How we work
Immigration New Zealand is the operational processing arm of New Zealand’s immigration system. Our ambition is to provide a trusted, world class immigration service for all our customers.
The INZ Story: An insight into the work we do
00:00:04 Alison McDonald — Head of Immigration New Zealand
Immigration is vital to New Zealand's economy, to its workforce and to our communities. It reunites families. It provides employers with the key skills that they need, and it plays a really important part in our international and humanitarian commitments. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to managing immigration, and here at Immigration New Zealand we're just one part of that bigger immigration system. We work with colleagues across MBIE and other government departments both here in New Zealand and overseas. We also work with businesses, with the immigration industry in New Zealand and with communities themselves, where migrants hope to settle.
Our job is to take the policy settings and apply them to people who want to come to New Zealand. We do that through our four core roles.
00:00:52 Tasmia Isa — Immigration Officer
We grant visas to people who New Zealand needs to work, study, visit or settle here.
00:00:59 Salā Imakulata Teofilo — Senior Border Officer
We make sure that the people who come to New Zealand are allowed to do so.
00:01:04 Isaac O’Rourke — Verification Officer
We play our part in the global immigration system together with our border partners, to keep New Zealand safe.
00:01:10 Qemajl Murati —Head of Refugee Quota Programme
We help migrants and refugees who make New Zealand their new home.
00:01:14 Alison McDonald — Head of Immigration New Zealand
At Immigration New Zealand, our ambition is to provide a trusted and world class immigration system for all of our customers. Our work is broad and it's diverse. We know that it has a really big impact on all of our customers, but also on New Zealand — and that's not something we take lightly.
00:01:30 Tasmia Isa — Immigration Officer
We work towards bringing in skilled workers so that also enhances the workforce and also, you know, helps boost the economy. Some of the applicants we have do have very challenging situations where they come from. I understand that coming to a new country and migrating to a new country can be a very difficult process, but being able to make it easy and make it achievable is something that really fills up my heart.
00:01:59 Salā Imakulata Teofilo — Senior Border Officer
My role is to facilitate legitimate travellers and mitigate risks offshore. The work that we do is in line with the immigration legislation and there are criteria for entry into New Zealand as well as before passengers are travelling to New Zealand. We want to encourage our customers to do the right thing. It makes me feel very, very proud that I am the first person that they come into contact with when they travel to New Zealand.
00:02:33 Isaac O’Rourke — Verification Officer
Most of our work revolves around supporting our community. We also work with employers. We work with migrants to ensure that there's a healthy balance within the immigration system. You can start the day looking at fraudulent documentation and then you can end the day helping migrants in need. At Immigration New Zealand we're big about striking the balance. A healthy immigration system allows for economic growth. It allows for families to reunify. It helps for us to protect those who are vulnerable.
00:03:03 Qemajl Murati —Head of Refugee Quota Programme
My passion is really in the area where I work now with refugees, resettling refugees. There is nothing more rewarding than [when] we see people's lives being restored, but also when we see families being reunified, it's just something that is hard to describe in words. The work that I do and the resettlement programme that we have for refugees is very, very important for us as a country. Refugees that come here, yes, they flee their countries, but they bring with them their experiences. They bring their knowledge, they bring their diversity — makes us all the more diverse, we are the better. It makes us rich — both in culture, and in all aspects of life.
00:03:43 Alison McDonald — Head of Immigration New Zealand
Every day, our people are helping migrants in different ways and across all our work there is a balance to strike. We know our country is a fantastic place to come to work, to visit, to study and to live. We need to make it easy for the people we want to invite here to use the immigration system that's both easy for them to come to New Zealand and easy for them to do the right thing when they're here. We also need to keep people safe by protecting New Zealand from immigration risk. We will continue to work hard to play our part in the immigration system and to make sure that New Zealand has access to the skills and people that it needs.
Immigration’s contribution to New Zealand
Immigration makes a vital contribution to New Zealand’s economy, workforce and community. It reunites friends and families, provides employers with access to key skills and capital, contributes to New Zealand’s international and humanitarian commitments, and supports the security and integrity of our border.
