More residence visas approved in June than in June last year

Work, student and residence visa approvals steadily rising, Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment figures show

22nd Jul 20, 9:25am by Greg Ninness

The number of work, student and residence visas being approved is climbing rapidly following the end of the country's internal lockdown restrictions, even though tough quarantine measures are being enforced at the border.

According to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, 16,116 work, student and residence visas were issued in June, up from 11,109 in May and 4794 in April.

However the numbers are still well down from where they were before COVID-19 restrictions took effect, with 30,720 work, residence and student visas approved in January and 29,973 approved in February.

The biggest comeback has been in the number of residence visas being approved, with 3078 approved in June, which was up 18.9% compared to June last year.

The number of work visas being approved has also increased strongly, with 9876 approved in June, which was just over half (53%) the number approved in June last year.

Student approvals have been more sluggish, with 3162 student visas approved in June, just over a third (37%) of the student visas approved in June last year.

In the first six months of this year, a total of 223,086 work, student and residence visas have been approved (refer table below).

That brought the total number of people in New Zealand on work, residence or student visas to 473,568 at the end of June, which was down by 19,737 (-4.0%) compared to the end of March, but still up by 19,392 (+4.3%) compared to June last year.

Between the end of March and the end of June, the total number of people on work visas declined by 10,560 (-4.8%), those on student visas declined by 4056 (-5.0%) and those on residence visas declined by 5121 (-2.7%).

The graph below shows the monthly changes in the total number of people on work, student and residence visas over the last 10 years.

Its most notable feature is the ongoing increase in the number of people on work visas, while the numbers on student and residence visas have remained relatively flat over the last five years.

Visas Approved January-June 2020
	January	February	March	April	May	June	Total
Work	18,846	17,961	15,222	2922	5940	9876	70,767
Residence	2823	2736	2166	75	1644	3078	12522
Student	9051	9276	7716	1797	3525	3162	34527
Total	30,720	29,973	25,104	4794	11109	16116	223,086

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48 Comments

by Boatman | 22nd Jul 20, 9:47am 1595368055

I dont get it .

I voted for a certain lying sod at the last election when he said he would "HIT THE PAUSE BUTTON " on immigration until we got on top of the housing backlog .

Nett Inward immigration was running at 70,000 per annum .

We have recently been issuing 30,000 work visas A MONTH !!!!!!

Now we know the truth , Labour and its cohorts really are the parties for immigration

by CourtJester | 22nd Jul 20, 11:26am 1595373993

See my comment below re work visas. 30000 visas a month doesn't mean 30000 new people a month.
The actual number of new people on visas is in the article. It's up ~20k compared to a year ago.

Edit: Funny to se how many people jump immediately on this one figure without understanding it. Kinda scary too. This is how misinformation spreads like wildfire.

by Leverageup | 22nd Jul 20, 12:08pm 1595376482

Yes ppl misread stats.. but the fact remains, NZ First has done virtually nothing to challenge the status quo this term, and the main political parties all believe in a bigger NZ is a better NZ, despite most evidence is to the contrary (at least for existing NZ residents.. great for the new arrivals).

by realterms | 22nd Jul 20, 10:16am 1595369785

I agree that promises have not been kept on this front. But I hope you're not implying that national would be better.

by taimaiakka0 | 22nd Jul 20, 11:23am 1595373801

Election time that HIT THE PAUSE BUTTON rant will start again

by house hunter | 22nd Jul 20, 9:49am 1595368154

It would be interesting to know how many of these residence visas are Investor 1 or Investor 2 visas:

https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/apply-for-a-visa/abou…
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/apply-for-a-visa/abou…

Also, is it possible to apply for such a visa from overseas and then relocate to NZ with the borders in their current state?

by Boatman | 22nd Jul 20, 9:53am 1595368401

Who cares what category they are ....the fact remains , this Government of losers was quick to call National the party of immigration for allowing 70,000 migrants in PER ANNUM

Turns out this bunch of fools has been issuing 30,000 VISAS EVERY MONTH !!!!!!!!!!!!

