It's not a CO's choice to be at home during lockdown. It's not INZ's choice to close offices. That's the NZ government's law, for the pandemic situation. And however much we'd like somebody to blame, the pandemic is nobody's fault.
It's not INZ managers' or COs' decision to move slowly on certain types of visa. That's down to the politicians hanging back from making clear decisions about quotas, and about policy - hanging back because they don't want to annoy NZ voters when there's an election coming up, and they, the politicians, want to be back in power afterwards.
Just pray, this damn corona thing vanishes soon and get back on road. So far indications are not that bad, there is a strong possibility of reverting to level 2 on Friday. It would mean every one would be able to join office and yes, govt might introduce some safety measures like compulsory wearing of masks and maintaing social distancing.
I do believe some of the SMC team are working from home currently as well as in office.
Level 3 in Auckland has been extended by 12 more days to 23:59 on 26/8.
I have received the following from a INZ technical advisor:
Due to the change in COVID-19 response levels for Auckland, standard allocation times for skilled residence applications are likely to be delayed given that all skilled residence teams are within the Auckland area and skilled residence applications are paper based. We are working to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 response levels to our processing, but any further announcements or changes to our processes will have an effect on how quickly we can assess and allocate applications. I can confirm that, where able to, our officers are continuing to process residence applications from our Auckland offices.
It’s really great to hear that they are still working in such a circumstances, which should help to tackle the backlog.