how they can get to know the details of what is going on (they can't), why it is that apparently everybody else has got processed before them (they haven't), or trying to invent some way to guess from other people's stories how soon some sort of answer will come for their own (they can't).

  8. #8
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    As Jandm said when NSC's are involved you won't know the timeline of when they are completed, it's likely the officer doesn't even know when the NSC will be done as they are an external check.

    A slight disagreeing with Jandm here, a CO is required by internal policy to contact the applicant when it is reassigned to them within a certain time frame. however, this time frame depends on the office it's with. You have every right to know which CO has your file so you can call up the call centre and ask which officer has your file now and what their email address is but just remember they will be dealing with dozens of cases at any one time so they're unlikely to jump into action immediately, however, I weigh on the side that an initial contact email isn't harmful and may put your mind at ease.

    I do say that you will not benefit from constantly worrying about the application day in day out despite the weight it may have on your shoulders. If they have concerns they legally have to raise them with you under the fairness principle. Otherwise it is just a normal process when they have thousands of applications and yours will get done.

  9. #9
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    a CO is required by internal policy to contact the applicant when it is reassigned to them within a certain time frame
    Interesting. Can you please give a link?

  10. #10
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    Just update the status of my application.

    CO contacted my employer to check my job by email before the Easter holiday, and my employer replied the questionnaire a few days later.

    Hopefully, I will get a good news soon.

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