At this rate , we could have 360.000 new residents here this year ( even with covid ) and to put that in perspective , thats 1,000 new faces arriving here , every day , 7 days a week

OR the entire population of the South Island in just 36 months

by house hunter | 22nd Jul 20, 9:59am 1595368782

I'm interested in the category because those people with Investor 1 or 2 visas have a ton of money and could be helping drive real estate prices up, particularly at the top end.

by CJ099 | 22nd Jul 20, 10:23am 1595370208

Yes that becomes fairly apparent when property markets become detached from local economic conditions, a split forms where the top end is being fed by overseas money.

Juwai article: Chinese show interest in New Zealand properties despite ban on foreign buyers. https://list.juwai.com/news/2020/01/chinese-show-interest-new-zealand-p…

by northman46 | 22nd Jul 20, 10:03am 1595369028

Well work visas expire and the person needs to reapply while in NZ. I used to get through a couple a year, sometimes more. It doesn't mean each number is a new person entering the country every time.

by realterms | 22nd Jul 20, 10:07am 1595369276

Correct. And work visas to residence visas, etc. Lots of double counting. Not to mention that net immigration has to take account of the departures.

by Advisor | 22nd Jul 20, 11:21am 1595373660

Also, the thousands of tertiary students who have automatic working rights i.e. are issued a work visa upon graduation.

by CourtJester | 22nd Jul 20, 10:12am 1595369532

You don't seem to understand how visas work.
Most visas are temporary and need to be renewed usually every 12-24 months (or when switching jobs, as some are tied to a certain employer). For example, a person who's been in NZ on a work visa for 5 years might have had up to 5 work visas issued during that period. One person, multiple visas.
Also, resident visas have two stages - a resident visa will be replaced by a 'permanent' resident visa after 2 years, which also counts as a new visa issued.
I personally have had 2 work visas and two resident visas so far, yet (as far as I'm aware) I'm just one person.
In addition to these long-term visas, there's a 'working holiday visa', which counts as a work visa and only allows a person to do gigs (up to 3 month at a single workplace) like picking fruit.
Not sure about student visas or if they need to be renewed periodically, I'll let you investigate that yourself.

by J.C. | 22nd Jul 20, 11:27am 1595374059

Most visas are temporary and need to be renewed usually every 12-24 months (or when switching job

In Vietnam, there are people in the country on tourist visas that need to be renewed every 1-3 months. They're there because of the Covid situation (cannot leave [lack of flights] or don't want to leave). The immigration data will not be telling the real story. Likely similar in NZ.

by lastlegs | 22nd Jul 20, 10:08am 1595369308

do the numbers represent extensions of existing visa?otherwise they are insane,we dont have enough houses,roads,hospitals for them.

by CourtJester | 22nd Jul 20, 10:10am 1595369414

As far as I'm aware, there are no "extensions" of a visa. The existing visa is replaced with a new one, thus counted in these stats.

by lastlegs | 22nd Jul 20, 11:09am 1595372983

so on the nz immigration website when they say they are extending temporary work visaa by six months they are obviously wrong and havent run this past you?

by puketepapa | 22nd Jul 20, 11:41am 1595374887

Yes, I took it at face value that the government was extending visas lock-stock-and-barrel for 6 months. The pity is MBIE could be much more detailed in its data releases. The extension was only announced recently and won't account for the big numbers in January and February

by CourtJester | 22nd Jul 20, 11:45am 1595375130

"they are obviously wrong and havent run this past you?" - Look buddy. I answered your question, trying to be helpful, and you reply like this? What is wrong with you?