Since New Zealand’s border opened after COVID-19, interest in visiting and working here has continued to grow, with the volume of work across the immigration system showing just how integral immigration is to New Zealand.
In the 2024 calendar year:
- over 1.1 million visas were decided
- there were more than 12.8 million movements at the New Zealand border
- nearly 540,000 visitor visa applications decided
- more than 1.6 million NZeTA requests were decided
- nearly 50,000 working holiday visa applications were decided
- more than 40,000 Accredited Employers Work Visa (AEWV) applications were decided
- over 17,000 employers became accredited or had their accreditation renewed under the AEWV policy, bringing the total number of current accredited employers to more than 27,000
- more than 73,000 international Student visas were decided
- 1,522 refugees were able to call New Zealand home through New Zealand’s Refugee Quota Programme
- there were 6 successful immigration-related prosecutions
- 543 investigations into immigration breaches were carried out, including 220 cases with allegations of migrant exploitation investigated.
Who we are
The primary role of the New Zealand immigration system is to facilitate the travel of visitors, students, workers, families and refugees to New Zealand, and protect New Zealand from immigration risk.
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) is the operational processing arm of New Zealand’s immigration system and has 4 core roles:
- We grant visas to people who New Zealand needs to work, visit, study or settle here.
- We ensure that people crossing the border and staying in New Zealand are entitled to do so.
- We help migrants and refugees to make New Zealand their home.
- We play our part in the global immigration system, together with our border partners to keep New Zealand safe.
INZ sits within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and is just one part of the wider immigration system. The immigration system also includes MBIE’s compliance centre of expertise (Te Whakatairanga Service Delivery) who carry out onshore investigation and compliance activity, provide services to license people who provide New Zealand immigration advice, and provide customer support through MBIE’s Customer Service Centre.
The immigration system works within the policy framework set by the Immigration Act 2009, associated regulations and immigration instructions authorised under the Act. MBIE’s immigration policy function supports Ministers to make changes to immigration policy settings through Cabinet or Parliament.
INZ works closely with the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, other border agencies, and our international partners, in particular other Migration 5 countries (Australia, Canada, United States and the United Kingdom). This allows us to identify risk, improving the integrity of the immigration system.
Working with international organisations
Our ambition
INZ’s ambition is to provide a trusted, world class immigration service for all our customers.
We aim to strike the balance between facilitating the entry of the people New Zealand needs to work, visit, live or study here and protecting New Zealand from immigration risk.
INZ is committed to being a customer-centric organisation that is simple to engage with, helps to keep our customers safe and provides certainty for them.
We want to ensure our customers know what the visa process means for them and make it easy to apply for a visa and comply with their visa obligations.
We want to make sure our customers know when they can expect a decision on their application. We also want customers to know what New Zealand offers them so they can thrive while they’re here.
What our customers can expect
INZ has worked to better understand what customers need so we can improve our online forms and information. We are continuing to improve our online platform and move more visa categories online. This will allow customers to track their application’s progress in real time.
INZ receives high volumes of visa applications. All applications are assessed against the relevant immigration requirements in a fair and transparent way.
The time it takes to decide an application may vary depending on the type of application, the applicant’s circumstances and whether the application has all the necessary information and documents.
Processing visa applications often takes longer when applicants have not submitted all the required information in their application or during visa peak periods.
In order to reduce delays, we ask all visa applicants or their licensed immigration advisers and representatives to:
- understand fully the visa criteria or seek further advice from a licensed immigration adviser or lawyer if it is not clear, before submitting a visa application
- submit all the required application documentation and evidence in full when applying
- be aware of the processing times for the visa and allow plenty of time for the application to be processed
- be sure and not plan, book or confirm any immediate non-refundable or non-changeable arrangements in New Zealand until the outcome of the visa is confirmed.
INZ has information on processing timeframes for each visa category. As these timeframes can change, usually due to high demand in peak periods, we ask customers to plan accordingly and make sure they are applying in plenty of time.