Skilled Residence Data as of 12 September 2022

Skilled residence applications (Skilled Migrant Category and Residence from Work) are not split
into separate queues based on visa category.

Table 1 below provides the number of unallocated skilled residence applications in the general
and priority queues as at 12 September 2022, broken down by month the application was
accepted for processing by Immigration New Zealand (INZ). Note that ‘unallocated’ relates to
applications that are waiting to be allocated to an Immigration Officer for assessment.

Table 1: Number of unallocated skilled residence applications in the general queue as at 12

September 2022.

Accepted Month General Queue Priority Queue

AUG2022 3 3

Total 3 0
*All numbers provided are subject to random rounding to base 3 by applying the same rule used by Stats NZ for
Census data.

Table 2 below provides the number of skilled residence applications that were allocated monthly
from the general and priority queues as at 12 September 2022. Note that since May 2022
prioritised SMC and RfW applications are now being allocated within 2 weeks of the application
joining the priority queue.

Please note the number of applications that are allocated to an immigration officer for
processing may be impacted by a number of factors, including reduced processing capacity.
During New Zealand’s change in alert level settings, INZ was following the Government’s Alert
Level 3 guidance which meant most of our staff were working from home. There were a very
limited number of staff in our offices during Alert Level 3 however, once Auckland moved into
the red-light setting under the traffic light framework at the start of December, all staff were
invited back to work in the office.

Phase one of 2021 Resident Visa category opened on 1 December and 62 Residence Visa
immigration officers were redistributed to process this work while a team remained processing
Skilled Residence applications. From December 2021 until February 2022, this team of
immigration officers were working through applications that were reallocated from the 62 who
moved to process 2021 Residence Visa applications.
Table 2: Number of skilled residence applications allocated monthly as at 12 September
2022.
Allocation Month General Queue Priority Queue

JAN2022 0 0

FEB2022 0 275

MAR2022 0 303

APR2022 120 236

MAY2022 554 0

JUN2022 99 0

JUL2022 419 0

AUG2022 591 0

SEP2022
227 0
(As at 12 Sep 2022)