Ombudsman complaint re: cherry-picking of SMC applications

[flatironjoe]

Confirmation received from Technical Adviser in SMC team today:

Lodgement date of oldest application in main queue: 17 December 2018
Lodgement date of oldest application in priority queue: 27 November 2019

Interesting, since I applied in March 2019 and meet the priority criteria.

[EGoodhue]

Interesting, since I applied in March 2019 and meet the priority criteria.

Follow that up with an email to employmentvisaescalations@mbie.govt.nz and ask where your application is at and, if it's not already, request that it be put in the priority queue. The priority allocation queue is managed by humans and human error is always a factor. I myself had a client who met the priority criteria but whose application was placed in the main queue - I had to follow up with INZ to get it placed in the right queue

[flatironjoe]

Follow that up with an email to employmentvisaescalations@mbie.govt.nz and ask where your application is at and, if it's not already, request that it be put in the priority queue. The priority allocation queue is managed by humans and human error is always a factor. I myself had a client who met the priority criteria but whose application was placed in the main queue - I had to follow up with INZ to get it placed in the right queue

I did email the escalations email a while ago and they confirmed my file had been allocated priority status. That's why I thought the dates given were interesting. Only thing I can think is that I didn't originally meet the criteria, but in the loooooong time waiting in the queue, I've managed to get a pay rise that put me over the income threshold. So maybe there is another date based on when I met the priority criteria?

[deverett]

They've updated their processing dates for residency today, I say updated them, they updated the date they changed the page, the front of the queues remains unchanged, which I don't think is going to surprise any of us.

[EGoodhue]

Has anyone requested an update from the Office of the Ombudsman about the investigation process recently??

[squishmaster]

Yes , I did follow up and they replied that Ombudsman had written to chief of MBIE and they are expecting a reply by last week of May due to COVID 19 situation.
I will follow up again next week.

[Cheech]

Yes , I did follow up and they replied that Ombudsman had written to chief of MBIE and they are expecting a reply by last week of May due to COVID 19 situation.
I will follow up again next week.

Ah, great job! I hope you get a positive reply

[robbo1234]

Has anyone requested an update from the Office of the Ombudsman about the investigation process recently??

I chased up with the Ombudsman too and they said INZ will give a formal response by mid June

[Cheech]

Only if the person who submitted the OIA in the first place makes a complaint to the Ombudsman.

https://fyi.org.nz/request/12774-re-...outgoing-22358

Looks like this is being queried by original poster - lets see if Lester Deane-Royce responds!

[junlong]

I heard a few cases where the SMC applications are allocated to CO but they are lodged throughout 2019, the latest I heard is lodged in Oct and allocated in Nov. They are all non priority applications. Does this mean the INZ don't actually follow the FIFO way outside the priority queue? I don't understand why they are working in this way, unless they just want the timeframe to look reasonable overall.