I'm sure you're aware that this 6 months extension is a very special occurence due to covid, and this is not how it normally works. I was referring to the normal visa "extensions", not the once in a century scenario. I didn't think I'd have to clarify this...

by Jarlaith | 23rd Jul 20, 7:08pm 1595488139

Although they are referring to them as “extensions," what they are doing in reality is issuing new visas. That’s standard procedure with INZ from my own personal experience as an immigrant and someone who helped international students with their visas.

by sharetrader | 22nd Jul 20, 10:09am 1595369369

I would be guessing but I suspect the student and work visa for june this year are roll overs of people already in country.
it does make you wonder why we need to issue 10k of work visas when we now have 200k unemployed

by CourtJester | 22nd Jul 20, 10:22am 1595370178

To the people freaking out about 30 THOUSAND!!!!!! NEW PEOPLE PER MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, please read this:
"That brought the total number of people in New Zealand on work, residence or student visas to 473,568 at the end of June, which was down by 19,737 (-4.0%) compared to the end of March, but still up by 19,392 (+4.3%) compared to June last year."
That's ~20000 new people on visas in total (not including returning / leaving citizens) compared to a year ago. 20k per year is really far from 360k per year, so please calm down.

by Advisor | 22nd Jul 20, 11:42am 1595374952

Also on residence visas, INZ isn't accepting new Skilled Migrant Category applications since late March.
An INZ manager mate of mine said they've been instructed to "prioritize" high wage workers (2x median wage), since job losses are more likely to hit low to mid wage workers on temp visas. To be fair, willingness to work in low-value sectors on low pay is not really a skill.

We could hope to see a 2003-style clean sweep of application backlog soon after the election.

by GV 27 | 22nd Jul 20, 1:05pm 1595379900

Gotta import 'high' wage workers to keep middle class wage inflation from every keeping up with living costs, after all.

by Roger Witherspoon | 22nd Jul 20, 1:10pm 1595380212

Isn't that easy to fiddle though? Your family buys you a ticket to work at your uncle's liquor store as a store manager on whatever is the required salary. In fact you work for your uncle for $3 an hour. Or your family borrows the money for your ticket from an "uncle" on the basis that you work for him for 2 years at $2 an hour.

by realterms | 22nd Jul 20, 1:26pm 1595381174

I have no idea if they do or not, but it would be easy to check with IRD to verify.

by K.W. | 23rd Jul 20, 3:28pm 1595474891

That's not how the scam works. The employer pays the employee minimum wage, so it all looks legit to the authorities. But the employee then pays those wages back to the employer in cash as a "loan repayment" (the loan being the amount of money charged for sponsoring the visa). The "business" is run at a loss or breakeven, so no income tax is payable, while the owner pockets the cash payments from their employees.

by Advisor | 22nd Jul 20, 1:34pm 1595381654

Under the new INZ rules, you also need to prove that a Kiwi resident or citizen was unwilling to work behind the liquor store counter for the advertised pay.
Try making a case to INZ that your uncle couldn't attract a single decent Kiwi applicant for a job paying upwards of 106k a year to stock shelves and work the cash till at a liquor store.

by Tillers | 22nd Jul 20, 10:32am 1595370734

Last year the Govt actually decreased the amount of PR granted. It’s the first time that has happened in 12 years!

by Foyle | 22nd Jul 20, 10:57am 1595372236

Huh? The Coalition is nothing but PR, that's about the only thing they produce.

by custard | 22nd Jul 20, 10:47am 1595371678

It appears part of the problem has just resigned.

by Houseworks | 22nd Jul 20, 11:09am 1595372974

ILG
Big hit back at the hypocrites

by CourtJester | 22nd Jul 20, 11:23am 1595373783

Hypocrites? I'm not sure what you're referring to.
ILG: "Inappropriate (consensual) relationship with a ex-staffer.", ie. had consensual sex with a coworker in his office.
Falloon: Sent unsolicited porn pics to a schoolgirl and another 'young' woman

These two are both inappropriate, but I'm sure we can agree on which one's much much worse. Also, both have been asked to resign so I'm not sure where that 'hypocrites' comes from.

by Houseworks | 22nd Jul 20, 11:27am 1595374045

Funny how PM allowed him to stay when making poor immigration decisions... you forgotten Karel Shroubec

by CourtJester | 22nd Jul 20, 11:38am 1595374733

I haven't, and I always hated ILG because of decisions like that. But your comment seemed to refer to the current scandals.

by youngdumbandbroke | 22nd Jul 20, 11:32am 1595374333

When your the minister for work relations and safety, it's a bit comical isn't it?

by Grimey | 22nd Jul 20, 11:53am 1595375587

Disingenuous calling her a schoolgirl as shes at university and is 19 years old.

