You will receive an acknowledgement letter within fourteen days of your application being received by Bangkok branch. This will give you further information about the application process, your application number, and may also request additional information where necessary.
Your application will then be allocated to an immigration officer for assessment.
It can be difficult to give an accurate timeframe for the allocation and assessment process, as circumstances differ. When a file is allocated to an immigration officer for assessment, you will receive more accurate information about the final processing time for your application.
As a guideline, please use the following timeframes. These will be updated as necessary.
Allocation timeframe – two months
Processing timeframe – Within six months after allocation.
Allocation timeframe – 18 to 24 months
Processing timeframe – six to nine months after allocation.
New Zealand carefully plans allocation of residence places. The Government's annual residence programme gives priority to skilled and business migrants and the partners of returning New Zealanders. There are a limited number of places available under the Adult Child and Sibling/Parent categories each year.
Demand for these places currently exceeds the number of places available. There is a current waiting time of 18 to 24 months for a place to become available within the cap. In practice this means that an application will usually take from 18 to 24 months from the time of lodgement to be allocated to a case officer for assessment.
