Essential skills visa change entry date

[mmacd]

I know that nobody knows exactly what will happen in the future but a question from my bro in law.

He is a Thai citizen and he got and essential skills work visa approved in March. He was due to fly here on 20 March then on the 19th, the borders closed so he missed out getting here by 1 day. His last entry date was May 5.

Does anyone know if he can apply to get a change in entry date? I can't see any info on the INZ website to say if that's possible. He's contacted INZ and all they have said is that he will need to contact them again once he is allowed to fly here so whenever the border re-opens which will be months if not longer.

Does anyone know of visa entry dates getting extended under extra-ordinary circumstances? He understands that there will be a lot of kiwi's out of work now but seeing as he was already approved and due to fly out he's hoping that he will still be able to come at some point.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Cheers

[EGoodhue]

The only process INZ have at the moment for coming in across the border when someone doesn't have a visa with valid travel conditions is if they meet the exceptions to the border closure criteria (threshold is very high and most requests for an exception are turned down).

No word has come out about whether the Minister of Immigration will use his new 'powers' of the Immigration (Covid-19 Response) Amendment Act to put a blanket extension on all offshore visa-holder travel expiry dates. It was mentioned when the Bill was going through Parliament as what the amendments could possibly be used for, but nothing has been confirmed yet.