How long it takes to process a visa application
Average processing times for visitor, student, work and residence visas.
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If you applied online, you can check the status of your application and find out if we need more information from you.
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Average processing times
Find out how many calendar days it has taken us to process applications for our most common visas in the 3 months to 1 June 2022. For applications that take more than 90 days we have rounded that number to the nearest month. For example, if applications take 110 days, we say it takes 4 months.
Current visitor visa application processing times are based on onshore (people within New Zealand) visitor visa applications for further visas which are often complicated to assess. These issues can lengthen processing time.
Offshore applications for visitor visas open on 31 July 2022. Processing times for these applications are expected to be significantly shorter than current visitor visa processing times.
Visitor visa
| Visa | 50% of applications completed within: | 75% of applications completed within: | 90% of applications completed within: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visitor (holiday) | 5 days | 20 days | 71 days |
Find recent processing times for other types of visitor visa, for example business and group visitor visas.
Fees, decision times & where to apply
Student visas
| Visa | 50% of applications completed within: | 75% of applications completed within: | 90% of applications completed within: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fee Paying Student | 27 days | 42 days | 63 days |
| Variation of conditions on a student visa | 17 days | 24 days | 37 days |
Find recent processing times for other student visas.
Fees, decision times & where to apply
You can also find out how long it takes to process visas for international students depending on the type of education provider they study with.
Visa processing times for international students
Work visas
| Visa | 50% of applications completed within: | 75% of applications completed within: | 90% of applications completed within: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials Skills | 0 days | 16 days | 52 days |
| Essential Skills – Lite | 49 days | 77 days | 3 months |
| Partner of a New Zealander | 0 days | 30.5 days | 85 days |
| Partner of student | 35 days | 52 days | 85 days |
| Partner of worker | 13 days | 50 days | 4 months |
| Post Study Work Visa | 0 days | 0 days | 15 days |
| Variation of conditions on a work visa | 20 days | 25 days | 32 days |
Find recent processing times for other work visas
Fees, decision times & where to apply
Visa processing timeframes for Essential Skills, Partner of a New Zealander and Post Study Work Visa have been impacted by visas automatically granted as a result of the Special Direction on 6 May 2022.
| Visa | 50% of applications completed within: | 75% of applications completed within: | 90% of applications completed within: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Partner of a New Zealander | 6 months | 9 months | 13 months |
| Permanent Resident Visa | 82 days | 3 months | 5 months |
| Skilled Migrant | 34 months | 42 months | 47 months |
| Transfer of visa to new passport | 8 days | 11 days | 14 days |
| Variation of travel conditions on a resident visa | 13 days | 22 days | 31 days |
Due to the impacts of COVID-19 we are experiencing delays in the processing of Permanent Resident Visas and Transfer of Visas to new passports. Transfer of Visas to new passports may take longer than indicated above. We apologise for any inconvenience and we are working hard to improve this.
Find recent processing times for other resident visas.