POSITIVE PROFILE APPLICATIONS:
To further streamline processing of applications in order to provide excellent service, positive profile applications will be further divided into two categories – Positive Profile Category A and Positive Profile Category B.
The factors which determine a “Positive Profile” student are:
- Good academic record;
- IELTS score of at least 5.5 or evidence of having met English language entry requirements for the course of study in NZ, which ever is higher;
- Student’s immediate family’s verifiable evidence of funds to meet the educational and living expenses in NZ – including paper trail to explain any recent high value deposits in accounts;
- No more than two immediate family members as guarantors
- Verifiable Evidence of regular source of sufficient income of financial guarantors;
- Intended course of study relevant to qualifications and/or work experience
- Demonstrated career progression opportunities;
- Clear health & character requirements
Apart from meeting the above criteria, the factors which would characterise Positive Profile Category A applications are:
- An overall score of 6.5 or above in the academic module of the IELTS test
- The intended course of study in New Zealand is Level 7 or above
The applications which are deemed to be Positive Profile Category A will be decided in 15 days.
Applications which do not fulfil the above requirements but are deemed to meet the positive profile criteria will be considered as Positive Profile Category B applications and will be processed in 30 working days.
VERIFICATIONS:
Visa officers have a general obligation to take such steps as are necessary or appropriate to satisfy themselves as to the authenticity of any information provided to support an application. In this regard they may seek to verify any documentation or information relevant to any decision under immigration temporary entry policy.
In the last twelve months Immigration New Zealand (INZ) New Delhi Branch has experienced a thirty percent increase in fraudulent documents being provided in support of student visa applications. As a result increased verification is being undertaken on applications.
Where applications are submitted through student advisors, we recommend that the student advisors satisfy themselves of the authenticity of the documents that are provided to INZ. Information on the verifications conducted prior to the submission of an application should be noted in the covering letter from the agent.
Any agent identified as lodging more than three applications supported by false documents will loose the confidence of INZ. In this regard we will write to them to advise that they no longer have INZ confidence, therefore, all their applications may be placed in the Need to Review stream as they will require intense scrutiny to ascertain the integrity of the information provided. It is also likely that all their applicants will be required to attend a personal interview in the INZ office in New Delhi to ascertain their bona-fides.
For members of NZSA identified as lodging more than three applications supported by false documents, INZ will also write to Trade NZ with a request that the agent be suspended from the group for a period of 12 months. The suspension to be reviewed at that time on the basis of whether they have submitted any further applications supported by false documents.
PROCESSING TIMES:
The processing time may differ across individual applications and may be brought forward or pushed further back depending on risks presented by individual applications.
As it is seen an increase in fraud in student visa applications, more in-depth verifications are being undertaken which have unfortunately increased processing times.
Current processing time frames are:
Positive profile Category A applications – 15 days
Positive profile Category B applications – 30 working days
Need to Review student visa applications – 9- 11 weeks for allocation and further 7-8 weeks for processing
Applications may also be placed in the Need to Review stream if the application does not include the required documents that are requested in the New Delhi Student Visa Check-list. Applications in this stream will be processed in date received order.
All students whose applications are categorised as Need to Review will be advised of this within 7 working days of their application being received by Immigration New Zealand.
In case we are unable to keep to the advertised timeframes, we will advise our clients accordingly. To assist us to process the increasing volumes of applications we would ask that you do not request status updates during the timeframes indicated as this is a poor use of our resources so these will no longer be given.
As a result of the high volume of student visa applications being processed by this office, we are not in a position to prioritise applications which are placed in the Need to Review queue. Applications placed in this queue will be allocated to visa officers in the order in which they have been received by this office. As all students have similar circumstances and reasons for urgency it is not fair to prioritise some while making others wait longer. We would ask therefore that you do not request priority for your students as we will have to deny such requests.
Note: if you verify documents supporting applications please indicate in the application what verification has been conducted with whom. Current increases in fraud are appearing in work references, qualifications, financial documents and relationships.
PARTNER OF A STUDENT:
Genuine partners of students studying in areas of absolute skill shortage or partners of postgraduate students may apply for a work visa, valid for the duration of the student’s course of study.
Partner of student must provide:
- a completed work visa application form and fee;
- evidence of relationship with the student which may include {marriage certificate, marriage photographs, birth certificates for the child(ren) born to the couple, correspondence addressed to the couple, evidence of joint bank accounts or immovable assets bought by the couple jointly etc.};
- Police clearance certificate and medical certificates completed from the doctor on our panel; and
- evidence that they have a minimum of NZD 5000 per annum in funds available to maintain themselves during their 12 month stay in New Zealand.
Where a student is NOT studying in an area of absolute skill shortage, or a postgraduate qualification, their partner may apply for a visit visa, valid for the duration of the student’s course of study. Any visitor application however, is subject to normal visitor visa policy.
Applications from partners of students will be not normally be processed by the student team but by a separate team experienced in assessing relationship/partnership based applications. These applications will be processed in date received order along with partnership applications received for partners of New Zealand residents, New Zealand citizens and New Zealand work permit holders.
COMPLAINT ESCALATION PROCESS
For Advisors and applicants
If there is dissatisfaction with the decision taken on an application, the processing of an application or service provided by a specific officer, the complaint should be addressed in the first instance to the Immigration Manager. If dissatisfaction continues the complaint may then be addressed to the Branch Manager.
Any complaint should clearly state the details of the application and the reason for the complaint.
PROCEDURES FOR INZ WHERE THEY HAVE CONCERNS WITH APPLICATIONS
If the visa officer has concerns with an application, then he/she is required by our process to inform the applicant in writing to give them an opportunity to address those concerns. At this stage the application has not been decided and has not been declined.
On receipt of a letter expressing concerns with an application you should supply the case officer with further information to address those concerns. The officer will then take that in to account and make a decision on the application. Please note that all decisions are checked by a senior officer before being finalised. This is a quality assurance process.
When responding to a letter of concern the response should be addressed to the case officer, not the Manager and the Manager does not need to be copied in to the response.
Please note:
- Where concerns are raised at the wrong level they will be referred to the appropriate level for direct reply.
- If Tanuva is consulted about the application during the processing, she does not then have the opportunity to review the decision should this be requested as she has already been involved with the case. Any request for review would then go straight to the Branch Manager thereby removing one review option that might otherwise have been available to you.
- A record will be kept of Education advisors who fail to respond to letters of concern thereby resulting in applications being declined. If the advisor is a member of NZSA this information will be provided to Trade NZ with a request that the advisor be suspended from the group for 12 months for failing to represent their clients in a professional manner. If the agent is not a member of NZSA a letter will be written to Trade NZ asking that they consider the advisors failure to represent clients professionally if considering their suitability for membership of this group in future.
SATEMENT OF PURPOSE
We have noticed that applications from specific advisors appear to be supported by identical, generic statements of purpose which are meaningless. The reason that we request this document is to help us assess the genuineness of the student. Therefore we request that in future the statement of purpose accompanying student visa applications be handwritten by the student. Note that we do not expect the statement of purpose to be in perfect English but we do expect it to be specific to that student.
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