2014-Jul 18: Educational Exchange Programmes

Visa Pak 171: Information for staff for about educational Exchange Programmes and INZ's procedure when processing these visas.

Visa Paks

18 July 2014

Educational Exchange Programmes

Previously student exchanges have been loaded in AMS as running for the calendar year of 1 January – 31 December. However, this has caused problems when a student makes an application in one calendar year for study, starting the next calendar year, as the quota for the year they are applying in may already be full and the quota for the following year cannot be viewed in immigration offices until it becomes active on 01 January.

Ops Support has met with the Ministry of Education and agreed that from now on we will load new student exchange quotas from 01 November – 31 October. This should mean that people applying at the end of a calendar year for study the following year, will be counted under the quota for the following year. These dates are chosen to avoid the usual peak period for students applying for visas.

There may still be times when it appears a quota is full. If this is the case please email the Student and Visitor team at Ops Support.

Please note the changes above do not change the dates the student will be able to study in New Zealand. This will still be for a period determined by the Ministry of Education (usually 12 months).

Example:

Current state: A student applying on 01 December 2014 to be part of a student exchange programme and intending to start school in New Zealand in January 2015 would be counted against the 2014 quota even though they plan to study in 2015.

Future state: The student would be counted against the 01 November 2014 – 31 October 2015 quota.

Please inform your staff of this.