With regards to allocations of SMC applications currently, an Immigration Manager at Manukau confirmed to me today that they are still allocating SMC applications to Immigration Officers on a weekly basis, but it is no longer the usual system of 'first in, first out' whereby the managed queue is arranged in lodgement date order and the oldest applications at the front of the queue get allocated next. It seems that applications meeting INZ's own internally-determined criteria of who is "highly skilled" (that is, with a remuneration above the high salary threshold, or requiring registration for their occupation, or working for a government department) are now allocated first. And then applicants which are deemed to meet the criteria of having "compelling personal circumstances" and have requested prioritisation via the newly set-up email address EmploymentVisaEscalations@mbie.govt.nz will be allocated. And only after those two categories are applications pulled from the managed queue for allocation.
Unfortunately the manager could not answer my request for details regarding what approximate percentage of all allocations done in the past few weeks met the first 2 criteria, but it would seem that at least 90%+ of applications allocated since at least 8 July have been given to IO's on the basis of the first two criteria, rather than pulled from the managed queue because the manager confirmed today that the front of the queue was still sitting at applications lodged on 7 December (as it has been for the past 3 weeks). So while the queue is not officially 'frozen', it would seem that the majority of allocations are currently being selected on INZ's own internally-set criteria rather than the more fair 'first in, first out' basis. As of today, it is taking 7 months and 26 days (at least) for an SMC application to be allocated to an Immigration Officer after lodgement - but this may well become even longer as the months roll on.
As an aside, in response to an Official Information Act request regarding the number of applicants approved Residence in the current NZ Residence Programme to date and the current applications on-hand, INZ have confirmed that 19,172 people have been granted Residence under SMC between 1 July 2018 and 12 July 2019. This leaves a maximum of 11,428 places on the NZ Residence Programme available to be filled up to 31 December this year. And the on-hand number of SMC applications INZ had in the queue as at 12 July was 7,105. Keeping in mind that each of those applications is more likely than not going to include more than 1 person, it stands to reason that there are more people wanting Residence under the Skilled Migrant Category than the Government currently has approved places for to the end of this calendar year (11,428 places left but likely more than 14,000 people waiting for Residence in that queue).
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by hopefulnz
