The number of people entering New Zealand on work or student visas is slowly picking up although the numbers are still well below pre-pandemic levels.
The latest visa figures from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) show the number of people arriving in the country on student visas has risen for six consecutive months, from a negligible 93 in January this year to 4152 in July.
July has traditionally been a very strong month for overseas students coming to NZ, with 20,121 arriving in July 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, but those numbers dropped to just 48 in July 2020 and 246 in July 2021.
Over the same period the total number of overseas students who were in NZ on student visas declined from 86,103 in July 2019 to 32,838 in July this year, a reduction of 53,265 (-62%).
However last month saw the number of student visa holders at the end of each month increase for the first time since February 2020.
That suggests the slump in overseas students coming to NZ that started when Covid restrictions were introduced in early 2020 has now bottomed out, with numbers slowly starting to rise again (see the graph below).
Pre-pandemic, January, February and July were the big months for overseas students arrivals so it could be six months or so before we start to get an idea of the longer term trends in overseas student numbers.
A similar trend is evident in the number of people arriving on work visas.
Work visa arrivals have increased for five consecutive months, rising from just 285 in February this year to 6012 in July.
However that is still down by two thirds compared to the 17,922 who arrived on work visas pre-pandemic in July 2019 (see graph below).
According to MBIE, there were 117,723 people in NZ on work visas at the end of July this year, down 72,531 (-38%) compared to pre-pandemic July 2019.
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