We understand how important it is to you that we process your application as quickly as possible.
We will receipt all applications and lodge them into our computer system within 24 hours. If you have supplied us with your email or postal address, you will be contacted by an immigration officer within 14 days of receipt of your application.
Work to residence (Talent visa and long-term skill shortage) applications will be processed within five working days.
Label transfer applications will not be processed on the same day if you submit at the counter. Processing is three working days.
Our standard processing time is up to 10 working days (March to September) and up to 15 working days (October to February). It may take longer if::
We strongly recommend that applicants who intend to stay in New Zealand for six months or longer submit their application at least two months before the intended date of travel.
The processing time for all types of temporary visa applications may take up to 12 weeks.
Applications for residence class visas will be processed according to the Government’s priority list. This means they will be processed according to the residence category applied under and not necessarily in date order. 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.
Other residence streams, including the Capped Family stream, have a limited number of places that are available each year. The Capped Family stream consists of Parent, and Sibling and Adult Child residence categories.
Demand for places under the Capped Family residence stream currently exceeds the number of places available. There is a current waiting time of 18 to 24 months for a place to become available. In practice, this means that an application will usually take 18 to 24 months to be allocated to a case officer after the time of lodgement.
The Singapore branch has one officer who processes residence applications and temporary entry applications. An acknowledgement letter is sent to the applicant upon receipt of the application by the branch. Applications requiring medicals to be referred to a medical assessor have the referral process carried out when the application is received by the branch. However, the application is not actively processed by the residence officer until it reaches its turn in the managed queue as per the prioritisation and cap noted above.
Once an application is being actively processed, the processing time varies according to the specific case details. Estimated times are approximately:
Where we cannot process applications within these timeframes, you will be contacted by phone or mail.
