Thank you Erin for keeping us all updated! It's really helpful!Manukau Immigration Manager, Emma McFarland, confirmed to me via email today that the SMC queue still has applications lodged on 7 December at the front of it. This is the 6th week running that the front of the allocation queue has still had 7 December 2018 applications waiting to be lodged. So it's taking 8 months and 6 days (and growing) for an SMC application in the main queue to be allocated to an Immigration Officer. Emma McFarland also confirmed that weekly allocations are a mix of applications which meet INZ's own internally-set criteria for prioritisation, applicants who have successfully requested priority via the EmploymentVisaEscalations@mbie.govt.nz email address, Residence from Work applications and those from the main queue.
It's unclear when this mess is going to be sorted and it seems that INZ is putting all it's energy and focus on attending to the mess with Partnership applications and other certain Temp applications that are getting the most media attention or lobbying from the right groups. So the poor old SMC backlog seems to be being ignored and will continue to grow until someone speaks up about it.
Sorry to say that this will be my last forum post for a few months - I am now 37 weeks pregnant, huge and uncomfortable So I need to put my feet up from now and await the arrival of child #3. Sorry that I won't be around to update on here regarding allocation timeframes for a while. I hope that INZ pick their game up while I am on leave and you all get the outcome you deserve sooner rather than later! Best of luck to all and I'll be back towards the end of this year
Best wishes and see you back soon!