Ita june 2019!

[onyiking]

to reduce my anxiety levels, I should stop visiting/reading immigration forums. time to focus on other things in life and try to "forget" about this whole SMC visa thing

Lol easier said than done

[cricfor]

and as the famous quote in this forum goes..

Now the lonnnnggggggg wait!!

My credit card has been charged, got a notification that original docs will be returned. this means my file will on a queue and have a sloooow crawl to an immigration officer's desk.

to reduce my anxiety levels, I should stop visiting/reading immigration forums. time to focus on other things in life and try to "forget" about this whole SMC visa thing

I'll see ya'll on the next update! goodluck to all of us!

[EGoodhue]

It appears that the allocation of SMC applications to Immigration Officers has come to a grinding halt - upon enquiring about the date that applications were lodged that were being allocated to IO's on Monday this week, I was told by an Immigration Manager at Manukau that applications lodged on 7 December were being allocated. This has not changed since Monday 8 July. When I enquired further as to why it appeared allocations were not happening at all, the IM referred to "staff shortages" but I do not believe he is being honest. I believe it has more to do with the fact that INZ now has more Residence applications on-hand for processing than there are now spaces left for approved Residence under the NZ Residence Programme until 31 December 2019. Unfortunately, no one at INZ is being honest enough to confirm this, but this news article more or less confirms it: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/07/1...XP6RuTrE5vEZI#.
I will check in with INZ again for an update next Monday and see what the story is then.

[charcharbinks]

Thanks for the update Erin, that is so disheartening. looks like anything past december 7, 2018 will be processed next year correct?

[EGoodhue]

Thanks for the update Erin, that is so disheartening. looks like anything past december 7, 2018 will be processed next year correct?

Possibly, but this would be a crazy strategy for INZ to follow through with. All it would do is delay the issues until next year, not solve the issue of more demand than supply. A briefing paper was sent from the INZ leadership team to the Minister of Immigration back in May, asking to meet with him to discuss the challenges of more people wanting Residence than there are approved places. Surely something is going on in the background to resolve this (I hope!), so I'll check in again next week to see if anything has changed and the allocations have started up again.

[charcharbinks]

@EGoodhue i really do hope so and thanks for doing the lord's work by always following through

[cricfor]

Thousands of applications were lost in the crowd! Did I heard it right/!?.
I'm really worried now. Hope everything goes good.

Thanks a lot for the updates Egoodhue.

[JandM]

Thousands of applications were lost in the crowd!

No, not that anyone has said. Thousands of applications are in a static queue, apparently.

[cricfor]

1 month and counting for CO allocation.. Lets see..

[EGoodhue]

Sorry to have to report that the update from Manukau's Immigration Manager that I contacted this morning was that the front of the queue was still stuck at 7 December (unchanged since 8 July). I have asked for confirmation whether allocations are still taking place of applications that meet INZ's own internally-set criteria (Salary is above the high remuneration threshold, Occupation is one that requires registration through a governing body and applicant holds current registration, Employer is a government department), but I have yet to hear back. Will update when I know.