The majority of temporary visas are processed in less than 14 working days. Any applications requiring additional information, verification, or interview, or those involving the determination of a relationship, can take longer. Applications received during peak periods, eg Christmas, may also take longer. Applications should be lodged early during peak periods to allow for a longer processing time.
An application for a visa for urgent travel will take at least seven working days to process.
New Zealand carefully plans allocation of permanent residence places. The Government's annual residence programme gives priority to skilled and business migrants and the partners of returning New Zealanders. The family capped stream (which comprises parent, adult child and sibling residence cases) is given a lower priority. Demand for places under this stream currently exceeds the number of places available. There is a current waiting time of 18 - 24 months for a place to become available within the cap. In practice this means that an application will usually take from 18 - 24 months from the time of lodgement to be allocated to a case officer for assessment.
One factor that impacts on processing time is the number of enquiries we receive about applications that have not yet been lodged with INZ. Please check that an application has been lodged before making an enquiry with us.
