Note: Applications with offers of skilled employment in New Zealand are given priority and therefore timeframes will differ depending on whether you have a job offer or not.

Skilled Migrant applicants with job offers

The Pool draw, which would potentially allocate your Expression of Interest (EOI) to the London branch, takes place every two weeks.  

An immigration officer will make an initial assessment of your EOI within 10 working days of the Pool draw. Your immigration officer will then contact you, advising whether or not you will be invited to apply.

Once you submit your application to the London Branch it will be allocated to an immigration officer as soon as possible.  Your immigration officer will generally take between three weeks and three months to make a final decision on your application.  While we cannot guarantee the processing time for your application we aim to process it as quickly as possible.  The processing time will largely depend on whether you have supplied your immigration officer with everything they have requested in your Invitation to Apply, or if there are any issues (such as medical conditions or character issues) that we need to follow up or if we need to conduct verification checks.

Skilled migrant applicants without job offers

The Pool draw, which would potentially allocate your EOI to the London branch, takes place every two weeks. 

Your EOI will be assessed within one month of being selected from the pool. We will then contact you, either inviting you to apply for residence or requesting further information.

Note:If you have been selected and later obtain an offer of skilled employment you should fax this to us (+44 207 973 0370) and we will prioritise the assessment of your EOI.

Once you submit your application to the London branch your application will be allocated to an immigration officer.  The time that an application takes to be allocated varies depending on the capacity of the Skilled Migrant Team.  From time-to-time we run a queue system to manage the inflow of applications.  The time that an application may be in the queue varies between two weeks and two months.

We will write to you by way of acknowledgement letter within 14 days of submitting your application to let you know whether your application has been accepted for processing or whether it will be returned to you because you have made an incomplete application.  If your application is accepted for processing we will give you a more accurate timeframe for when your application might be allocated.  We will send this letter by post.

If you submit an incomplete application we may return the application to you un-actioned or we may hold it pending the missing requirements.  We will let you know in our acknowledgement letter.

Note: Apart from incomplete applications, all applications accepted up to and during week ending 15 April 2011 have been allocated to an immigration officer.

The date an application is 'accepted' is the date that all of the compulsory lodgement requirements are received by INZ including:

• The signed application form
• The application fee
• The passport or certificate of identity of each applicant (or certified copies)
• Two passport-sized photos of each applicant
• Police and medical certificates for each applicant
• Any information and evidence required by the relevant immigration instructions to demonstrate that the applicant fits the category or categories of immigration instructions under which the application is being made.

Your immigration officer will be in touch within ten working days from the date of allocation and will generally take between one and three months to make a final decision on your application.  While we cannot guarantee the processing time of your application we aim to process it as quickly as possible.  The processing time will largely  depend on whether you have supplied your immigration officer with everything they have requested in your Invitation to Apply, or if there are any other issues (such as medical conditions) that we need to follow up on.

Note: If we send you an Invitation to Apply (ITA) you will have four months in which to submit your application to us.  Some documents may take some time to obtain so be sure to request these early in the application. 

These documents include:

• Police certificates - these can take up to three months for some certificates (e.g. FBI checks).
• Birth certificates - all applicants are required to submit a full birth certificate which name both parents and copies of these may take up to six months to obtain (e.g. South African birth certifcates).
• The time needed to get an appointment to see some of the UK Panel Doctors - these doctors can be booked up weeks ahead.
• Registration with the relevant New Zealand registration board.
• International Qualifications Assessment (IQA) - some applicants are required to obtain an IQA from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.  This process can take up to 35 working days.

If you choose to apply, please be sure to send us all the documentation we request on the document check sheet attached to the front of the ITA.  We cannot fully assess the application until we have all the documentation.

Applicants with offers of skilled employment will continue to have priority. If you obtain an offer of skilled employment, all you need to do is to fax a copy of the full offer to (+44) 207 973 0370 with the title "Skilled Migrant Offer of Skilled Employment" and your Expression of Interest number. We will then ensure that your case is allocated to a case officer for immediate assessment.

Things that may delay your application

• An existing medical condition (please provide a report from your specialist clarifying the history and prognosis of the condition).
• A criminal conviction listed on your police certificate (please give a written account outlining the circumstances surrounding the offence).
• Work references that do not list your position and the start and end dates of your employment.
• Any custody issues surrounding children that may be included with a residence application.
• Verification work that we may need to carry out from time to time.

Please note that allocation of your file may be delayed by other circumstances.