by peter.may | 23rd Jul 20, 9:28am 1595453337

I understand that while she's 19 now, she was much younger when it commenced.

by Mr Pink | 22nd Jul 20, 11:15am 1595373304

Govt needs more tax payers keep bringing them in dont worry about anything else like , housing , roads , water , sewer , stormwater she"ll be right Phil Goff will sort it out.

by Advisor | 22nd Jul 20, 12:39pm 1595378398

Why don't we bring in people with the skills to plan & build all of that and also contribute taxes to pay for all of that. Instead we have handed the keys to tertiary institutes and low-value businesses hoping they will do the right thing. The number of working people (aka taxpayers) in all our major cities and regional centres (QT, Dunedin) has gone up significantly yet councils in these places are in more debt and financial stress than ever and are struggling to provide the bare minimum we need to call ourselves a developed country.

20 points for working in an area of skill shortage, 60 for NZ Level 7+ qualification - we've got our priorities messed up.

by RickStrauss | 22nd Jul 20, 1:47pm 1595382441

Could be a good time to leverage our relatively benign political environment and comparative low levels of corruption.

Invite PhDs and Masters holders from reputable institutes, set up more digital infrastructure, drop company and personal income tax rates and balance it out with some land tax, and make a go of being innovative and productive.

What's the bet we concentrate on inflating house prices and importing cheap labour instead?

by Advisor | 22nd Jul 20, 2:43pm 1595385799

While we're unable to get our act together even in the midst of a socioeconomic crisis, Australia is currently boasting an infrastructure pipeline of 137 confirmed projects worth over $100m.

by Roger Witherspoon | 22nd Jul 20, 1:16pm 1595380577

How does one register one's dissatisfaction with excessive immigration? All politicians and bureaucrats seem to think it is good for us, yet no one ever voted for it. How do we address the failure of representative democracy in this country?

by Nzdan | 22nd Jul 20, 1:43pm 1595382225

Violence?

by Quiet Desperation | 22nd Jul 20, 4:24pm 1595391869

Civil Disobedience. Non-violent, yet extremely disruptive. It takes more than a few though, and I doubt we'll see any more than that willing to participate until things get even worse. It's unlikely that people will do anything to insist on this until the discomfort is felt further and far deeper than at present.

by RickStrauss | 22nd Jul 20, 1:49pm 1595382583

Interesting reading Douglas Murray's 'The Strange Death of Europe' then seeing the same lines being recited to a confused, somewhat unwilling NZ population.

Meanwhile, Germany has since closed its borders and Europe is paying Turkey to reduce the inward flow.

Politicians not listening seems to lead ultimately to populism and...as above...potentially anger and violence.

by Roger Witherspoon | 22nd Jul 20, 4:07pm 1595390831

Funny how actual democracy is now called "populism". "Democracy" now seems to mean, "the election of people whose ideas I approve of". All very Orwellian. We have had the first violent massacre already, although it seems to have been more to do with unwanted immigration in Aussie than here. We really, really don't want any more. How do people register their disapproval in a civilised way? There seems no gentle outlet for their frustration.

by NavazIbrahim | 5th Aug 20, 4:17pm 1596601032

It's great to hear something positive during this pandemic hit days. The improved number of student and work visa approvals is simply showing that the people are just getting back to their normal life. Everyone went through the internal lockdown and movement restrictions can understand how horrible it was to live like in a shell.

I'm currently residing in Dubai, UAE as I'm working here in a government Tadbeer maid visa agency and the situation is getting better now as well. The government has lifted many air travel and visa restrictions imposed during the Covid 19 pandemic. Now people from most of the countries are able to get visiting visa to Dubai as the Coronavirus cases are steadily declines in the last a few weeks or so.

The UAE reported nearly 200 cases in the last several days without any death cases, that's a great deal of recovery from thousand cases a day in the previous weeks. We can hope for the best and to have a proper effective vaccine to fight this universal dilemma.

Regards,
Navaz Ibrahim
Business Executive at Tadbeer Visa (https://www.tadbeervisa.com)