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Offshore residence applications will now be allocated and processed in the order received, as with onshore residence applications, unless they meet other prioritisation criteria.  
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Immigration New Zealand (INZ) will resume processing offshore residence applications – both those received prior to the border closure in March 2020 and new applications.
INZ will process and decide around 2,300 residence applications across all categories which had been received before the border closure. As a result of the border restrictions imposed last year because of COVID-19 processing of most visa applications offshore was halted. INZ had already resumed processing, but not deciding, offshore applications for selected visa categories. This approach was to make progress on applications so that decisions can be made faster once border restrictions are lifted. But in a recent court case it was ruled that the processing of residence applications submitted offshore while the border was still open should be completed. INZ will be in touch soon with applicants with further details. The Government has now decided in the wake of the judgment to remove the restriction that prevents first-time resident visa holders granted a resident visa offshore from travelling to New Zealand. This means residence processing will recommence for all offshore applicants. The Government will also decide how to enable people who applied for a resident visa after the border restrictions came into force in March 2020 to travel to New Zealand. There are around 3,000 applications on hand in this category. Around 4,000 people offshore who already hold resident visas but who were not able to travel are now able to come to New Zealand. They will be able to travel here if they meet the relevant health requirements (such as holding vouchers for Managed Isolation and Quarantine and undertaking pre-departure tests). Those granted a visa under the 2021 Resident Visa category will also be able to travel to New Zealand if they are granted their visa while overseas. Those who travel later in 2022 may be able to enter without quarantining, depending on the border restrictions in place. Senior Managers from INZ warned Simon, our CEO, during the Zoom meeting last week that it would happen, and it happened! Since too many people are trying to log in to the INZ's online system continuously and simultaneously, currently, the log in system does NOT seem to be working. If you have been trying to submit but have a login issue, please know that you are not the only one. It would be better to stop logging in and revisit the site tomorrow when the system is operational. A few hours or even a few days delay would not make a huge difference.  According to INZ's another message last night, it says "Today Phase One applications opened for the 2021 Resident Visa and there have been some connectivity issues. We apologise if you have been impacted by this issue and we would like to reassure you that we are urgently working with our technical partners to resolve the issue. The system is operating slower than anticipated. This means some applicants have had difficulty getting onto the system to apply which we appreciate is causing some frustration. If you have not yet successfully applied for your 2021 Resident Visa we ask that you please be patient while we work to get this issue sorted. We will make sure that your immigration status is not impacted if you were unable to submit your application today. Please remember that you have plenty of time to apply for their 2021 Resident Visa, with applications open until 31 July 2022."  10:13am 2nd December 2021 - INZ's system is still not working properly. Current Situation - 2nd December 2021Even if you were lucky to log in, your application would suddenly stop working. It has been reported multiple times by our team. We assume that INZ's external technical partners are currently working on repairing its online system.  This happened in the middle of filling in the application - multiple times. |
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