How long will my visa take to process?
We get asked this a lot by our clients and other enquirers.
Visa processing times are beyond our control and depend on Immigration New Zealand (INZ)’s workload and processes.
Recent processing times (for the last three months April-June 2018) for some of the most common applications are shown below.
We recommend getting your documents to us and applications in well before your visa expires or you a due to start a job. While we understand your employer may want you to start as soon as possible, generally it will not make a difference or be grounds to process your application any sooner as INZ needs to be fair to all applicants and generally assess them in the order received.
From INZ’s recent table below, it appears most work visa applications are decided between 44-84 days (6 weeks to about 3 months). Post study employer-assisted and partnership work visas take longer, usually 2-3 months.
Visitor visas take shorter time but still 2-4 weeks.
Student visas are currently taking around 3-7 weeks, though variation of conditions to them can be processed in less than 2 weeks. This may be longer in busy processing times such as in the months before a semester starts.
Skilled migrant residence visa applications take around a year to process. This is from the time the full application documents are lodged after Invitation to Apply.
Further details are given in the table below as shown on INZ’s website here
These times describe the number of calendar days between an application being received by INZ and being completed.
This helps provide an estimate of the time it will take for INZ to process your application. Individual processing times will depend on the complexity of an application, on the need for further information, and on the number of other applications received.
Visa | 75% of applications completed within: | 90% of applications completed within: | 95% of applications completed within: |
Essentials Skills | 44 days | 67 days | 84 days |
Partner of a New Zealander | 62 days | 82 days | 3 months |
Partner of student | 28 days | 52 days | 76 days |
Partner of worker | 56 days | 75 days | 87 days |
Post-study work visa – employer assisted | 42 days | 60 days | 74 days |
Post-study work visa – open | 25 days | 46 days | 62 days |
Variation of conditions on a work visa | 37 days | 49 days | 62 days |
Visitor Visas
Visa | 75% of applications completed within: | 90% of applications completed within: | 95% of applications completed within: |
Visitor (General) | 11 days | 19 days | 28 days |
Student Visas
Visa | 75% of applications completed within: | 90% of applications completed within: | 95% of applications completed within: |
Fee Paying Student | 21 days | 35 days | 49 days |
Variation of conditions on a student visa | 11 days | 17 days | 24 days |
Residence
Visa | 75% of applications completed within: | 90% of applications completed within: | 95% of applications completed within: |
Partner of a New Zealander | 7 months | 10 months | 12 months |
Permanent Resident Visa | 12 days | 16 days | 19 days |
Skilled Migrant | 7 months | 10 months | 15 months |
Transfer of visa to new passport | 12 days | 15 days | 17 days |
Variation of travel conditions on a resident visa | 8 days | 16 days | 23 days |