Scepticism over Immigration NZ's faster residence visa promise

Michael Wood says the government is simplifying and streamlining residence visas (Image: Getty)

Thu, 28 Jul 2022

Immigration minister Michael Wood’s announcement that residence visas for the new green list pathways will be processed within six weeks is being met with scepticism.Two years has become the norm for processing residence visas since a backlog began to grow in 2018 – prior to that most were processed in about six months.Last year, the government announced a special one-off 2021 residence visa to clear the backlog, promising most applications would be processed within 12 months – this target has since slipped to 18 months.Immigr...

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