Not sure what you meant by Standard Operating Procedure, but there's an operation manual, it is a little hard to navigate though...
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/#35439.htm
Not sure what you meant by Standard Operating Procedure, but there's an operation manual, it is a little hard to navigate though...
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/#35439.htm
Thanks as always to EGoodhue for the analysis.
However, I notice there are many places where she, with her former INZ experience, says that things OUGHT TO or SHOULD happen, and that they OUGHT TO or SHOULD occur in x amount of time. Reading the experiences of forum members day by day as I have been doing for many years now, I have gathered that this isn't an ideal world, and INZ does not always work in an ideal way. So don't be surprised if there are hitches, when you have to push for your case to move on in accordance with the procedure laid down that she has explained.
English Test results only need to be less than 2 years old at the time the application is submitted. I don't think they would request anything extra for that.
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-...lts-smc/slider
The operation also did not mention anything about needing another test after a certain period of time. You would only need to hand it in before it expires and that's it.
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/#66777.htm
Compared to police certs, which they put in quite clearly they could request a new one if the application took longer than 12 months to process.
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/#41439.htm
As for Medicals - it's a little more complicated. If she has an ongoing health condition then it's not odd for them to request a new Medical even if the old one still hasn't expired (I had to provide two full medical + one follow up report in the span of one year).
Also Operation Manual stated quite clearly that they can always request for these if they deem it necessary... (e. iv.)
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual/#46161.htm
No, the Standard Operating Procedure is not publicly available. But all INZ processing details are available if you make an Official Information Act request.
Push your Immigration Officer for details as to why the process is taking longer than standard is the advice I can offer - hold them accountable for a comprehensive answer. You have a right to know what is happening with your application.
INZ shouldn't be penalising you for their own slow processing - as long as you submitted the medical and IELTS before they expired, you've done your part and it's not your fault that INZ are so slow. So it's their own fault if they can't keep up with processing applications quick enough for submitted documents to still be 'reliable'. Be careful of hearsay about what happened with friends' applications - it's impossible to hear all sides of the story and there may have been some other factor that caused INZ to ask your friend for a new medical that she hasn't told you about. It's not standard practice though.
Just reiterating what JandM has noted, the above is how the process is supposed to run. The end-to-end process of assessing an SMC application is designed so that it takes an Immigration Officer only 6-7 weeks to process on average. This clearly doesn't happen for a great number of people at present, which is incredibly disheartening because the process has been specifically designed to be able to make this a reality. What is important is that INZ are held to account for processing delays which are of their own making - for whatever reason, processing is becoming increasingly slow across the board at INZ, but it doesn't have to be this way (I can't help but be suspicious that there is some underlying, covert agenda happening on a higher political level in the background...). I don't believe it's enough to say 'it is what it is' and let INZ hold all the cards when it is people's lives and futures they are dealing with. It is possible for an SMC application to be processed faster than they seem to be recently, and the more people know about the actual process, the more INZ may be held accountable for their inefficiencies.
Thanks Erin. It’s helping with the anxiety.
Hope you don’t mind me asking for advice.
Our case officer first made contact on the 21st May requesting further information to support our application. They have us a week to supply this which we did except tax information from the UK as we hadn’t received it. We told our case officer who emailed to say once they had the information they would continue to assess our application. We sent the tax information to them on the 20th June and requested a confirmation that the information was what they wanted. I have since emailed twice asking if it was ok but have heard nothing back. Is it normal for them not to reply to an email that we sent them over 3 weeks ago?
Just from reading the information above I feel we should have heard something by now.
I have checked our online status and it still says pending.
Thanks
Your online status will continue to say "pending" until a decision is reached - there are no changes in status along the way.
It's probably not what SHOULD happen, but it's very common.Is it normal for them not to reply to an email that we sent them over 3 weeks ago?